So to speak. According to last week's Chronicle, the age old and very organized movement in India for LGBTQ rights is coming out.

That silence broke Sunday, when gays and lesbians found their voice in three major cities - New Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore - in the first large public display of gay pride India has ever seen.

"Up until now, we've been in the public space protesting a violation, or someone being beaten up," said Gautam Bhan, 28, one of the New Delhi parade organizers. "Now we feel like we have enough of a foothold to celebrate a positive presence."

While the U.S. gay-rights movement has progressed to the wedding altar, Indian activists are still fighting for decriminalization of gay sex. Efforts to reform a 19th century law banning homosexuality are galvanizing the gay community as it fights for reforms in a country where arranged marriages are still the norm.

I will ignore that this article started with saying, "protests are as Indian as spicy curry," but I think the immediate comparison to how the US gay-rights movement is leaps and bounds ahead because we are starting to legalize gay marriage is an oversight and framed with the assumption that the US is defining the way we talk about sexual liberation. We have dictated the timeline and so everyone else needs to fall in line. Sounds familiar? It ignores the nuanced ways that queer identities exist in indigenous cultures. The article does quote this however,

In their book "Same-Sex Love in India," authors Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwa wrote that homosexuality was generally tolerated in precolonial India as long as it didn't get in the way of the above-mentioned duties.

The mentioned duties being baby making.

Let me start by saying, I think this is great. Homophobia and hate crimes against the LGBTQ community is a huge threat in India. But also, I find it interesting that the rainbow is being invoked along with similar imagery and slogans from the US gay rights movement are being used for this moment of gay liberation. Is it similar to the US where the movement is majority middle class and where a working class and people of color queer movement generally looks different? Or is it the imagery that caught on and is a way of standing in international solidarity with other gay rights movements?