Today Gay Means Happy

As I write this, news has just come in that the Court has scrapped Article 377, thereby legalizing gay liaisons.

Wow, in one stroke India shrugs off age-old taboos, steps out from ancient teak closets, leaves behind a civilization steeped in multi-religious folklore, looks at the world through a bejewelled hand mirror.... and finds itself face-to-face with the assorted images one sees on television - dolled-up transvestites, purple-haired punks, breast-beating gays and lesbians and sex workers taking the day (or night?) off.

So, do we celebrate a 'coming of age' or do we rue the passing of an era where such behaviours were a comfortable abnormality that more 'normal' people squinted at and shrugged at, half embarrassed, half incredulous. So, do we prepare ourselves to take a more accepting, more 'with it' stance or do we dig in our heels and banner this the onset of ultimate depravity?

If this generation had to cross a most defining watershed - cultural, moral, sociological - then this is it. It doesn't get more in your face than this, it definitely doesn't get more controversial than this (at least for now, till the next whammy comes along!). Even today, across the length and breadth of India, gay/lesbian liaisons remain an area of disbelief, wonder and naivete. Just yesterday, my driver tells me he saw a news item that two girls had got 'married' in some mofussil town and asks me 'yeh kaise ho sakta hai? kitni ajeeb baat hai'. Contrast this to three weeks back when we were on a luxury cruise to Alaska. On the ship, the Cruise Director was anchoring the popular 'Love and Marriage Show' that has become a bit of a tradition on such cruises. He called for newly married couples to stand up and lo! among the three-four couples that responded there was a same-sex (female) duo, who said they'd got married a week back. My eyeballs nearly fell off and I clutched my friend's hand. But, hey, as I cast a look around the 1000+ audience, nobody seeemed to even miss a beat. For all you saw, this was yet another 'regular' honeymooner. The clincher came when just one couple had to be selected to come on stage and participate in the show. The Cruise Director said he'd ask each couple 3 questions and the audience would voice vote. Now, this will be fun, I thought - let's see if progressive America would shout for the 'odd' ones or will the dormant resistance surface and they would get a couple that all would feel wholesome and comfortable seeing up there?? Sure enough, even though the two girls fared as well as the others (in my eyes), the cheers for them were far less lusty.... and we all slipped back into our seats to see a more 'familiar' ritual on stage.

So, yes, even societies that embrace this diversity more readily and do not react outwardly at least, have trouble with complete acceptance. And where does that leave India, steeped as it is in traditional mores?

Sure there are no 'rights' or 'wrongs', but there will be gasps and splutters, choking and spitting and kicking and pummelling for the old order to give way to the new. Will gay 'pride' be plastered in your face as they celebrate victory? Will this make it even more difficult for the masses to accept? Will flashing images of purple hair, masks, wriggling bottoms and cleavages thrust into the camera nauseate our senses? Will a society that still frowns upon romantic public displays between 'regular' couples be able to stomach same sex couples smooching in the metro? My sense is that this will call for the legendary sensitivity that the gay/lesbian community professes to. The more they underplay this breakthrough, the easier will be the assimilation, the less the 'nautanki' the more the acceptance.

After all, in a country where sublimation of the senses is the religious goal of a vast majority striving towards moksha and nirvaana, where processions are largely associated with Durga Puja and Ganesh Chaturthi and Moharram and Gurpurab, where the Christian community has all but shut the door to these winds, it is going to be a long haul for acceptance and integration. And the less either party crows or rants over it, the smoother it will be for the page to turn in history.