Bengaluru Queer Pride March 2010 will be bigger

Bengaluru Pride and Karnataka Queer Habba is back with a bang.

What started as a one-day affair two years ago will now be a 10-day affair. About 800 people from the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community are expected to join the Pride March on November 28.

This year, the celebration will see members of different organisations collaborate to present films, art, and poetry readings.

It’s been a year since Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised the lifestyle of the sexual minorities, was repealed.

Since then, members of the community have also been promised homes, voter identification cards, healthcare schemes and pension. However, those assurances should be translated to action, urged Akkai of Sangama, a city-based organisation that works with sexuality minorities.

Sumathi Murthy of LesBIT, a support group for lesbians and bisexual women, said, “It is time to decriminalise sex work. It is a means of livelihood for some of the most marginalised people.”

For hijras, even making a visit to the hospital for the treatment of a minor ailment could be onerous. “We hesitate to let doctors examine our bodies. We are unsure whether to go to a female or a male doctor,” said Vasantha Kumari of Mangalamukhi Sanghatane.

The state government’s move to reserve seats in postgraduate courses for hijras or transgenders was welcomed. However, the need to extend such encouragement to earlier rungs of the education system was underlined: “Often, education gets discontinued at the primary level. It is especially hard for a child who is seen as queer,” Vasantha Kumari said, adding that homosexuality continues to be considered a grave deviation, often harshly penalised.

Programmes for eradicating bullying, especially taunts based on gender identity and sexuality, need to be introduced early, so children are more sensitive, Kumari said.