In a crowd of engineering students, you would think all of them want a similar career. However, there’s a very well possibility that few of them do not even care about engineering; some may want to be a YouTuber, others a writer. However, to blend in the majoritarian view of being an engineer, these “few of them” might never even ponder on their real dreams, let alone acting on it.
You remember how this went initially, right?
Even the most progressive country eventually falls flat to the majoritarianism, whose views are itself shaped out of myths, hushedness, lies, and propaganda. I might be wrong here. But when I think of LGBTQ, this is how I process the idea.
There was never meant to be two “traditional” genders. NEVER. However, the dominant number of male and female in the early population eventually restricted the idea of more than 2 genders. And those who dared to liberally covey their sexual identity that fell out of the consensus were outcast by others. Parents who hushed their kids fearing repercussions of the society. Society trashed those who thought they aren’t man or woman. And in a mix of all these, came the religious and political propaganda. The forged scriptures from “God” said it is a sin to be anything but male and female.
The political leaders played their own game to feed their ambitions and satiate the society’s (misleading) ideas by shunning LGBTQ from the number-dominant crowd of women and men. Decades turned into centuries and this small idea of the narrowed society grew to partake the narration of the majority across the world. And from then till now—here we are...
With very limited space for the LGBTQ community. (The fact that we call this group a “community” is a bluff. We don’t call a group of men or women as a “community”, do we?) We’re still dominated by men and women. Anyone falling outside this traditional boundary is shunned. Gays and lesbians find it difficult to blend into the society; they can’t openly express their sexuality; they are always in fear of being outcasted. Majority of them don’t even address their sexuality. They force-find their origin to actually be straight.
Much like in the above example of engineering students, homosexuals stay in the crowd of men and women. They don’t want to be an engineer. They deserve their own identity, their own life. Yet they are forced to NOT have an alternate view and to blend in the majoritarianism of women and men.
They fear the parents (and society) will pull that mighty comparison—“Sharmaji ka ladka ‘ladka’ h!” Much like Farhan in 3 idiots, they are afraid that their ‘father won’t allow me to be a gay or lesbian’. In reality, humans were meant to choose their own sexual desires. Male and Female were never meant to be the only two identities. A baby is born a boy, girl, gay, lesbian, or bisexual. That identity doesn’t change over the course of the life. It’s just that most of them do not realize their sexual orientation until their early youths (or even beyond) because the parents and society drew them a line on the sand that they are not supposed to cross. They remain confused about their sexual identity—not because they are really “confused”. But because they factor the societal judgment and acceptance of their ideas, views, and decisions. And this keeps them from opening to their original sexual orientation even to themselves, let alone to others.
In a free, open and empathetic world, do a survey and you will find the crowd of LGBTQ will equal the numbers of women and men—if not exceed them. In fact, only recently, even Science has confirmed that being lesbian gay or bisexual is NOT a choice. It’s a biological orientation. This is how one is born. Just like man and woman genes, we also have “gay genes”. Just like women have their own hormonal balance and men their own, LGB have their
own. It’s genetics. You simply can’t change that. All the therapies and medicines are simply outrageous and proxies to the conformism of this society.
There’s nothing different about lesbian, gay or bisexual people. They don’t “go different” as your question absurdly suggest. They are they. They are that. That’s who they are. Just like women are women. And men are men.
It’s extremely sad to have such a social fabric where individuals aren’t left to live on their own without judgments and discrimination. We talk about the right to live? That’s a joke on a whole different level in this case. You implement section 377 and tell LGB that they can have consensual sex? It’s as mundane as telling people “okay, you can breathe in the air now. I allow you to do that. You should rejoice and thank me!” The humdrum around Section 377 is quite aching—it mirrors how far we all are from an ideal society.
Nonetheless though, given every freedom comes with battle and struggles, and every freedom must be celebrated—so should this one. We should have never created such a situation in the first place where people’s sexual orientation is scrutinized, judged and forcefully fixed. But since that boat has sailed, Section 377 is a big news and historical step for all of us.
