Word: queerness
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...city of 14 million people, a gathering of a couple of hundred may seem minuscule. But for Delhi's gay community, the turnout at their first-ever Queer Pride this Sunday was beyond belief. Over 500 marchers carrying rainbow-colored flags and "Queer Dilliwalla" banners marched to bhangra beats, breaking into Bollywood-style pelvic thrusts and bust-heaving from time to time. Starting from Barakhamba Road in the heart of the city's business district - at which point the media seemed to outnumber the marchers - they walked 2 km to Jantar Mantar, an 18th century astronomical observatory that has become...
Sunday's march was a landmark, especially for a city long accustomed to sexual repression, and now grappling with a newfound permissiveness brought about by economic liberalization, and aided in no small measure by satellite TV and the Internet. Other metro cities like Kolkata and Bangalore have been holding Queer Pride marches for a couple of years now, but this was the first in Delhi, considered more conservative than some of its metro sisters. Unlike the mostly university-educated, urban crowd that marched in Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore's marches attract people from all classes as well as rural areas...
...took years of activism and advocacy - particularly fervent over the last few years - to make Delhi's Queer Pride possible. In 2004, Voices Against 377, an umbrella group of 12 NGOs working on a range of issues from women's rights to HIV/AIDS, was formed to file a case in the Delhi High Court against Section 377. (The case will have its final hearing on July 2 this year.) In 2006, celebrated author Vikram Seth wrote an open letter against Section 377, which was signed by the likes of Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen. "We just felt the time was right...
...dykes on bikes, the naked people and the music, but I guess they'll get there!" There was much back-slapping and an ecstatic sense of accomplishment. "Delhi has come out and spoken about the kind of people we want to be," said Bhan. "This is not just about queer rights, it's about women's rights, about Dalits, about justice for everyone." But the enthusiasm wasn't shared by the passersby, many of whom looked on perplexed or peeved. Passengers in a bus that stopped near the marchers said they had no clue what the rainbow flags stood...
...Those searching for a more fluid definition might check out a hefty tome by University of Michigan professor Nadine Hubbs called The Queer Composition of America's Sound, which purports to find gay sensibilities in instrumental music. That's right, no words, even. Anthony Tommasini, classical music critic of the New York Times, was among those who were skeptical, asking "just how is a gay sensibility expressed in music? Especially purely instrumental...