Are Indias young adults ready for LGBT literature?

Inspired by Apple CEO Tim Cook a boy in my childrenrsquos school posted a status update on Facebook on his preferred sexual orientation The 14yearold had over 600 likes and hundreds of supportive messages Given that there are so many men and women who are closet gays and lesbians because of social censure I marvelled at the boyrsquos courage to come out I was unsure if the young kids showing solidarity were conforming to a peerrsquos lsquocoolnessrsquo quotient or were aware of what it means to be gaySo when I saw promotions of Hemanjali Sankarrsquos Talking of Muskaan a Young Adult YA novel about a girl coming out with her lesbianism among other things I was intrigued Is India ready for LGBT Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender literature in the YA space This in a country where parents are still uncomfortable to talk to their children about sex educators are grappling with basic sex education in schools and where most teens canrsquot mingle freely with the opposite sexBooked for new readersArpita Das of Yoda Press thinks India is more than ready for LGBT books for young adults ldquoThe Indian market is strange mdash there are plenty of niches that are as cuttingedge in their reading choices as the most sophisticated reading community in the West I am not talking of only Englishlanguage readership In recent times wersquove seen books dealing with identity politics riots sexual abuse death and so on among fictional narratives for young adults written by wellloved authorsrdquoItrsquos not as if children are unaware In popular culture specifically hugely influencing Bollywood movies gays are caricatures and made fun of Cases in point being Dostana Kal Ho Na Ho and Student of the Year If one were to classify TV show characters under the LGBT genre Mitch and Cam from Modern Family Will in Will and Grace Neil Patrick Harris of How I Met Your Mother and host Ellen DeGeneres are much lovedHimanjali Sankar authorChildren followed the discussion on Professor Dumbledorersquos sexuality when JK Rowling announced that she had conceived that character in the Harry Potter series as gay Popular YA fiction like The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai and So Hard To Say by Alex Sanchez have gay charactersWhat is LGBT literatureLGBT literature refers to titles where the core not the peripheral protagonist has a different sexual orientation In the US this genre is minuscule compared to thousands of titles under the YA genre but is seeing active growthAccording to a study conducted in 2012 55 YA books that included LGBT main characters or were about LGBT people were published in the US This number increased to roughly 95 in 2013 Interestingly almost 70 of these titles were published by LGBT publishers while the rest were by mainstream publishers Since these are not backed and distributed by the heavyweight publishers most books donrsquot reach their target audience or find space on bookshelves In libraries they are organised under author names and librarians prefer to leave it to parents to decide about their kidsrsquo picksDas speaks of the Indian scenario ldquoThe conservative estimate for the size of the gay community is 2 of the population which means a 20million strong figure To have so few books on LGBT issues among adults and children is grossly inadequaterdquoThere are a number of niche publishers for LGBT in India including Queer Ink and Yoda Press but not many who publish for Young Adults or children Sayoni Basu the publisher at Duckbill Books who is releasing the LGBT title explains ldquoThere are kids who are aware of their sexual orientation early on and who have difficulty fitting into conventional notions of gender behaviour For this handful itrsquos important to know that there are other kids facing the same dilemmardquoFringe to mainstreamLike other fringe marginalised groups hoping for better representation in popular culture LGBT books also aim to reach out to those kids who need to find familiar faces and themes in the stories The fears of social ostracism being singled out for imagined misdemeanors and incessant ragging create huge stress for children confronted with their different sexual orientation Himanjali Sankar author of Talking of Muskaan says ldquoIt is about learning to respect an orientation that is separate from the social norm mdash in this case it is sexual I also touch upon class difference Itrsquos important to introduce differences to children so that they donrsquot grow up to be insufferable insensitive unidimensional adultsrdquo Neha Shah a Mumbai based child counsellor feels LGBT books in YA couldnrsquot be better timed ldquoThe West has accepted it but here these kids are treated as lepers parents encourage their kids to avoid being friends with them for fear of contamination mdash as if being gay is contagiousrdquo she revealsWe are the cool kidsI asked my teenage children and their friends what they thought of such literature Appalled that I would even ask such a question my daughter said ldquoMom its not us with the problem your generation has an issue with alternate sexualityrdquo Whether they understand it or not unlike previous generations most kids today have more empathy for class gender race academic economic and sexual differences If their collective empathy leads us to a more inclusive society many borders will be erasedJust as talking about sex does not lead to an increase in experimentation but encourages young adults to make informed choices LGBT literature will not change sexual orientations The jury is still out on whether sexual orientation is genetic or shaped by onersquos environment or a fair mix of bothAs with alcohol and smoking children will experiment with sex before they come to terms with their choices Parents recognise the need for acceptance but also fear that young adults are well too young to decide their sexual orientations they worry that such books might encourage kids to make decisions they donrsquot have the emotional bandwidth to understand yetOn the same pageWhile most LGBT titles are about lesbians gays and bisexuals it will be interesting to see if in the near future YA books will focus on the T of LGBT where the socially ostracised transgenders hijras find a space finallyParents and educators who are uncomfortable with LGBT literature neednrsquot worry Books are sadly not Bollywood movies that are encountered by millions As Basu nails it ldquoThose who are interested will hopefully find it Those who arenrsquot keen or not prepared will ignore itrdquo