Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, India, held its first Pride Parade on 27 June 2009. [1] Since then Pride has happened in 2010 and then again in 2018. Hundreds of people from Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack and other parts of Odisha take to the streets to celebrate the city's LGBTQ+ Pride Parades. [2]
Bhubaneswar's first queer Pride parade was held on 27 June 2009. [1] It was jointly organised by Sakha, Institute for Development Programmes and Research (IDPR), and SAATHII. The event included [ permanent dead link ] keynote addresses by community members, government officials and NGO representatives, a documentary screening, street theatre performances, a public meeting at walk end-point; and concluded with a candle light vigil.[ citation needed ]
On 3 July 2010, Bhubaneswar had its second Rainbow Pride walk Archived 14 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine that included a solidarity event and candlelight vigil. It was organised by Sampark, a coalition of community based organisations working on LGBTI and HIV issues. The event was covered by travel bloggers. [3]
1 September 2018 marked the third time that the city of Bhubaneshwar witnessed a queer Pride parade. The 2018 Bhubaneshwar Pride was put together by three organisations – SAATHII, an NGO working for the cause of HIV-AIDS care and LGBTIQ rights, Sakha, which is run by Meera Parida and is an indigenous trans collective that has been supported by the Odisha government, and The Parichay Collective, an LGBQ community in Odisha. The Pride organisers said that a Pride march was essential to foster a spirit of community and visibility for the queer community in Odisha, where tier II cities like Bhubaneshwar did not display much awareness about the LGBTQ+ community. [4] [5] The focus of the Pride was not just visibility, but also intersectionality and inclusion.[ citation needed ] An organiser was quoted as saying, "This Pride will not only address the LGBTQIA problems but also the general constructs of the society like shame, untouchability, class bias and sex discrimination within and outside the community and the majority deciding what is best for minorities." [6]
The 2018 Bhubaneshwar Pride also had the distinction of being the last Pride March in India that demanded the overhaul of Section 377 – the law criminalising "unnatural sex", as Section 377 was scrapped in a historic judgment by the Supreme Court of India just a few days later, on 6 September 2018. [7]
A pride parade is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events sometimes also serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Pride events occur in many urban areas in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and Australia. Most occur annually while some take place every June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBTQ social movements. The parades seek to create community and honor the history of the movement. In 1970, pride and protest marches were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco around the first anniversary of Stonewall. The events became annual and grew internationally. In 2019, New York and the world celebrated the largest international Pride celebration in history: Stonewall 50 - WorldPride NYC 2019, produced by Heritage of Pride commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, with five million attending in Manhattan alone. The most recent New York pride event was NYC Pride March 2022, which occurred on June 26, 2022.
Homosexuality in India has been a subject of discussion from ancient times to modern times. Hindu texts have taken various positions regarding homosexual characters and themes. The ancient Indian text Kamasutra written by Vātsyāyana dedicates a complete chapter on erotic homosexual behaviour. Historical literary evidence indicates that homosexuality has been prevalent across the Indian subcontinent throughout history, and that homosexuals were not necessarily considered inferior in any way until about 18th century during British colonial rule.
Pune Pride is an annual LGBT pride parade that was first held in Pune, Maharashtra on 11 December 2011. It is the second Pride parade to be organized in the state of Maharashtra, after the Queer Azaadi Mumbai Pride March.
India has a vibrant LGBTQ culture, especially in its large cities due to growing acceptance in the recent years.
Queer Azaadi Mumbai Pride March, also called Queer Azaadi March and Mumbai pride march, is an annual LGBTQIA pride parade that is held in the city of Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra, India. It usually begins from Gowalia Tank ending at Girgaum Chowpatty. It, along with the Pride Week, is organized by Queer Azaadi Mumbai, a collective of organizations and individuals working for the rights of LGBTQIA community. The participants of the march include people from the LGBTQIH community as well their "straight allies", from India and outside. In addition to being a celebration of queer pride, the pride march and related events are a platform to ask for equal rights.
Delhi Queer Pride Parade is organised by members of the Delhi Queer Pride Committee every last Sunday of November since 2008. The queer pride parade is a yearly festival to honour and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their supporters. The parade usually runs from Barakhamba Road to Tolstoy Marg to Jantar Mantar.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities such as Hijra, Aravani, Thirunangaigal, Khwajasara, Kothi, Thirunambigal, Jogappa, Jogatha, or Shiva Shakti. The recorded history traces back at least two millennia.
Chennai has LGBTQIA cultures that are diverse concerning- socio-economic class, gender, and degree of visibility and politicisation. They have historically existed in the margins and surfaced primarily in contexts such as transgender activism and HIV prevention initiatives for men having sex with men (MSM) and trans women (TG).
