In the first year of the second decade of the third millennium — people came, and went; new sets of international and domestic relations were forged and destroyed; embarrassing secrets leaked out into the open for everyone to see, only to be forgotten with the next new scandalous bit of gossip.
But enough about my sex life.
This here, was the year, in queer. And no, I’m not going to be exhaustive.
Glee continued to explode onto our television screens and into our hearts; first with Chris Colfer’s unflinchingly honest portrayal of out and proud gay teen Kurt, and in a satisfying story arc, his slow inching towards everyone’s new Teenage Dream , Darren Criss. Covering the otherwise mediocre Katy Perry track in his role as model high schooler Blaine, our dear singular sensation managed to get the track to soar right to the top of the Billboard charts — not bad at all for that rare, rare genre of female-music-covered-by-men.
Stateside, the critics loved Phillip Morris, with Jim Carrey getting much praise for a career-best performance as a gay, very-much-in-love con artist. Ewan Mcgregor made the cons easier to swallow. The audience here though, hasn’t been getting too much of a chance to savour it, with the movie still in limited release.
The Kids Are All Right gave us a lesbian couple for the ages, with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore also getting major Oscar buzz for their performances.
Across the Pacific, we were subjected to Dunno Y… Na Jaane Kyun ? We wondered the same thing, as the next big gay hope for Bollywood cinema quickly disintegrated into a messy so-bad-it’s-good-embarrassing pile of cinematic tripe.
The posters were hot though.
The American military is one step closer to asking and telling, with the Senate having voted on the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ even as I write these words. Amongst the high profile faces associated with the campaign against DADT, we went Gaga over the Lady’s impassioned rally; less so on her meat dress. Looks like Alejandro won’t be calling anytime soon.
Iceland, Portugal and Argentina became the latest countries to allow for same-sex marriage. Mexico-City too, now allows same-sex couples to marry, though a federal law remains unlikely.
Back here in India, we celebrated one year of the Naz verdict; we laughed a little louder, and we stood a little prouder on the 2nd of July, one step closer to full citizenhood, out of the shadow of the penal code. The Pride parades got much bigger, the masked faces at them decreased.
Decriminalisation still couldn’t stop the persecution and eventual suicide of Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras. What it could, however do, was hark the Allahabad High Court order which called for Aligarh Muslim University to reinstate the professor, and move the Uttar Pradesh State police to take action against the accused responsible for filming Siras in the confines of his house. The contours of our debates have shifted, though in the end the system murdered Siras any which way.
This was a system which also took the lives of Tyler Clementi and Corey Jackson and Billy Lucas and too many other gay teenagers this year. Out of their deaths though, came the astonishing “It Gets Better” project, with the world coming together on YouTube with radiant messages of hope for gay youth everywhere. Barack Obama has a video, Hillary Clinton has one too, and look out for those wonderfully crafted Google and Pixar employee videos. Watch any single one of these heartfelt pleas to life, and try not tearing up just a little.
Ricky Martin told us he was gay; so did Will and Grace’s Sean Hayes. Back in India, we had to make do with Ranbir Kapoor going gay for a Pepsi commercial, and then for Karan Johar’s talk show. Unfortunate how our biggest gay icons remain ragingly self-identified heterosexual men.
A steady stream of Indian queer fiction trickled out — we had Parvati Sharma’s The Dead Camel and Other Stories of Love , Rahul Mehta Quarantine -d us, R Raja Rao gave us a gay love story in his Hostel Room 131 , while Mahesh Natarajan (who, incidentally, and I will namedrop here, is a friend!) let the Pink Sheep out of their flock, and A Revathi’s The Truth About Me gave a voice to the struggles of the Hijra community in India.
But seriously, dear reader — my sex life.
I met an Ecuadorian, a German, an Engineer (they really are a different race) and a Poet (them too). Right, maybe I’m not being completely exhaustive here either. I fell wildly in love, and tumbled bitterly out. All of these men were incredible — and for a brief while, I hated their guts. Most of us are good friends now.
Every step of the way I got one step closer to realising I’d never quite understand the queer world. Every step of the way I realised that being gay is the best journey I didn’t voluntarily embark on.
So if you’re reading these words and you identify within the wonderfully broad lexicon of queer — congratulations my friend. And if you’re straight, and you hopefully have a hint of a smile on your face — well, thank you. Everything that we fight for only truly stands with your support.
—Danish is a law student at NALSAR,
Hyderabad. He blogs at http://reviewerswithoutborders.blogspot.com and can be contacted at danishsheikh726@gmail.com.