*Debate Topic: Are Gay Rights here to Stay ? AMC , Mumbai , Leela Kempinski , 8th November 2009*
*Proposition Panel: *Dr. Harish Shetty, Dr. Junaid Alam, Mr. Vikram Phukan *Opposition Panel:* Dr. Kushal Mittal , Dr. S.N Aggarwal , Fr. Fergoz Good evening, members of the panel, women and men. Let me be honest at the very outset. I find it very incongruous to be here defending something that I have taken for granted ALL my life. The manner in which I express my sexuality is as intrinsic to me and as natural as breathing or eating. I am not here to meet anyone halfway on a bridge of reconciliation, the facts and figures of my life cannot be altered because some people choose not to SEE who I am. For me being gay is how I'm oriented, this has been a part of my psyche for as long as I remember. To find myself, indeed to find ourselves, has sometimes been a struggle because of the lack of information and the conditioning we're subjected to. But these are NOT things you read from some pamphlet, you experience it firsthand through your own emotional responses to what's around you. Your first adrenaline-charged sexual encounter explains it a little, falling in love seals the deal. What you draw out from the cultural landscape around you marks you out as irrevocably different, or as they say in a fancy way, alternative. When you ask me why does anyone need to know about this orientation let me tell you something about the closet. Life is not meant to be lived stuffed into a cellar. It is some secret panic room defined by rejection and self-loathing. It affects our sense of self-worth, it affects the decisions we make in our life, the relationships we attempt to negotiate, our vocations in life, even the most mundane everyday things. The festering fear that breeds it envenoms your life. You harm yourself, and you harm others. 78% of Indian gay men are married to women. That seemingly overblown statistic by itself explains why the closet is such a pervasive juggernaut in this country, that it has become an urgent matter to dismantle it, so that everyone can start afresh. Article 15 of the Constitution talks about the right to happiness, the freedom from discrimination. People whose enduring physical, romantic, emotional or spiritual attractions are to people of the same gender have an unassailable right to be happy BECAUSE of that orientation. Homophobes do not hide their homophobia, therefore being open is clearly the only way to a future in which gay people cease to be second-class citizens, a stature they've only recently acquired, having been branded criminals since the turn of the last century. Yes, laws can be changed but the real battleground is the society to which we belong. We do not want to leave our homes just to be ourselves. We do not want to hide who we love. We do not want to be excommunicated, because we believe God is for everyone. You cannot get inside a person's head and take away his faith or his spiritual practice. In our enlightened times, or so we think, being a gay Muslim, or a gay Catholic shouldn't be an anachronism. God is about acceptance, faith, compassion, love. NOT man-made dogma. A person's orientation should NOT be beset with questions about morality. Being gay is a matter of biology, of science. I'm not interested to know about the so-called gay gene. But what's so difficult to understand about being born gay? What is ironical is the fact that we're discussing this in India, a country to which, as evinced by our ancient texts and scriptures, homosexuality has hardly been alien. Not just the Kamasutra or the Mahabharata, but the Puranas are rife with references to same-sex love. Why then have we been bewitched by the smoke and mirrors agenda of some outdated Victorian moral code? It's hardly surprising if you see how even sex has been relegated to a shadow existence in India. The growth of civilization, especially one that's as great as ours, should happen along progressive lines. If we were liberal once, why not again? After all, who ARE these homosexuals? Are they those flamboyant fluttery creatures who waylay you at traffic signals for a spot of change or are they just ordinary people going about their business unobtrusively? The answer is, both. Do they merely pick out dresses for brides and style hair, or are they bus-conductors, doctors, civil engineers, and dabba-wallahs? The answer is, all of these. Do they come here from the West and settle down in cosmopolitan Bombay or will you find them in Ratlam, Ranchi, Nasik or the countless mofussil towns of inner India. The answer is, all of the above. Remember what is merely visible isn't really the whole picture. *Change your stories, challenge your stereotypes*, do not be lazy. The queer people of India are an astonishingly diverse set of people. Homosexuals do not give birth to homosexuals, they are the sons and daughters of mainstream society. They are your blood, they are NOT separate from you. They contribute to your lives in so many ways, and you don't even know who they are. Will you push them under the woodwork, only to trawl some kind of underworld, or will you embrace the richness they bring to the cultural texture of India, an India in which egalitarianism hasn't been reduced to just a politically correct catchword.