For Navin Noronha, every part is grist for a joke — from his mom asking his vegan boyfriend how he acquired his ‘protein’, to sarcastic observations on how cool issues traditionally occurred to homosexual folks, be it Grinder or HIV. And if it’s insensitive, he isn’t sorry. His lived actuality is one the place queerphobic humour is pervasive. “For the longest time [and even today], jokes at the expense of the queer community have not only been accepted by the masses, but are also encouraged by them,” says the Mumbai-based comedian.
A decade into his comedy profession, he’s one among the few brazenly queer comics in India. “Straight comics have long gotten away with the mockery of transgender and queer people. Yet, it’s still controversial to tell jokes about political leaders or the government, or talk about queer sex on stage, without becoming a target,” says Noronha, 33. So, in a crowd of comics who comfortably speak about their heterosexual relationships, he isn’t attempting to be a ‘queer comic’ — simply somebody who can communicate as freely about his life as anybody else.
Navin Noronha
In heteronormative spaces throughout the nation, queer creatives are reclaiming their identities with aptitude and resilience. Despite a world resurgence of regressive insurance policies impacting LGBTQIA+ people — from the U.S. administration’s DEI pullback, which is having a ripple impact in India, to the nation’s denial of same-sex unions and adoption rights — a wave of queer artists, comedians, musicians, filmmakers, and authors have been telling their tales with hopes of a greater tomorrow. This surge is propelled by a want to reclaim spaces, create neighborhood, and use artwork as a strong device for activism and self-representation, particularly in a post-Section 377 panorama the place authorized recognition for the neighborhood continues to be evolving.
“It is most important to tell our stories in times like these than at any other,” says filmmaker and author Jaydeep Sarkar, 44. Outside the checkboxes of pink-washing and capitalistic concepts of queerness, he believes folks have to not solely have a look at queer tales however have a look at the world by way of a queer lens. “The more we [the world] tend to return to a heteronormative framework of living, thanks to the powers that be, the more powerful our [queer] stories have to become,” provides Sarkar, who walks the discuss together with his actuality present Rainbow Rishta and campaigns with nationwide dailies that purpose to combine queer identities into the mainstream.
Jaydeep Sarkar
Challenging the established order
Society could also be changing into extra conscious and accepting of various sexual orientations and gender identities, but it surely’s not sufficient. Filmmaker Kris has been frequenting the Bangalore Queer Film Festival for the final 17 years, however has by no means seen a lesbian love story with a contented ending. “Often, I saw gay men having a lot of fun on screen — sexually liberated and proud.” This led her to wish to inform a sapphic story that celebrated afab (assigned feminine at start) identities with out inhibitions.
“I rallied my friend, film director Mujeer Pasha, to teach me how to write the film I wanted to see,” says Kris, 37. Her want birthed Kris’ debut characteristic, Nisha, at present in post-production. The movie focuses on chosen household — the solely place of help and neighborhood for a lot of queer people who are not accepted by their blood kin — with no tragic conclusion in sight.
“We are seeing a lot of queer art being shown, institutionally and when it comes to collecting. Even in photography, a harder medium to explore queer themes with. For example, the Chennai Photo Biennale had Sunil Gupta’s retrospective, and Rajiv Menon showing queer work across Los Angeles and India. But gallerists still need some convincing. I remember explaining male portraiture to a gallerist for a show I curated for Goa-based artist Alok Johri, and asking her to imagine it as still life, but of human beings.”Jaiveer JohalChennai-based artwork curator and founding father of Avtar Foundation of The Arts
Similarly, Vivek Tejuja, 43, wrote So Now You Know: Growing Up Gay in India as a result of he didn’t see genuine queer tales spotlighted whereas rising up. The 2019 ebook went on to outline the coming-of-age queer expertise in India. “I feel like there are voices 1751187843, but the publishing world needs to look beyond Pride month and promote queer stories throughout the year,” says the Mumbaikar.
In Bengaluru, poet and musician Rumi Harish goals to do that, too. A trans man, he has discovered queerness including worth to his apply of Hindustani music. “Concepts of gender, caste, class and body have always been a point of exploration for me. And cis-het people have gatekept many parts of our culture that have always had space for queer identities,” says Harish, sharing how there are ragas corresponding to Miyan ki Todi and works by Sufi musician Amir Khusro, with same-sex intimacy, that folks have conveniently ignored — and he’s bringing again.
