Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India (36 page)

47. ‘Minority Support’,
Times of India
(Bombay), 28 April 2004.

48. Harish Nambiar, ‘Out of the Smogscreen’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 15 January 1995.

49. Milind Palnitkar, ‘Gays Want Sexual Laws Changed’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 13 January 1995.

50. ‘Gays Say Redefine Family’,
Indian Express
(Bombay), 12 November 1997.

51. Kaniza Garari, ‘Society Must Accept Us for What We Are’,
Bombay Times
, 11 October 2002.

52. Georgina Maddox, ‘Sexual Minorities Retie Umbilical Cord’,
Indian Express
(Bombay), 12 October 2002.

53. Kaniza Garari, ‘Society Must Accept Us for What We Are’,
Times of India: Bombay Times
, 11 October 2002.

54. Georgina Madddox, ‘Gay Diaspora Tries to Build Bridges’,
Indian Express
(Bombay), 16 October 2002.

55. Georgina Maddox, ‘Sexual Minorities Retie Umbilical Cord’,
Indian Express
(Bombay), 12 October 2002.

56. Shibu Thomas, ‘We Demand Our Rights’,
Asian Age: Mumbai Age
, 13 October 2002.

57. Georgina Maddox, ‘Sexual Minorities Retie Umbilical Cord’,
Indian Express
(Bombay), 12 October 2002.

58. ‘A to Z of India’s Sexuality’,
Asian Age
(Bombay), 10 October 2002.

59. Shibu Thomas, ‘We Demand Our Rights’,
Asian Age: Mumbai Age
, 13 October 2002.

60. ‘A Platform for Lesbian, Gay Rights’,
Afternoon
(Bombay), 10 October 2002.

61. K.S. Dakshina Murthy, ‘Bangalore Pushed Out of the Closet’,
Hindustan Times
(New Delhi), 15 September 1997.

62. ‘Over 100 Delegates will Attend Three Day Conference of Gays’,
Times of India
,
28
April 2000. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/381076312.cms Media Matters
211

63. ‘A Focus on Sexuality and Related Issues’,
Bangalore Times
, 10 June 2004.

64. Meenakshi Shedde, ‘Humour Warms Up WSF’,
Times of India
,
21
January 2004. http://

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/435951.cms

65. Shweta Shertukde, ‘Gays, Lesbians Feel Neglected’,
Asian Age
(Bombay), 20 January 2004.

66.
Times of India
(Bombay), 13 August 1992.

67. ‘15 Friends Walk with Gay Abandon’,
Asian Age
(Bombay), 3 July 1999.

68. See Swagato Ganguly, ‘India’s Sexual Minorities—Gay Parade in Calcutta a Mark of Changing Mindsets’,
The Statesman,
27 July 2003. http://www.thestatesman.net/page.

news.php?clid=3&theme=&usrsess=1&id=18938

69. See ‘Gays, Lesbians Walk for Rights’,
Times of India
,
27
June 2004. http://timesofindia.

indiatimes.com/articleshow/755453.cms

70. See ‘Gay March in Patna’,
PatnaDaily.com
, 11 April 2007. http://www.patnadaily.com/

news2007/apr/041107/gay_march_in_patna.html

71. See Ranjani Ramaswamy and Georgina Maddox, ‘Out of the Closet, Asserting their Space in Social Fabric’,
Indian Express: Mumbai Newsline
, 29 September 2001.

72. ‘City Homosexuals to March for their Rights’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 1 December 2003.

73. See Ritesh Uttamchandani, ‘Crowd Interrupted’,
Indian Express
(Bombay), 20 June 2004.

74. Arvind Narrain, ‘Marching to a Different Drumbeat: Culture and Queer Sexuality’,
Humanscape Magazine
(December 2004). http://www.humanscape.org/Humanscape/2004/

Dec/marching.php

‘Another Gay March—Hum Hon Gay Kaamyaab is their New Slogan’,
Indian Express:
Mumbai Newsline
,
17
August 2005. http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?

newsid=144126

75. Leela Jacinto, ‘Bringing Down Stonewalls’,
Metropolis on Saturday
(Bombay), 25 June 1995.

76. Anna M.M. Vetticad, ‘Action Stations’,
India Today
, 17 April 2000.

77. C.Y. Gopinath, ‘11 Million Invisible Men in the Decade of AIDS’,
Indian Express
(Bombay), 17 July 1991.

78. See—

(
a
) Kalpana Jain, ‘Gays Hold Parallel AIDS Meet’,
Times of India
(Bombay), 10 November 1992.

(
b
) ‘AIDS Congress Concludes Amid Protest’,
Times of India
(New Delhi), 13 November 1992.

79. ‘Bombay Gays Potential AIDS Carriers, Warns WHO’,
The Daily
(Bombay), 28 July 1992.

