Its insane when you actually stop and think about how fucked up India still is about homosexuality- you’d think everyone could get over this prudish Victorian wet dream and enjoy the fact of the extreme range of diversity that has been and continues to be an integral part of its history- but nope- if you’re gay, not only do you have to contend with either staying in the closet indefinitely (faking a hetero marriage) or the fact that the basic day to day parts of life can involve people treating you like shit if you’re open about your sexuality (building societies refusing to rent you a place/ families bullying you/trouble with careers etc) but you also have to worry about the fact that the actual act of having sex with the people you desire could result in your being thrown in jail- especially if you come from lower economy communities- and on top of that- having a higher risk of getting AIDS because there are so few healthy scenes where people of these communities can actually practice safe sex- for you heteros out there- imagine a world where every time you felt like bonking- you had to ask yourself whether it was worth getting thrown into jail for it- or dieing of AIDS.
It irritates the hell out of me when I think about how many people I know have led such fucked up lives because of this Nazi bullshit.
For a 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 the unlikely hub of sundry protests in India’s capital. Along the way, they were joined by NGO workers and advocates of all causes, droves of tourists and resident expatriates, and a handful of curious onlookers, all shouting “British Law Quit India!” They were evoking the famous slogan from India’s freedom struggle, but referring here to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which was introduced by the British to criminalize sexual acts “against the order of nature.” Perhaps even more unexpectedly, few marchers wore masks — which the organizers had provided for those who haven’t come out — and there were no protests from religious or socially conservative groups. “This is amazing,” said Ranjit Monga, a public relations executive, “No one would’ve believed 10 years ago a gay parade was possible in Delhi.”
When her majesty Queen Harish graced ROTD with her presence in an earlier comment…we felt compelled to invite her to dance…I give you Queen Harish “the whirling dancing desert drag queen”:
Queen Harish is my alter ego – drag is in my blood, and while I am dressed as her I can let loose all my greatest passions, flirtations and wild behavior! I come from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, the Indian desert, land of colorful men with beautiful moustaches, women with traditional jewelery and children with mystical eyes. I am a professional dancer and performer. Since 1997, i have been touring, dancing in thousands of shows, performances, parties, dance workshops and acting in films worldwide and at home in Rajasthan. I master Rajasthani traditional dances and Bollywood , i also workout bellydancing, flamenco and pantomime. I used to tour with Rajasthani music groups Musafir, Maharaja and you can see me in the film called “Gypsy Caravan”. Since 2003 i freelance as a solo performer and joined several stage projects. I am currently developing a show based on Moghul courtisanship and the traditions of Mujra. Visit my blog : www.queen-harish.blogspot.com
p.s. here are Queen Harish’s tour dates for this year if you happen to be in the area:
Here is my US tour schedule
i have also noted the available dates when someone can invite me
June 20 – 21 – 22 : New Jersey – Indian Weddings – Private
Manvendra Singh Gohil is a prince from Rajpipla, India who came out as gay and was subsequently disowned by his family.His story attracted international media attention.
Manvendra came out to his family in 2002, but it was only when he talked publicly about his homosexuality in 2006 that his family took action and accused him of bringing dishonor to the unofficial dynasty. The disowning, however, is likely to remain a symbolic act rather than a legally enforceable disinheriting, given India’s modern inheritance laws. He has been reunited with his father and his titles have been restored.