Rumi Harish
“Singing my khayals [a form of Hindustani known for its melodic improvisation], alternating between the roles of Krishna and Radha, allows me to play with gender without asserting one or the other identity to the audience.” Harish is now constructing a small however robust neighborhood of queer individuals who have began exploring their very own journeys with classical music.
Being totally different in the mainstream
As Mumbai-based trans actor and social media influencer Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju says, “The arts have always benefited from queer ideas, work and labour. But it has never been ready to welcome us in positions of power or visibility, especially in post-colonial rule.” The 28-year-old’s character Meher in the Amazon Prime collection Made in Heaven has in all probability been the most real illustration of a transwoman in mainstream media, but she says it’s nonetheless troublesome to navigate an leisure trade that might readily provide queer roles to straight or cisgender actors.
Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju
“I have been very fortunate to transition young, and be in the right place at the right time, but that is not the reality for most trans people in the country.” And she is pushing the narrative in her new present, Kankhajura, primarily based on Magpie by Adam Bizanski, a rural thriller revolving round a gaggle of childhood mates. “The idea of queerness is still depicted as this urban, elite concept. That’s just not the case,” says Gummaraju, whose roles have been broadly talked about — beginning a dialog on why non-tokenistic illustration is so vital for younger queer folx rising up in unsure instances, with excessive political upheaval throughout them.
Advocating in various fields
Move away from the arts, and one might argue the challenges develop. But it’s not with out its success tales. Radio jockey Priyanka Divaakar joined the trade round 15 years in the past when “nobody was talking about transgender issues, let alone a trans person”. Her present in Kannada — on CR Radio Active, a neighborhood channel for marginal teams — helped her enter the Limca Book of Records as India’s first trans radio jockey.
Priyanka Divaakar
“In the beginning, the audience criticised my show. They said I sounded like a man, and people would run away when I would try to interview them,” she recollects. Divaakar labored on her voice modulation and received over her listeners together with her steadfast deal with highlighting grassroots tales that stretch past queerness. Over her profession, she has established herself as a voice for the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. “There are more platforms today, but trans people are still denied work day in and day out. How many transgender and intersex people do you see in any given corporate space? Probably none. I want to see that change and shift,” she says. “Once people are around us for long enough, they tend to get comfortable and we become less of this scary thing that is somehow challenging your structure of man, woman, straight, gay.”
Behind the tattoo gun
Simranh Kakkar, a tattoo artist primarily based in Bengaluru, thinks that many artistic spaces might be fairly encouraging of queer identities. But not her area. “Tattoo studios in India can be jarring and hostile spaces for women and queer people, not just for artists but also for clients,” she shares.
Simranh Kakkar
“If you look at history, most traditional tattoo artists were women. But this inherently female art form has been reinterpreted as this masculine art practice.” Most studios are nonetheless hesitant to rent a girl, not to mention queer artists. “I am lucky to have found other queer artists now, who see the art of tattooing as this meaningful and powerful tool and not something that stands for aggression, or unchecked power,” says Kakkar, whose daring, vibrant hand-poked designs are made to circulate with the physique and depict power by way of an intrinsic softness.
One of Kakkar’s hand-poked tattoos
In hospitality, chef Priyank Asha Sukanand, a Cordon Bleu alumnus, has confronted comparable challenges. “I have seen how kitchens uphold cis-het ideals of authority, success and communication. As a queer person, I have had to do more than find space — I have had to create it,” says Sukanand, 32. Today, he works at the intersection of hospitality and schooling, and has created a cooking house that isn’t poisonous, however joyful. He is encouraging extra trans and underprivileged folks to get entry to skilled cooking, and is specializing in methods that preserve neurodivergence in thoughts. “With my work, I want to make room for complexity and contradiction, to create intersectional third spaces that put respect first,” says Sukanand.
Priyank Asha Sukanand
For all these professionals, artistic or in any other case, sticking by their queer sensibilities means disrupting techniques that reward solely sure sorts of narratives. And the disruption has by no means been extra vital than on this age of supposed progress the place the resurgence of right-wing ideologies globally is actively dehumanising queer lives.
Let’s spotlight the want for Pride — past simply the vibrant celebrations and ubiquitous rainbow flags. Queering spaces is about the neighborhood, however additionally it is about liberating everybody who doesn’t wish to dwell life prefer it’s a inflexible efficiency of gender and sexuality.
The Mumbai-based author, artist and editor stories on trend and culture.
