#queer indians

[arxistarts]

Happy pride month to my fellow queer Indians. I love you queer indians and I’m so sorry that the colonizers convinced our families that being queer is wrong

[thebisexualwreckoning]

Yk, most queer diaspora indian/south asian people I've met seem to have this assumption that India is just absolutely horrible for queer people and that we're all just like. Facing extreme violence and discrimination at all times of the day. And while I'm not saying that's not true, yall do realise that it isn't all doom and gloom right? We have kink meetups, queer events, intersectional organising, community housing, trans representation in media, etc etc. like some of you are taking a downright white saviour/noble savages attitude towards us. We're people. Treat us like people. Not someone to be rescued.

[tenebris4ray]

Fellow Indian queer person?????? YASSSS

Yes my dude. Im queer I'm here and Im surviving in India😎

[roalddahlia]

Gandharva marriage

A gandharva marriage is one contracted by mutual consent and without formal rituals. Gandharvas are mentioned extensively in the epic Mahabharata as associated with the devas (as dancers and singers) and with the yakshas, as formidable warriors.

In Mahabharata, one of two major epics of Hindus, Rishi Kanva, the foster father of Shakuntala, recommends Gandharva marriage with the statement “The marriage of a desiring woman with a desiring man, without religious ceremonies, is the best marriage.”[9] Elsewhere in Mahabharata (iii:190.36), the epic says “No man any longer asks for the daughter, nor does a father give away his daughter, they (women) find the man for themselves.”[10]

Same-sex marriage between two gay men or two lesbians was classified under the "gandharva" or celestial variety – "a union of love and cohabitation, without the need for parental approval." Gandharva marriages are often celebrated with symbolic Hindu rituals such as an exchange of garlands or walking around a fire together. Hindu sacred texts debate the status of Gandharva marriage; while it has a lower status in some texts, others consider it to be a superior form. For example, the fourth-century Kamasutra (the world’s first sex treatise), which is a sacred text, states that gandharva is the best form of marriage because it is based on mutual attraction (anuraga).

[a-gay-disaster]

'Project Indian Bride' a 30-minute short film about Rekha, an urban trans girl who wants to be a model. A project comes her way, but the photographer’s wife is very reluctant. The film tells two parallel stories of Rekha and the photographer’s wife.

Comment: The film does have a few mistakes (right at the beginning Nazim says that transgender is a sexuality when it is in fact not. Gender and sexuality, while both are fluid in nature, are two entirely different concepts.) But overall, to watch something created by and for Indians is so heartwarming. The story itself is interesting and I promise you, it has a happy ending. So, watch it. And if you like it, share it because I know how rare it is to find queer content based in India.