Manvendra is now chairman of the Lakshya Trust, a group dedicated to HIV/AIDS education and prevention. Following Indian convention for putative royals, he is referred to by his given name, Manvendra, not his surnames, Singh Gohil. Although India is a republic and does not recognize the royal status that was conferred prior to 1947, it is still common in India to speak informally of royalty, princes and princesses.[citation needed]
Gohil appeared as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show on October 24, 2007. Gohil was one of three persons featured in the show entitled ‘Gay Around the World’. He expressed that he has no regrets about coming out, and that he believes the people of his state respect him for his leadership in preventing and educating on HIV/AIDS. info from wiki.
one of the less queer friendly smut films of B-grade Bollywood fare…involving a sapphic nympho who tries to give titty twisters to her girlfriend who gives her a lecture on heterosexual morality…. “You bloody Bitch! You are a bloody lesbian!”
the word…”cheap” comes to mind. I mean, ok so it isn’t exactly legal for these guys to be building a Harry Potter castle but I somehow don’t think she’s quite getting the point of the occasion. She claims that the organizers will be making a profit off of her castle for Durga puja but asking them for 2 million ruppees is a bit ridiculous. A large majority of people who attend these big festivals are from poor communities who aren’t likely to spend much money and so in a large sense the sets constructed are a public service. And in any case, during these festivals people come up with all kinds of weird themes like ganesh sculptures that look like spiderman. If they had to pay some huge royalty fee every time they came up with a cute idea to make the kids happy things wouldn’t be nearly as fun and interesting. It just seems slightly pathetic for one of the richest women in the world to be getting her panties in a twist because some people in India read her book and got a bit inspired. She should be flattered. But I guess she’s spent too much time in America. Her natural reaction is to press charges.
October 12, 2007
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to restrain a Kolkata-based Durga Puja committee from using the statues and images of Harry Potter characters during the nine-day festival.
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, however, made it clear that the court’s order would be applicable till October 26, saying, “any (further) use of these characters will be subject to the prior permission of the author of Harry Potter series, J K Rowling.”
The court also directed the Puja Committee to file an undertaking stating that they would not use any character from the book without permission in future.
The lawsuit filed by Rowling had sought a restraint order from the Court against the puja committee at Salt Lake from using Harry Potter characters in the pandal.
Using the characters without taking due permission was a clear cut violation of Rowling’s intellectual property rights, the suit contended.
The pandal has been designed in a manner which resembles Hogwarts Castle described in the book and displays statues of Potter characters like Hagrid and Hedgewig apart from Potter himself, the suit said.
The counsel, appearing for the Committee, Deepak Nag, submitted that it was a non-profit making society and was using the characters only for charitable purpose. from dna
and on a completely different note…DUMBLEDORE IS GAY!
Now it all makes sense! I couldn’t figure out why old Dumby would have been so impressed with that prepubescent fascist, Gellert Grindelwald. But then she didn’t spend much time in the book describing how cute he was, did she?
So camp it up with the Hogwarts Rainbow parade in “Its Ok to be gay”
Now I’m waiting to hear whether Chacha Chaudary and Phantom are out of the closet yet…
Recently Abhishek Bachan was voted by a magazine called “Gay Asia” as Mumbai’s sexiest Asian man. The runners up were John Abraham, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Dino Morea, Upen Patel, Arjun Rampal and Saif Ali Khan. Last year’s winner was John Abraham.
In a dominantly homophobic culture its nice to hear how the media climate has begun to change a bit. Although homosexuality is still, technically, illegal in India, a lot of movies have been surfacing in the mainstream over the past ten years that include references to gay identity and culture such as Honeymoon Travels, Life in A Metro, My Brother Nikhil, Page 3, Fire, etc. And of course there was Nishit Saran’s documentary “Summer in my Veins.” Although Abhishek strikes me as being about as hetero as they come, married as he is to Bollywood’s icon for femininity, and being from a family that expounds conservative old-school values of heteronormative familial tradition…Its nice that he didn’t completely wig out and managed to respond to his position as “gay icon” with a degree of respect for the gay community. If anything he just comes accross as slightly bashful.
“I don’t know how to react to this. Any kind of recognition is a blessing. I don’t believe in discriminating against any people. As long as any community loves me for doing what I do on screen, what more can I ask for?Of course I’m flattered and I feel hugely complimented. It’s not everyday that one gets singled out by a very important and sensitive community people. Of course I enjoy the thought of being a gay icon….though let me tell you, I don’t think I deserve it.”
