Treat us as equals, say LGBTI supporters at Pune Pride March

August 8, 2016

Uttaraa Jadhav proudly stood beside her son as the Pune Pride March was about to begin. She was there to support him and his rights. “I think parental support is the key to the peace of a child belonging to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community. His or her mindspace gets much healthier. I love and care for my child and it does not depend upon his sexuality,” she said.

More than 200 people gathered at the Sambhaji Park eagerly on Sunday waiting for the march to begin. Bindumadhav Khire, President of the Samapathik Trust and organiser of the march addressed the crowd saying that he was extremely grateful to the Deccan police officials for being supportive and helpful to organise the march. “This year our theme is about inclusivity at the workplace. There should be no discrimination. We have three IT companies showing their support to us. They are Symantec, IBM and ThoughtWorks. It is the first time that representatives from these IT companies are here to show their support and walk with us. It is a very big thing!” said Khire.

Tinesh Chopade, who is also the organiser of this event from The Humsafar Trust, a Mumbai-based organisation that promotes LGBTI rights, feels that a lot of corporates are coming out with anti-discriminatory policies. “These corporates are either coming out with new policies or they are reforming them to include the LGBTI community. We want to promote these policies and make other corporates understand why it is important to have them. Through the march, we have been able to establish contact with a few IT companies. This gives us a chance to engage with them better as we can bring them to the various events on our forum,” Chopade explained.

As the walk started, the streets around Fergusson College were echoing with slogans that pleaded for the removal of Section 377 and chanted about the normalcy of being queer. On a rainy day, many members of the crowd were seen carrying rainbow-coloured flags, posters and clothing that represents the equality of people from the LGBTI community.

Chirag Doshi, a representative of ThoughtWorks, came for the march with his two daughters aged seven and two respectively. On being asked about the impact of this on his children, Doshi responded: “I want my kids to learn and be active as they grow up. I know right now they may not understand what all of this is about. But as they get older, I don’t want them to be cooped in their own life. I will be so happy to answer their questions once they get curious about things like this.”

The march went on for about an hour and stopped at the gate of the Sambhaji Park where all the participants cheered and sang to celebrate the success of the walk. Speaking to Pune 365, Khire mentioned that he was expecting more people but many got delayed due to the rains, “Last year, we had some more people but this year I feel that the response has been very good. Everything went by smoothly. I am very happy that the IT companies joined us and we hope to have more organisations support us next year.”

Image Courtesy: Vaishnavi Suresh