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Parents come out in support at LGBT show in Mumbai

Organised jointly by the American Centre and the gay and transgender sexual health NGO Humsafar Trust, the lesbian gay bisexual transgender discussion was followed by a play.

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“It is not only a ‘coming out’ for our daughter, but also for us,” said a mother who was fighting back tears, besides her daughter who broke down, too. Organised jointly by the American Centre and the gay and transgender sexual health NGO Humsafar Trust, the lesbian gay bisexual transgender discussion was followed by a play.

A 50-minute soliloquy, it told the story of a 21-year-old coming to terms with his sexuality. It was narrated by the protagonist’s mother (played by actor Mona Ambegaonkar) who discovers her son is gay and empathises with his discovery.

Penned by the late playwright-director Chetan Datar, the play speaks of the social stigma associated with homosexuality. “Just taking a play like this or the queer film festival Kashish to gay or lesbian audiences will mean preaching to the converted. We want to involve this narrative in the mainstream, and make audiences realise that this is ‘normal’”.

Ambegaonkar added a philosophical hue. “We are all trying to achieve our optimum potential and become stithpragnya. In this process, we shouldn’t have to beg for sympathy or equality,” she said. “There is nothing like equality in reality. The world is full of inequality, so it boils down to acceptance and the willingness to adapt to each other,” she concluded, to applause from the audience, many of whom cried unabashedly

While some youth wanted advice on how to open up to their parents, there were others who shared the pain of rejection that followed their confessions. “Why can’t they accept me for what I am?” said one youth, while another lamented that coming from a working class background made it that much more difficult to open up and expect his parents to understand him. Anand told them to take heart.

“Even 10 years ago, we wouldn’t have dreamt of having an event like this or the Kashish festival, for which we have gotten the Union Information & Broadcasting Ministry’s permission,” he pointed out. “When I came out to my dad 20 years ago, he was aghast. Today he says ‘Thank god you aren’t adding to our population!”

Officials at the Centre admitted that they were taken aback at the huge response of the packed audience. A senior official told DNA that while they were not looking to express what the Americans want, they were “very happy to provide a platform for people to come and explore way of the addressing their issues in their own way”.

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