Gay Pride Marches in India
www.flickr.com user Oquendo
Traditionally, India hasn't been a very gay friendly country. Homosexuality still officially remains illegal in India, however support and acceptance of it is growing. This is evidenced by the Gay Pride marches happening all over the country in recent years.
Today, Gay Pride marches are scheduled to take place in three Indian cities -- Delhi, Kolkata, and Bangalore. While it's the second year that these marches have been held in Delhi and Bangalore, there have been annual Gay Pride marches in Kolkata since 2003.
Assembly points and times are: 2 p.m. at the National College in Bangalore, 3 p.m. at College Square in Kolkata, and 5.30 p.m. in front of the Intercontinenal Hotel on Tolstoy Marg in Delhi.
It's quite common for gay couples to travel around India together. At times they do have to face questions from inquisitive natured Indians about the status of their relationship (brothers? sisters? friends?). However, the popularity of gay tourism is growing. Some tour companies even organize gay friendly tours, such as this gay tour to Rajasthan and Kerala and the tours offered by gay owned Purple Dragon.
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Comments
While the Delhi (not Indian) justice system has given the homosexuals of Delhi (not India) the right to legally bed their fellow men (pun not intended), will it actually make a difference to the billions of narrow minded homophobics? In fact MensXP, India’s largest Mens lifestyle magazine has hit the nail on the head: http://mensxp.com/Article.aspx?id=1721
Agreed. India has such an ingrained culture, it will take a while for change and acceptance to happen. It could easily be as long as another generation. However, the positive thing is that may people feel like they have more freedom to “come out”, and they no longer have the threat of harassment from doing something illegal hanging over their heads. Hopefully, it will be confirmed that the Delhi Court’s decision will apply across the whole of India. Other jurisdictions will definitely find the precedent hard to ignore.