I guess it would be pretty stupid, at this point, for any major actor to indulge in any publically vocal gay-bashing, considering Karan Johar is one of the major players in B-wood. Besides which, some of our top fashion designers, who do a lot of work for big Bollywood names, are invariably gay, and I hear rumours that, like Hollywood of yesteryear (and some claim even today) a lot of the sexiest male actors pose as heterosexual so that they can secure a strong female fan base. Who knows for sure? But the point is, lets hope that greater media visibility will one day lead to a general consesus that making homosexuality illegal is as bizarre as it would be disasterous for India’s film and media industry to exist without the creative imput from its varied sexualities.
Orientalism is not dead! It wears sexy lizard costumes and long spikey golden fingernails. I have never seen anything quite like him! This guy has reinvented gay burlesque with a bit of Indian dancing (kathak + Bharatanatyam) and Balinese dancing together with a background in ballet to create something…well…I think “fabulous” is the only word that comes to mind. Check out his website. Its…well…fabulous. www.gulkarov.com He’s a Tajikistani immigrant to the USA and is quite famous for his work as a contortionist and dancer. He’s done a special guest appearance with the Cirque du Soleil in Vegas.
Lizard Queen dance:
Indian “Dream” dance:
God of the Sun dance with long spikey balinese fingernails:
All I can say is that it takes a lot of balls to be able to turn classical Indian and Balinese dance into something that would probably give my old Indian dance teacher a seizure if I showed him the clip! But of all drag queens I’ve ever seen I have got to rate Arthur as the best…because not only does he look hotter than I do with false eyelashes…he’s double jointed and looks good in a tall pointy golden crown.
This a short documentary film (split in 2 parts for youtube) in which Nishit Sharan, a gay Indian who was studying film-making in Harvard, decided to film himself coming out to his mother, who was visiting him for graduation. He is also dealing with the anxiety of having slept with someone with HIV and during the film he is awaiting results. Shots where the aunties are joking about gays captured something that said quite a lot in a few shots; the innocent brutality in sheltered conservative lives. I didn’t feel animosity towards these women, for whom the very idea of being gay is as foreign as intergalactic space travel…but I recognized in them the same sort of conversations that you hear across different parts of middle class India…where there is time to pass and it is often passed through bitching sessions which can seen totally innocent…till you realize that the “other” whom you are deriding could be none other than your own son, nephew or another one close to you.
Summer in My Veins Part 1:
I find it very powerful in its simplicity. What he went through is something quite standard for gay, lesbian and queer Indians living anywhere in the world; the guilt and anxiety and question of whether or not to come out to your family, when the right time is, and how to do it. Some people avoid it all-together, choosing to marry a chosen spouse or to marry another member of the gay/lesbian community of the opposite sex, so that both parties might resolve the familial pressure without sacrificing their sexuality. One never knows how a parent will react…as middle class India is, at best condescending about it and at worst, repulsed and prepared to disown a child. So the question lingers, if one were to come out…when? Where? How? Nishit used a camera to do it…and its hard to tell how exactly the camera is functioning. It may be interesting to think about how the camera functions here. One reading might be that by inviting a public gaze into this, his most guarded family secret, he completely depersonalizes his own problem, attempting to universalize it, and play out one of the greatest fears held by so many people who anticipate the moment of “coming out.”
Summer in My Veins Part 2:
Another reading of how the camera functions might be to think of it as a receptacle (like Dumbledore’s pensieve), that invites the person on the other side to confess and empty their thoughts in a performative manner- certainly for every person who is aware they are being filmed, there is a heightened sense of activity…just a slight exaggeration of how you imagine yourself in the every-day-ness of things. Through that awareness that you are being recorded you measure out what you do just a little more clearly….it is like Neitszche’s idea of eternal return in metaphor- if you were to live your life assuming that each and every gesture you make might be repeated over and over again, as if you were to live your life as if this- this very moment- as you are reading my words, is what you might do again in exactly the same way, when you die, and your life- a record- were to be played on the phonograph with exactly the same mistakes, boredoms, and repetitions as you had made in your first shot at existence…..this is precisely what a camera does….it creates a metaphor for eternal return…you can play the tape over and over again and though your interpretation of the content may change…those gestures and words flicker cyclically…they become like engravings on the mausoleum of your remembered self…and in a moment as crucial as the day you announce your sense of self to your community…the camera becomes a way of ritualizing, heightening, and emblazoning the event within the moment of its conception and ever after.