80. For example—‘20 pc of Mumbai’s gays are HIV positive’,
Times of India
,
21 May 2004.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/690543.cms

81. ‘India Vows to Check HIV Spread’,
Times of India
(Bombay), 14 July 2004.

82. See Maxine Frith, ‘India’s Hidden AIDS Epidemic: Virus to Infect 25m by 2010’,

Independent
(UK) 19 November 2003. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_

medical/story.jsp?story=465047

83. Siddharth Srinivasan, ‘Gays in India: Keeping the Closet Door Closed’,
International
Herald Tribune
, 17 September 2003. http://www.iht.com/articles/110147.html 84. Pritish Nandy, ‘RIP: Requiem for our Heroes’,
Daily
(Bombay), 27 February 1994.

85. Sunil Mehra, ‘An Accountant of Alternate Reality’,
Outlook
, 13 December 1995.

212
Gay

Bombay

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=19951213&fname=profile

&sid=1

86. Ibid.

87. Meher Pestonjee, ‘Figure These Out’,
Daily
(Bombay), 4 March 1991.

88. Timothy Hyman, ‘Obituary: Bhupen Khakhar’,
Independent
(London, UK), 27 August 2003.

89. Mini Chandran Kurien, ‘When Jimmy Came Marching Home’,
Saturday Times
, 27 July 1991.

90. Anil Sadarangani, ‘I’m Seeing Someone’,
Times of India
, 11 May 2006. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1526280.cms

91. See Georgina Maddox, ‘Gay Partners Tie Knot Amid Hostile Laws’,
Indian Express
(Bombay), 27 December 2002.

92. Vajir Singh, ‘I’m Way Too Sexy’,
Hindustan Times:
HT Café
(Bombay), 1 February 2007.

93. Holi is an annual spring festival of colour, music and celebration, celebrated all over India but most popular in north India.

94. Peter Foster, ‘Gay Prince is Cut Off from Fortune ‘for Dishonouring his Family’,
The
Telegraph
(UK), 28 June 2006. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/

news/2006/06/28/wprince28.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/06/28/ixnews.html

‘Gay Prince is Back in Palace’,
Times of India
, 14 September 2006. http://timesofindia.

indiatimes.com/articleshow/1988816.cms

‘Disowned by Family, Gay Prince Opts to Adopt’,
Deccan Herald
, 27 August 2007.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug272006/national19192006826.asp 95. Shibu Thomas,
‘The Boyfriend
Throws Light on Gay Culture’,
Asian Age
(Bombay), 21 May 2003.

96. Personal conversation with R. Raj Rao, Cambridge, MA, 3 April 2004.

97. Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, ‘Even My Parents Have Not Accepted My Transsexual Identity’,
Sunday Review
, 10 August 2003.

98. Hoshang Merchant, ‘Rhythm of the Blood’,
The Week
, 4 April 1999.

99. She writes that it was difficult for her and her husband difficult to come to terms with their son’s bisexuality.... ‘But we loved him and accepted it without understanding it’. (p. 429)
On Balance
(New Delhi: Viking, 2003).

100. In an interview on the news channel CNN-IBN aired 21 January 2006, Seth called the law silly, cruel and harmful. In an interview with
Outlook
magazine, he confessed that although he was a private person, he felt compelled to speak out because the happiness of millions of queer Indians was at stake.

See—Sheila Reddy, ‘It Took Me Long To Come To Terms With Myself. Those Were Painful Years’,
Outlook
, 2 October 2006. http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodn ame=20061002&fname=Anterview+Vikram&sid=1

101. For example—‘Gay Men Make Great Friends’,
Hindustan Times: HT Tabloid
(New Delhi), 22 March 2006. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7242_1656154,00180007.

htm

102. See Pradip Rodgrigues, ‘Why do Gays Hate Women’,
Savvy
, March 1993.

103. ‘See Fahad Samar Pays Tribute to Riyad Wadia’,
Mid-day
, 1 December 2003. http://web.

mid-day.com/news/city/2003/december/70114.htm

104. See Lata Khubchandani, ‘Gaywatch’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 4 May 2001. Also see novelist and blogger Sonia Faleiro’s excellent inteview with Bobby Darling archived on: http://soniafaleiro.blogspot.com/2005/11/liberty-equality-fraternity.html Media Matters
213

105. Nonita Kalra, ‘The Real
Maha Maharani
’, [Queen of Queens]
Man’s World
, June 2000.

106. I am alluding to these three as just representative samples out of a large range of sex surveys that have been conducted during that period. Over the recent few years especially, it seems every English media publication wants to bring out their own sexy survey!

107. ‘
Debonair
Sex Survey’,
Debonair
, October 1991.

108. See for instance—

(
a
) Anand Soordas, ‘Indians Break Taboos But Play Safe: Survey’,
Telegraph
(Calcutta), 2 June 2004.

