Two gay teens hanged from public posts, somewhere in Iran. Two? Or does the scoreline still blink, updating itself, every now & then? Did you hear of any queers pick up a gun and mow down the majority which either stood silent, or supported the sentencing or even perpetrated it? Did their ilk not feel downright paranoid disgust when the right to exist was being taken away from some of them, enough to do something drastic?
Or has there been a secession demand from the gays of Uganda? How about closer home in India, where we are all criminals, once again, having breathed free, figuratively, only for a few years from 2009-13?
Are we out killing the 'muscular majority', to antonym the 'learned' judge's description of us, with guns from brethren across some border, where they sponsor it all from?
No Sir, we ain't; even though the persecution we live through is way, way older than Kashmir, or Jaffna; the cross that we bear outdates the slave trade of Africa, or even the Dalit injustice in India. We have been shamed into hiding or denying ourselves our existences, since times past gone. Even today, we can publicly proclaim our genders, religions, castes, mother tongues, political leaning, being left handed or right, but not who we are attracted to, for fear of ramifications at personal and professional fronts.
And yet, even today, you will never find the voice of the queer uprising as in any way jeopardizing the right to existence of the non-queer. Quite the contrary, you will only see us, standing shoulder to shoulder with our hetero brethren to fight ills that plague us all, like AIDS.
While we name our pursuits as 'Azaadi Movements', but it is never to create a fool's paradise of a separate land, of milk and honey, but as a freedom to live amongst you, with the same rights as you do. We do not spread terror or hatred, but only preach love. Perhaps, separatists could learn a lesson or two from our struggles, even though realizing our goals seems distant (but sure).
Hope that someday Nobel committee takes note, and bestows the homos of India, its Peace prize. Hell, why just India, make that Homos of the world.
