MUMBAI CELEBRATES PRIDE

Thousands of people took to the streets of Mumbai, India, this past Sunday to celebrate the city’s second Pride parade. This follows last month’s landmark ruling by the Delhi high court to decriminalise homosexuality.

“I wanted to support not just my son, but others too,” a woman holding a banner that read “Proud Mother of a Gay Son,” told The Times of India. “A gay child faces discrimination and disapproval from society, and it is very important that the parents tell them that they will always be there for them,” she said.

“Last year there was a sort of protest,” Kumar Iyer, a gay make-up artist who was dressed as his alter-ego, drag queen “Dolly”, told AFP. “This year there’s no protest, there’s a celebration. The ball has started rolling and now it’s only going to get better.”

In July, the New Delhi High Court said that the criminalisation of gay sex among consenting adults is a violation of the country’s fundamental rights. While the ruling is only officially binding in the city of New Delhi, it set a precedent that effectively extends the judgment to the rest of the country.

The battle now is too make homosexuality acceptable in the conservative, family-orientated country. “The movement has to now go beyond 377 and towards changing the mindset of the society and battling homophobia,” Professor Nandini Sardesai told The Times of India.