Gurgaon hosts it first Queer Pride

GURGAON: Amidst liveley colors, cheers, slogans and music, the millennium city hosted it's first Queer Pride this Saturday evening in the backdrop of the ongoing global pride month.
The pride was aimed at raising a voice against the increasing violence targeted at the people of the LGBT community specially the recent killings in Orlando last week where 49 people lost their lives.
However the bigger motive was to create a sanctity within the community and provide a space for people from the community to come out ansd reach to similar people.
"We condemn any violence against the community anywhere. However the first aim of today's pride was to offer the city's LGBT community a platform and space," Puja Bajad, the organiser of the pride.
The pride was held at the Liesure Valley park and around 250-300 people took part in it. The pride is backed by the organisers of Delhi pride which has been around for eight years now.
"Given that it is the first pride , we are happy with the turnout. We stand in solidarity with the victims of the violence everywhere and all kinds of minority, " Munish Kabir Malhotra, one of the organisers of the Delhi pride.
Malhotra further questioned the current goverment's silence on the section 377 saying that while Modi tweets about Orlando killings, he has been ignoring the LGBT community within the country.
Besides the members of the community , there were people who came to support their friends who are a part of the community. A friend duo was seen holding a placard that said, "Wish we were homosexual just to piss off the homophobes".
"We are here to support the community. A lot of our friends are gay and they are having a very difficult coming out to their families," said Deeksha, a DU graduate who came to attend the event along with her sister. She added that the government has no right to call someone a criminal for their sexuality.
The ride started with a word on repealing of the section 377, enactment of comprehensive anti discrimination laws that prohibited discrimination on the basis if age, sex, class, case , religion etc. It group also pressed on the implementation of the provisions of Supreme Court judgement in NALSA vs. Union of India on the rights of trans people.
This was followed by music performances and some loud and enthusiastic slogan shouting.