(
b
) Anubha Sawhney, ‘Do You Get It? Indians Say Frequently’,
Times of India
(New Delhi), 2 June 2004.

109. The Kama Sutra Sex Survey, 2004, Research findings may be viewed on the company’s website—http://www.ksontheweb.com/64/category.ift

110. ‘Sex in the 90s: Uneasy Revolution’,
Outlook
, 11 September 1996. http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=19960911&fname=cover%5Fstory&sid=8

111. Kamran Abbasi, ‘The New Macho’,
The Week
(New Delhi), 30 April 2000. Also see Sunil Mehra, ‘Vanity Fair’,
Outlook
, 9 July 1997. http://www.outlookindia.com/full.

asp?fodname=19970709&fname=coverstory&sid=1

112. ‘Voices: Should the Law Take Any Action Against Gays?’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 22 July 1997.

113. ‘India’s Young People Inclined to Scrap Gay Ban’,
Yahoo! News
,
25
September 2006.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20060926/co_po/indiasyoungpeopleinclinedtoscrapgayban

114. ‘Sexuality No Longer a Taboo Subject’,
Delhi Times
, 31 May 2004.

115. ‘Just One Question’,
Times of India: Bombay Times
, 19 July 2004.

116. Shobha Dé, ‘Dé Dreaming’,
Daily
(Bombay), 7 February 1991.

117. Shobha Dé, ‘Love is a Many Splendoured Thing’,
Times of India: Bombay Times
, 19 December 2002.

118. For example ‘Many Homosexuals Do Marry’, in
Mid-day
(Bombay), 10 May 1991, where she firmly chides a confused letter writer that ‘dating attractive girls is not the answer or the “cure”’ for his homosexuality.

119. See ‘Mixed Media: The Gay Patriarch’,
Sunday Mid-day
(Bombay), 4 August 1991.

120. See—

(
a
) ‘Extraordinary People: Combating Gender Stereotypes’,
Times of India: Bombay
Times
, 18 June 2002.

(
b
) ‘Extraordinary People: A Queen Without an Empire’,
Times of India: Bombay Times
, 27 August 2002.

121. Amit Varma, ‘These Songs of Freedom’,
LiveMint.com
, 10 August 2007. http://www.

livemint.com/2007/08/10232928/These-songs-of-freedom.html

122. Kiron Kher, ‘Straight from the Heart: Gay Abandon’,
Mid
-
day
(Bombay), 14 June 2002.

123. Dilip Raote, ‘Sex Forecast’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 11 October 2002.

124. Mayank Shekhar, ‘Gay Watch’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 17 September 2003.

125. See ‘Ask Khushwant’,
Daily
(Bombay), 19 October 1991.

126. See Prakash Kothari, ‘What’s So Unusual’,
Daily
(Bombay), 19 July 1992.

127. Watsal’s Column ‘Ask the Sexpert’ has been published daily in the newspaper
Mumbai
Mirror
from 2005 onwards.

214
Gay

Bombay

128. See Radhika Chandiramani, ‘Everything You Wanted to Know About Midlife Crisis’,
Asian Age
(Bombay), 10 October 1999.

129. ‘Dr. Know’,
Man’s World
magazine, June 2006.

130. Farzana Versey, ‘Flipside: Gay Power’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 1 September 1990.

131. Ibid.

132. Farzana Versey, ‘Flipside: Verbal Touting’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 15 September 1990.

133. Ibid.

134. Farzana Versey, ‘Not Novel, These Guys’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 7 September 1991.

135. Farzana Versey, ‘Cross Connections: The Gay Glut’,
Afternoon
(Bombay), 4 May 2000.

136. Farzana Versey, ‘Does it Pay to be Gay?’,
Deccan Chronicle
, 18 September 2006.

137. See—Swapan Dasgupta, ‘The Problem is not Homosexuality’,
Rediff.com
, 23 August 2004. http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/aug/23swadas.htm

138. Kanchan Gupta, ‘Papa, Where’s Mom? He’s in the Loo!’,
Pioneer
, 6 November 2004.

http://headlines.sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13605608&headline=Column:~

Dad,~where

139. Ibid.

140. Personal conversation with Vijay Tendulkar, Cambridge, MA, 2 November 2004.

See ‘Another Play on Lesbianism Ran Unopposed 18 Years Ago’,
Asian Age
(Bombay), 4 December 1998.

141. ‘Liberalism: Can We Handle It?’,
Sunday Times of India
(Bombay), 22 November 1998.

142. See Karan Thapar, ‘Sunday Sentiments’, in
Hindustan Times
, 28 August 2004.

143. Lopamudra Ghatak, ‘Does It Pay to be Gay in the World of Techies?’,
Economic Times
, 12 May 2005. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1108096.cms 144. Shayne Gonsalves, ‘Dressed to Thrill’,
Mid-day
(Bombay), 27 June 1991. See also