This is the second part of the three-part series on ‘pride in campus spaces and queer collectivisation as a part of the Justicemakers’ Writer’s Training Program, run in partnership with Agami and Ashoka’s Law For All Initiative. The first and third parts can be found here and here.
When I learned about gender and sexuality from a Tier 3 city like Guna, I realised I didn’t hear much about LGBTQIA+ discourse, especially within classrooms.
The only known non-normative gender identities were hijras due to their socio-cultural presence. I’d listen to a joke or two about someone being gay without knowing its meaning. I didn’t know whom to ask. The internet was there, but it was still scary to search for such information. But when I moved, cities like Delhi felt the opposite through rainbow laded pride parades that I saw in media.
The subjects around gender and sexuality are still taboo but people in urban cities have better accessibility to universally recognised language to talk about queer politics and issues.
This article focuses on the differences and similarities in the understanding around LBGTQ issues within tier 3 cities around.
I circulated a form with a short questionnaire based on gender and sexuality, legal rights, queer lives and ways of beings, and media. I received 20 responses, 15 of them through a survey and another 5 through telephonic interviews.
However, the study had its limitation of time and only people with access to the internet, and English language could fill up this form.
Understanding Of Gender And Sexuality
Through this study, there were responses from young people (within the age group of 16-26 years ) who are still forming their ideas around gender and sexuality from Guna, Bedag, Kashipur, Barbil, Jamshedpur, Raigarh, Jharsuguda, Cherai, and Koraput. The following pie charts illustrate the age, gender, and sex assigned at the birth composition of the respondents.
There was a shared sense of what gender, sex, and sexuality meant amongst the respondents. They identified sex as the ‘gender’ assigned at birth. At the same time, all participants defined gender as a social construct that differs in cultural contexts but is beyond merely a ‘social construct’.
In terms of specific identities, there was a general misunderstanding of bisexuality as attraction towards two sexes or gender. Bisexuality, in the words of one respondent, means “being attracted to more than two genders.”
Along similar lines, there was a general misunderstanding of asexuality, a spectrum along parallel lines. One respondent correctly identified that people confuse asexuality for celibacy, which is different by choice. Most individuals were aware of terms like queer and transgender. However, with transgender identity, incorrect notions like “switching sex” or “stuck in a body” were used. One respondent defined, “Queer is an umbrella term that describes individuals who reject heteronormative ways of living. Queer people can be those who are not heterosexual and cisgender.”
All respondents also advocated a pronouns-inclusive approach while addressing others and recognising that it might be challenging, and one should not assume someone’s identity based on one’s appearance. As discussed through the pie charts below, most respondents got access to this understanding of gender and pronouns through the internet and media.
The charts also decode responses if participants attended ‘Pride’, highlighting that there is no visible space to engage while young people are aware of queer rights.
Understanding Around Legal Rights
There was a consensus that the Section 377 judgment was an essential landmark for progress. The road ahead is long, and a judgment about a fundamental right should have come way before. Almost half the respondents did not know about the NALSA judgment. The following pie charts illustrate the respondents’ views on Section and NALSA 377 Judgment.
On same-sex marriage, one respondent reflects, “Marriage is a patriarchal structure, and while it has many civil benefits, same-sex marriage just gives the structure more credibility.” Another responded decoded marriage through Gayle’s Rubin Charmed Circle while highlighting the desire to become a mother but not marry. Instead, they wanted to focus on queerplatonic relationships. The following pie charts illustrate the respondents view on same-sex marriage rights and Dabur’s advertisement on karva chauth featuring two queer women.
A three-way response came up when respondents were asked about Dabur’s Karva Chauth advertisement, which was taken down after a threat from a politician from the ruling party. The responses are discussed in the pie chart above. One respondent said, “the advertisement is…an example of how the Indian government will always use religion as an excuse to oppose progressiveness and inclusiveness and a testament to the gross and uneducated folk who run the country.”
Queer lives And Ways Of Being
More than half the respondents’ friends were aware of their identity. For the rest, either their friends were familiar, and family wasn’t, or no one knew. A majority of the respondents knew about the process of coming out. The following pie chart discusses their response on the same.
Most respondents also faced harassment of different natures. Unfortunately, this was in safe spaces like home and learning spaces like schools and colleges. There was bullying due to atypical gender expression or femininity, catcalling, casualised misogyny based on gender, and sexual harassment.
Most respondents said they would lead horrible, difficult and sad lives to fight against society and discrimination. However, they also wanted to be bold and open about their lives and be proud queer Indians. Some respondents envisioned a cat lady life or a fashion designer, while others planned to move out of India and have a happy married life with their partner, kids and a good job.
A majority of the respondents consumed media with queer representation. For some, it was an incentive. For others, it brought happiness.
Interestingly, the media and music that was consumed were overwhelmingly western. Their responses illustrate the lack of space within Bollywood to make movies on representational queer narratives. At the same time, it also points to the accessibility and relatability of western media and its progressive, affirmative representation of queer characters. In terms of music, western artists, especially queer artists, were common choices, but some found queer anthems in gender-neutral songs like Hai Apna Dil Toh Awara.
There’s a visible difference in terms of understanding around gender and sexuality within Tier 3 cities for young people. There is a lack of spaces and organisations to engage with queer rights and issues though they have access to progressive ideas through media.
Due to the geographical limits of these cities, there is no major celebration of days marking importance for the queer community or Pride marches that have the potential to lead to collective action or ground-level organisation. Young people’s main challenge then becomes to transcend these regional obstacles present due to the hurdles within their cities.
These obstacles deprive them of the chance to reflect critically on the discourse on queer rights and issues present in metropolitan cities, cutting them off from the bubble of queer politics within urban cities. There is a lack of awareness around the sexual politics of Section 377 judgement or the discourse around other benefits that the right to marry can provide. Yet, there are no barriers to reaching progressive ideas to individuals due to the internet.
After talking to the respondents and going through the responses, I realised that the absence of pride impacts the experience of formative years for young queer people. As Vqueer said, “the opposite of pride is loneliness, not shame.”
There must be conversations around queer issues that impact our lives at the ground level to overcome this loneliness. Meaningful discussions such as the one around same-sex marriage need to be inclusive of views of young people from Tier 3 towns.
Striking the right conversations and ground-level organising will allow queer rights organisations to represent the community in these areas. Pride parades beyond their geographical limits can positively impact LGBTQIA+ awareness through extension to semi-urban areas. They are the most widely recognised and acceptable ways of engaging with queer people in society, but not without critiques.