“It is a magic word — queer. It creates invisible boundaries around it. When it doesn’t, the others create those boundaries for it. To tell the word what it is not, what it cannot include, what it can long for for but ill lose out on.”
-From The World That Belongs to Us
In 2018, parts of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was invalidated making homosexuality legal in India. This year, Justice Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court passed a judgment which issued a slew of guidelines to ensure the protection of LGBTQIA+ persons in consensual relationships from police harassment.
Small steps in a long journey of moving beyond gender and gendered norms, of understanding and accepting what it is to be queer.
This week for Bol as we dive into a new month, theater artist and queer activist Gourab Ghosh reads Riddhi Dastikar’s poem ‘Queer As In’, to reiterate that every month is pride month.
Riddhi is an award-winning poet, journalist and researcher in Delhi. Their work focuses on disability justice, public health, gender, rights and development, climate and culture.
Queer as in how do I identify?
Not straight, not gay, not girl enough,
miles away from man. Just queer, man,
as in queer.