Hyderabad is a conservative city when it comes to LGBT rights, compared to other Indian Metros. But since it slowly started becoming the second IT-capital after Bangalore, there has been a continuous influx of people of all cultures from across India. In the past few years, there has been some increase in LGBT activism in Hyderabad, including pride marches of 2013 and 2014. Slowly, Top MNCs have been introducing LGBT friendly policies in their Hyderabad offices.
Queer Pride Guwahati was organised for the first time by the members and supporters of the local LGBT community in Guwahati, Assam on 9 February 2014. The Queer Pride Guwahati was the first LGBT Pride in the entire North Eastern India. The Pride is expected to become an annual event.
Orinam is a non-funded, social, and activist collective that works to enhance understanding of alternate sexualities and gender identities among families, communities and society. It was founded in 2003 in Chennai under the name MovenPick and is one of the oldest collective of its kind in India. People affiliated with Orinam are from or trace their ancestry to the following geo-cultural: People of Tamil Origin from Tamil Nadu, India. Orinam provides a platform for creative expression, personal and social commentary by Queer people of Tamil Origin and of Indian Origin primarily. Orinam also acts as a local support group in Chennai for the queer community. Orinam also partners with the city-, state- and national initiatives around decriminalisation of homosexuality by amending Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and LGBTQ rights.
The Chennai Rainbow Pride March has been held by members of Tamil Nadu LGBTIQA+ communities every June since 2009. The pride march is organised under the banner Tamil Nadu Rainbow Coalition, which is a collective of LGBT individuals, supporters, and organizations working on human rights and healthcare for the LGBTQIA community. The Pride March occurs on the final Sunday of June every year. The Pride March is usually preceded by a month-long series of events organized by NGOs and organizations to inculcate awareness and support for the LGBTQ community, such as panel discussions, film screenings, and cultural performances. The Chennai Vaanavil Suyamariyadhai Perani a.k.a. Chennai Rainbow Self-Respect March is known for being inter-sectional in nature as it addresses issues with multiple axes such as caste, class, religion coupled with gender discrimination.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Kerala face legal and social difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT persons. However, Kerala has been at the forefront of LGBT issues in India after Tamil Nadu. It became one of the first states in India to establish a welfare policy for the transgender community and in 2016, proposed implementing free gender affirmation surgery through government hospitals. However, there is rising homophobic sentiment in the state recently due to anti-LGBT campaigns spearheaded by Muslim fundamentalist groups like Indian Union Muslim League, Samastha and Jamaat-e-Islami.
The first Pride March in Gurgaon, India was hosted on 25 June 2016, at Sector -29 Leisure Valley. It was created in order to fill the vacuum of spaces that are queer friendly and pave way to creating a culture of LGBTQIA+ community meets and open dialogue. The LGBTQ community all around the world is under constant threat of abuse, discrimination and even criminalization. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code considers homosexuality as unnatural or against the order of nature.
Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk (KRPW) is the oldest pride walk in India and South Asia. The first march in Kolkata was organised on 2 July 1999. The walk was called The Friendship Walk. Kolkata was chosen as the first city in India to host the march owing to Kolkata's history of movements for human and Political Rights. Currently, Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk is organised by the Kolkata Rainbow Pride Festival (KRPF).
The Bhopal Pride March was an event held in 2017 to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) culture in Bhopal, India.
Hyderabad Queer Pride has been celebrated on one of the Sundays in February since 2013. First held on 3 February 2013, Hyderabad became the 12th Indian city to join the Queer pride march bandwagon, fourteen years after the first Indian pride march was held in Kolkata. In 2015 it was renamed as Hyderabad Queer Swabhimana Pride, emphasising the self-respect and the acceptance of the community of themselves, as they are. In 2016 it was altered to Hyderabad Queer Swabhimana Yatra and has been retained since.
Bengaluru Namma Pride March is a queer pride march that is held annually in the city of Bengaluru in Karnataka, India, since 2008. The march is organised by a coalition called Coalition for Sex Workers and Sexuality Minority Rights (CSMR). The pride march is preceded by a month of queer related events and activities
The following list is a partially completed compilation of events considered to have a profound effect on the welfare or image of Tamil sexual minorities. The use of bold typeface indicates that the event is widely considered to be landmark:
Bindumadhav Khire is an LGBTQ+ rights activist from Pune, Maharashtra, India. He runs Samapathik Trust, an NGO which works on LGBTQ+ issues in Pune district. He founded Samapathik Trust in 2002 to cater the men having sex with men (MSM) community in Pune city. He has also written on the issues on sexuality in fictional and non-fictional forms including edited anthologies, plays, short-stories, and informative booklets.