To make matters more poignant, after making this film, which was successfully doing the festival rounds, and Nishit was becoming the toast of the town- a young hopeful who was expected to produce more fine documentaries and films, some of which may have developed more of a niche for queer cinema and docu-dramas in India…he was tragically hit by a drunken truck driver near Connaught place while he and some of his friends were driving home from a party late at night. I was stunned when I made the connection and realised that this accident was the same one that claimed the life of a friend of mine, Pooja Mukherjee, who was then a successful young VJ (music video D J), and who was riding in the car when it was smashed, not very far from where I used to live in Delhi. His mother and father have set up a foundation in his memory.
The Foundation is managed by Minna Saran and Col Raj Saran, other members of the Saran family and friends of Nishit. Beginning with the Nishit Saran Award at Army Public School and the memorial site on Lodi Road, the foundation is now expanding its work by supporting young film makers, curating and traveling with Nishit’s films, beginning an annual film festival, and extending counseling vis-à-vis sexuality for parents.
That above quote is from the website of the Nishit Saran Foundation and here is one written by his mother::
In Summer in my Veins, Nishit filmed the moment when he told me about his sexuality, that he was gay. I don’t think any other parent would have quite that kind of coming out moment, but in their own way, our children are always talking to us, trying to tell us about their lives, even when they can’t say it out in so many words. Sometimes it is us who cannot bring ourselves to listen, or to even realize that there is something in the minds of our children they cannot share with us.
Up until now I really thought that John Abraham was the man most in love with his biceps but I stand corrected… meet “Ali”- the first male stripper in India…apparently its illegal to work as a stripper in Bombay but that’s hardly going to get between a man and his passion….and this guy has a genuine passion for himself!… and its really quite adorable…he’s like a kid in a candy shop…and the candy is rich society wives of industrialists, horny single desk jockey chicks…and I guess where there is a “gap” in the market “Ali” cabana boy has come to fill it with kung-fu kicks and jazz dance pivots and lots of Vaseline on his shaved superhero chest. And all these excitable Desi chicks there…waiting to live out their deepest fantasies of pulling stretch pants off of a cowboy ….(who looks like he escaped from touring with the Village People)
…apparently he’s inspired by Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson (both secretly gay men)…perhaps that’s where he got the idea that leather and lycra= macho…as he prepares for a party where they asked him to go with a slightly “macho animal theme” hmmm….(I ponder)…I guess on He Man (as prince adam) lycra was kind of macho…but then I’ve always wondered whether He Man was really a gay porn star…and that Skeletor was secretly his bitch…they both looked like the guys who auditioned to be a part of the Village people but didn’t quite make the cut… of course I had a massive crush on He Man…
Which makes me ask the question…what makes hot gay guys (who look like “Ali”) seem kind of hot to straight women? And by hot gay guys I mean (though there are varied definitions)…guys who have appropriated the classic stereotypes of heteronormative masculinity in a manner which both outdoes the original model (bigger biceps, more leather, etc.) and also manages to have a bit of transgressive self-reflexive fun…I guess the irony of these original hetero hollywood models of masculinity…. is that they were mostly invented by (in the closet) gay men like cowboy hunk Rock Hudson — or the man that caused 100,000 women to weep at his funeral….1920’s heartthrob Rudolph Valentino- the sexy “Sheik” – …..…or the original Ben Hur- Mexican immigrant Ramon Novarro-…………………… ……….. … Tyrone Power-the original “Zorro”-…James Dean…also rumoured to be bisexual-……………….…Adam West and Burt Ward…Batman and Robin, that is, were rumoured to be gay and lots of speculation abounded as to whether or not on the tv show and movies there were a lot of hidden innuendos-……of course you would have thought that there was no question that “the riddler”- Frank Gorshin was gay- he was too fabulous not to be…but no he wasn’t……. But cesar romero…”the joker”…also fabulous…was gay-…anyways the list goes on indefinitely…including Mike Brady…the all American Dad from the Brady bunch sitcom….
