Before talking about the LGBTQ revolution, not more than 20 percent of the world’s population is aware that this abbreviation, commonly referred to as the ‘LGBTQ’ is not just it, it actually is LGBTQIA+, where Q stands for queer, I stands for intersex, A stands for ally, and the plus symbol that has defeated stereotypes is for anyone other than these category, worthy of living a life as a normal person and not to be looked down upon by the society.

Earlier, Q meant “questioning” for the people who were uncertain of their gender identity and sexual orientation, but with time, it has casted off its dergoatory essence and has started to be termed as ‘queer’. These letters were an advancement or evolution so to speak towards incorporation – a development in the language used to identify a divergent cluster of people that had regularly quite recently been classified “the gay community.”

Fifty years back,  the now positive LGBTQ development groups burst onto the scene. Mass displeasure at the suppression of LGBTQ individuals had been rising under the surface. It detonated at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. A standard police strike on June 28, 1969 swelled into a five-day rebel movement in the lanes that sent resonations of “Gay Power” over the world.  Roused by the gigantic movements occurring in the public arena at the time with the dark opportunity and female’ freedom developments, the Stonewall mobs fought a battle against the framework for the privilege to live straightforwardly and securely. Stonewall was a defining moment for LGBTQ battle in the U.S. Moreover, Stonewall was not the first of these mobs; earlier instances of rioting by comparative clashes between the LGBTQ people group and the police over the U.S. all through the 1960s, incorporating encounters in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

Stonewall was a critical point of change in this political network. It plotted the scope of political issues of LGBTQ activists during the 1960s, including harrasment by police, abuse and exploitaion, oppression of homosexuality and the bad form of sodomy laws. It likewise called upon the mass of the LGBTQ group to get politically included, seizing on Stonewall as a motivation to rally – and subsequently encouraged us to better comprehend, after 50 years, the importance of that rebellion and the need of the hour. It was anything but a start, as it appeared  however it was the beginning of something new.

On Saturday, June 27, 1970, Chicago Gay Liberation held a walk from Washington Square Park to the Water Tower at the crossing point of Michigan and Chicago roads, which was the course initially arranged, and after that a large number of the members spontaneously walked on to join the march. The date was picked in light of the fact that the Stonewall occasions started on the last Saturday of June and on the grounds that coordinators needed to achieve the greatest number of Michigan Avenue interestees.The following year, Gay Pride walks occurred in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin, and Stockholm. By 1972 the active urban communities included Atlanta, Brighton, Buffalo, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami, and Philadelphia, just as San Francisco.

The month of June was picked as LGBT Pride Month to celebrate the Stonewall riots, which happened towards the last days of June 1969. Therefore, many pride occasions are held (now even with active participation in our own country, India) during this month to perceive the effect LGBT individuals have had on the planet.

Active Opposition

Spain– In a 2008 meeting for the book ‘The Queen Up Close’ by Spanish columnist and author Pilar Urbano, Queen Sofía of Spain started off a debate by voicing her objection to LGBT pride notwithstanding her official obligations as an individual from the Royal Family by rebuking the Spanish Law on Marriage.

Turkey– In 2015, after the police faced itself defeated in front of the mob, they used tear gas and rubber bullets as a peacekeeping move. Similarly in the consecutive year, the Governor Office in Istanbul did not allow pride parades to be held under the pretext of securing national peace and security.

Such instances are countess, disheartening and aggravating.

In the wake of recognizing that circumstances are different significantly for its own betterment, there are still “guardians who feel their gay children are genuinely sick or mental”, andl therapists over the world who stick to the old view that homosexuality is a “psychological sickness”.

The Indian Perspective 

Today, although the Supreme Court of India, has in a landmark judgement in the case Joseph Shine v. Union of India, has decriminalised homosexuality under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, it is only a first stepping stone towards acheiving acceptance of homosexual people by the Indian society. Following is the summary of some landmark cases in which the judges have opined in favour of the LGBTQIA+ community.

In the case- National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India and others, it was laid down that “gender identification is an essential component which is required for enjoying civil rights by the community. It is only with this recognition that many rights attached to the sexual recognition as ―third gender‖ would be available to the said community more meaningfully viz. the right to vote, the right to own property, the right to marry, the right to claim formal identity through a passport and a ration card, a driver‘s licence, the right to education, employment, health and so on

Joseph Shine v Union of India- The then Chief Justice of India, Justice Dipak Misra said, “Section 377 is irrational, arbitrary and incomprehensible as it fetters the right to equality for LGBT community. LGBT community possesses the same equality as other citizens. The right to privacy as part of right to life applies fully to the LGBT community.”

“Punishment under Section 377 made the LGBT a closeted community, destroyed the identity of members and reached their dignity, all part of right to life. The state has no business to get into controlling the private lives of LGBT community or for that matter of any citizen.”- said Justice D. Y. Chandrachud.

Navtej Singh Johar v Union of India- Navtej Johar, a dancer who identified himself as an individual belonging to the LGBT community filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of section 377, and demanding “recognition of the right to sexuality, right to sexual autonomy and right to choice of a sexual partner to be part of the right to life guaranteed by Art. 21 of the Constitution of India”.

The bench delivered a judgement relying on the principles of “transformative constitutionalism and progressive realization of rights to hold that the constitution must guide society’s transformation from an archaic to a pragmatic society where fundamental rights are fiercely guarded”. The bench further stated, “constitutional morality would prevail over social morality”.

In recent times, the Courts have laid emphasis on the fact that being a homosexual is not an aberration but a variance of sexual orientation. So what if a person is not “straight” and belongs to the LGBT, what is the logic behind not accepting him or her as a normal individual. Who has given the society the right to seclude such people, violate their fundamental rights, and look down upon them?

Unnoticed, yet essential facets of the LGBTQIA+

LGBTQ+ individuals have dependably been at pop’s gunpoint, as entertainers and spectators. The historical backdrop of popular music is strange history. Blues originators like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, both transparently and openly bisexual, helped plant the foundation stone of what might move toward becoming R&B and rock’n’roll.

During the end of the Great Depression in the mid thirties, the people in charge closed down many of the gay clubs and officially criminalized gay sex at a scale that had never before been seen.The “coming out of the closet”, which hadn’t even existed as everyone knows it now, slammed shut. Nevertheless, it did not stop musicians from shaping the pop LGBTQ culture. Following is a list of songs that have had an impact on a landmass of people who used to be stereotyped-

• Roberta Flack -“Ballad of the Sad Young Men”
• Wendy Carlos- “March From a Clockwork Orange”
• Madeline Davis- “Stonewall Nation”
• Lou Reed- “Walk on the Wild Side”
• Donna Summer- “I Feel Love”
• Fanny- “Charity Ball”

“Rufus was singing to a man. I knew before the song even started. I didn’t have to guess or hope, I didn’t have to work with or bend his music to find myself in it. This was so foreign to me at 16 and was such an incredible, full body-and-spirit relief. He even sounded gay. Beyond what it meant and still means to me, it’s just a brilliant and beautiful record.”

• Mike Hadreas on Rufus Wainwright’s “In My Arms”

Sources

• https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-40587703/50-years-of-fighting-for-lgbtq-rights
• https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/50-songs-that-define-the-last-50-years-of-lgbtq-pride/
• https://www.advocate.com/video/2018/9/18/watch-50-years-lgbtq-history-seen-through-advocate