Pune pride raises a toast to equality

June is celebrated as the Pride Month in the United States of America. Instagram ensured that hashtags #pride and #loveislove are steeped in colours of the rainbow. Though this is unrelated, the Pune pride was organised on June 3. A big group from Mumbai chose to be part of the pride. 

Prominent among those who raised their banners were people from the Humsafar Trust; Umang Organisation For Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Women and Sweekar, the Rainbow Parents of India. 

There were more than 800 people in attendance.

There were many people from corporate houses who had joined in their company T-shirts.

I had a chance to chat with some of them and they confessed that they were allies who had come in support of their friends and colleagues from the queer community. 

As we swayed around the streets of Pune at the pride, people stepped out of their homes and watched us celebrate ourselves, literally in gay abandon. There were slogans and there were flags, all celebrating the rainbow spirit of Pune.

Just like the Mumbai pride, Pune’s seemed to have found a lot of support from the police force. The cops marched alongside and some of them chatted with us with utmost respect and enthusiasm. 

One of the things pride parades do is make our bonds with the police stronger every year. Mostly, we dread something that we do not know about, therefore, we sometimes see cases of extortion and brutality by the police. 

The best way to tackle this is by communicating with the police on a regular basis and making them our strongest allies. 

Samarpathik Trust, the organisation that put together the pride march, has worked hard on police sensitisation, the fruits of which were there for all of us to enjoy.

Ashok Row Kavi and Vivek Raj Anand from the Humsafar Trust were felicitated at the parade. 

Queer women face double the amount of stigma — due to their gender and due to their sexuality. So it was heartening to see feminist organisations lead the pride. There were many first-timers: My friend, Shatakshi, had a gala time at her first pride. Thanks to the wonderful experience she had, she would be attending the pride every year.

Finally, any queer event is a celebration in the beginning and at the end. Mist had organised the pre-pride and post-pride pool parties, which were overflowing with queerdom. There were people celebrating their queer identities and swaying their hips to Bollywood numbers. Every person who joined the parties and the pride would vouch for that.

Aamcha tumcha same astha, prem mhanje prem astha. Aiklaa?

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