…So (apart from the joker) that means that the idea of the sexually attractive Wasp “normative” male Hollywood man was designed for “normative” women by quite a few gay men….so gay men designed straight women’s desire…..which explains the widespread use of lycra by straight male superheroes and (fitness instructor superstar)Richard Simmons simultaneously…………..
I mean…in the olden days…Batman, Superman, Daredevil…etc. They all used to wear lycra-…they were drawn wearing lycra and they were filmed wearing lycra…and they all looked good in Barnum and Baily Circus “strong man” sort of way….but lately (and by lately I mean approx. 10 years) everyone seems to be upgrading to rubber superhero suits…even the chicks are wearing rubber… …and where else in the world do you find people wearing full rubber suits in a public venue? Sado Masochistic Bondage BDSM clubs which were originally started by gay men in the 60’s and 70’s (that later evolved to include other genders)Foucault was in one of those clubs back in the day…and if you rewind a couple of hundred centuries…where there were chains but no rubber…these clubs were Roman orgies often populated by those very same gay Greco-Roman philosophers who designed western thought and the principles of justice upon which our modern day superheros base their crusades… (reminds me of a joke once told to me… “In ancient Sparta how did you separate the boys from the men? With a crowbar.” Frank Miller managed to circumvent that part of the story in “300”)
So there’s my theory as a result of watching “Ali” strip naked in front of a bunch of Bombay office chicks. Gay men designed heterosexuality…superheroes…and the theory of justice. And I think they deserve a big thank you….if hetero guys had designed themselves…they would probably be running around today wearing milk cartons on their feet, loin cloths made of Victoria secret catalogues and hats made of jello. And if they’d designed their own justice system…well I think George W’s presidency illustrates that eventuality.
Come on guys…golly gee…I come in peace..….here’s a clip by way of apology… a nice strip tease by the lovely voluptuous…lady…
Shah Rukh Khan…
By the by…I have heard a lot of insider talk from actors and directors working in Bombay right now and apparently it is rumoured that 90 percent of the classic hetero heros are either gay or bisexual…I’m talking Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, Salmaan Khan, etc. but like Hollywood actors of yesteryear (and even today) they keep all this stuff in the closet so as not to alienate viewers…I think only Karan Johar is slightly open about which way he swings…Spiderman…still not so sure…he’s the only superhero still wearing lycra! If he’s a gay man…he’s an embarrassment to the community. And if he’s straight…well Tobey Maguire is still an embarrassment…he does this horrifying attempt at looking macho while dancing and ends up looking like an evil Leprechaun on crack. See clip here.
I had to read it to believe it. The guy apparently had his divine revelation in a British shop when he happened to look at a picture of the Goddess Bahuchar Mata. In a temple in Gujarat he is being worshiped as her living reincarnation. And I have to say I’m impressed that Xenophobia isn’t a visible factor here…He doesn’t speak Hindi or Gujurati and no one is allowed to address him in English so he’s basically blessing people with monosyllables….wearing a sari…and living in Gujurat now on the same basis that other Indian hijras do…by taking food that is offered to him by devotees that he meets at the temple. His visa is expiring in six months and he doesn’t want to leave. I wonder if the immigration authorities would have the balls to deport a reincarnated goddess in the body of a British man named Stephen Cooper! link to article
remains of the desi 