The protest started off with people offering flowers and sticking post-its on the sheets. It also had Rainbow Voices Mumbai (RVM) performing a few songs and activists delivering speeches.
To show love and solidarity towards the Orlando massacre victims, Mumbai's Queer Azaad organised a protest at Azad Maidan on Thursday. The protest saw about 100 people from the LGBT community along with the US Counsel General, India, Thomas Vajda and renowned LGBT activists Laxmi Tripathi, Dolly Thakore and Sushant Digvekar among others came out in support.
The protest started off with people offering flowers and sticking post-its on the sheets. It also had Rainbow Voices Mumbai (RVM) performing a few songs and activists delivering speeches.
Talking about the mass killing, Vajda, who was with his daughter Bette, said, "It is very sad that such a thing has happened. At the end of it, they were humans first."
"For the first time, this is terrorism targeting a specific community. If a thought was raised that this will send people back into their closets and stop expressing, today, here in this act of solidarity, we are standing together. It also makes me ask, are we safe at all?" said founder of Humsafar Trust Vivek Anand.
Community member Prachi Kathale said, "Have people forgotten that we are humans too? Just because our preferences are different doesn't mean you kill us. Some lost their partners, some lost their family members... just as a 'straight' person feels pain, we too feel the same."
On the other side, aside from this protest, there was an old Muslim man from Marathwada, Sayeed Kasim, there to agitate for an issue related to his land in the region. As he stood silently, trying to understand what the larger protest was all about, someone explained the issue to him in simple terms.
When dna asked Kasim his views, he said, "God has made us to love. Now who to love and how to love is on us. The killing is completely wrong. I do not know much about it, but I know this much that we have no right to kill someone or decide for someone else."
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "LGBT")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}