Nov. 29 was the last Sunday of November, which in Delhi means that it was the day to celebrate Pride. The crowd gathered for The Delhi Pride Parade to celebrate their sexual preferences, whatever they may be, and to demand that their rights be protected.
India has a history of conservative intolerance to LGBTQ people, and though the situation has improved in the past decade, especially in major cities, there is still much progress to be made, reported Yahoo! Being gay is still seen as shameful in many parts of the country reported The Huffington Post, but there do exist pockets of acceptance.
On Sunday, the streets were filled with members of the Delhi Pride Parade, adorned in rainbow colors, carrying signs that said "I'm gay, that's OK" and "If it works for Dumbledore, it works for me!," reported The Hindustan Times.
Chants of ""Humein kya chahiye? Azaadi" ("What do we want? Freedom!") were heard throughout the city, reported the The Hindustan Times. This is particularly poignant at an Indian pride parade because the marchers intend to raise awareness about the need to repeal Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code- a law that prohibits homosexual acts and lives, reported Yahoo!
"Pride, for me, is about equality in all senses. It is not restricted only to sexualities. It is resistance against patriarchy, casteism, class oppression, Hindutva, language chauvinism and every oppression that attempts to silence us," said Deepan Kannan, a marcher in the parade, according to The Hindustan Times.
"More than ever before, today we face constraints on our freedoms and rights as enshrined in the Constitution, and it could get worse. Our idea of justice cannot be narrow," Dhiren Borisa, a Ph.D. scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Hindustan Times.
