Homosexuals are not vampires. Why we need more gay representation in pop culture

The apex court decided to refer the curative petition to read down section 377 of the IPC to a 5-judge bench, which will deliberate over the constitutionality of the said law. The decision has brought back the issue of gay-rights in the mainstream public discourse. The infosphere is abuzz with opinions, suggestions, rants, and pleas.

Almost every other news-channel debated the issue. Panellists mostly comprised champions of gay-rights, representatives of religious bodies, and spokespersons of political parties. Like always, there was hardly any consensus reached. These debates are in some way helpful, for they bring the issue into our drawing rooms, but they have also begun to tire me out. The same old bigotry and ignorance of the opponents and the same old helplessness and outrage of the proponents. Inviting the representatives of religious bodies only adds insult to injury. They often profess contempt and disgust for the LGBT people, and occasionally pity and condescension. We want neither.

The problem is that these people (religious bigots and politicians) have made up their minds and are not willing to be convinced otherwise, no matter what the merit in your argument is. They are catering to a constituency and they won’t spare any chance to please their patrons. Maybe a top-down approach won’t prove to be too effective. Maybe we need to start with the very constituency they are catering too.

Like most other fears, homophobia too, stems largely from ignorance. Let us concede: for a straight person who has never experienced a homoerotic desire and who has been bombarded with heterosexual narratives in form of stories, movies, songs, ads etc. right from his/her childhood, it will be challenging to digest a variant form of desire and its expression. The only time they see a homosexual gathering is when Pride-marches happen. And I am not sure if they are the best representatives of the queer-lives in India. The flamboyance and quirkiness of the annual Pride-marches may compensate for the dullness of the lives that the queer people lead, but may not be a true reflection of our daily struggles.

One interesting observation that one can make from watching these debates is: most opponents of homosexuality claim it to be unnatural or abnormal. Our sense of ‘natural’ or ‘normal’ is derived from things that we frequently see around us. What they mean by abnormal is actually rare. The solution to this problem, then, could lie in naturalising and normalising same-sex desire. So how do we do it? Not necessarily through these tedious debates or flamboyant Pride-marches. We will have to use the same tools that are used against us: the stories, movies, songs, ads. We as a species are marked distinct by our love for tales.

This is where films like Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh can be of immense value. It should be ensured that movies like this reach the masses and are not restricted. Same-sex love is not an adult concept. It is not meant to be consumed only after 11 in the night. Homosexuals are not vampires! These stories need to be told and consumed like all the other stories that we are told. And these stories need to be told in the idiom we understand. Why should my understanding of homosexuality be informed (only) by Queer as Folk, Looking, or Modern Family? They don’t speak to our Indian reality.

We need more desi queer stories. There is a regrettable lack of them. No mainstream Hindi TV shows, with an exception of Maryada on Star Plus few years ago perhaps, engage with idea of same-sex love in a serious manner, without resorting to caricaturisation and mockery. Most mainstream filmmakers shy away from approaching the subject with the kind of gravitas and urgency it deserves.

Literature tries to do its bit: recently we’ve had Jerry Pinto’s Cobalt Blue and Sandip Roy’s Don’t Let Him Know which present to us the slices of Indian queer-reality; but the onus can’t be squarely placed on the novel, for it has become a marginal art form. It doesn’t influence people on the scale that films and TV do. While that gives the novel latitude to be more experimental and even racy, it also make it niche. Witty ads can also play an important role in this endeavour. But then again most of such ads are restricted to print.

We need more of these narratives in various forms and formats that can normalise the idea of same-sex love. They might prove to be more effective than the news-room debates or Pride-marches in sensitising and enlightening people about homosexuality. It’s the stories which can bridge the gap between ignorance and empathy, and can prevent the other-ization of the queer people.