Mumbai: Month-long celebrations began on Saturday world-wide to observe ‘International Pride Month’. June commemorates the violent police raid on Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York in June 1969. The police action started a movement for gay rights, with the first pride marches in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and other cities.
Mumbai will celebrate the month with fashion pageants, food festivals, drag acts, and job fairs for the LGBTQ+ community and their supporters. Humsafar Trust, the country’s oldest group working on the health and rights of the LGBTQ+ community has announced ‘Reflect.Empower.Unite’ as the theme for the month. The month has been dedicated to a campaign for inclusivity, solidarity, diversity, and creating safe spaces for the community.
Speaking about the beginnings of the ‘International Pride Month’ in India, Suhail Abbasi, Co-founder and Chairperson of The Humsafar Trust, said, “It did not start in a big way, but over time a few events started and it took off organically. There are no clear answers about when it started.”
Though June is the month for ‘Pride Marches’, many cities hold the event outside the month. January is also a period for events in India, including the march, largely because of the more favourable weather.
On June 8, dating app Tinder and Gaysi will organise the third edition of ‘Queer Made Weekend’ at Jio World Drive, Bandra Kurla Complex, with food, music, and shopping. The event will feature businesses by queer entrepreneurs. Artists who are scheduled to perform at the venue include drag acts Rani Ko-He-Nur, Sexwax Labeija, and Suman Sridhar – The Black Mamba.
Other events, too, will showcase LGBTQ+ businesses. Bombay Closet Cleanse is organising a ‘Pride Party’ to celebrate the spirit of love, inclusivity and acceptance. The event will feature a diverse range of LGBTQ+ businesses including accessories, tattoo artists and tarot reading. People can register for the open mic at Bombay Closet Cleanse’s Instagram account and will be provided a time slot of three-minutes per performance.
An all-day Queer Festival ‘Satrangi Mela’ will be held at antiSOCIAL, Lower Parel on June 16. The festival, entry for which is through registrations, is free like most of the events during the month. The event will feature performances and flea markets.
Queer Ink (India) Archives, a project to archive and mainstream stories from the community, is holding its first public dialogue of the series ‘Curating Queer Archives’. The dialogues, done in collaboration with ‘Curating for Culture’, will look at, among other things, how archive-building exercises can change cultural narratives.
Color Positive Foundation is grooming 30 contestants from the LGBTQ+ community and featuring them in the ‘Color Positive Fashion Pageant’ which will be held this month.
Corporate houses are using the month to announce their efforts to make their workplaces queer-friendly. Deutsche Bank Group and its employees are hosting a Pride Walk on June 5 from Nirlon Knowledge Park in Goregaon to celebrate Pride Month.
Events during the month
June 8: Dating app Tinder and Gaysi is organising the third edition of ‘Queer Made Weekend’ at Jio World Drive, Bandra Kurla Complex.
June 16: Satrangi Mela’ will be held at antiSOCIAL, Lower Parel on June 16. The event will feature flea markets and performances.
June 22: Bombay Closet Cleanse’s ‘Pride Party’ will feature LGBTQ+ businesses, tarot reading, and open mic at Bombay Closet Cleanse - Thrift Shop, New Neelam Apartments, JP Rd, Jeet Nagar, Versova, Andheri (West).
June 28: Saksham, job fair for the LGBTQ+ community, organised by the Humsafar Trust. Venue yet to be decided.
