Is it a Queerific revolution? How some of the biggest voices during protests have been from the LGBTQIA+ community

Itrsquos been eight years since Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was struck down and homosexuality was decriminalised in India Since then the LGBTQIA community in India has seen major blows to the queer liberation movement mdash in 2023 the Supreme Court denied marriage equality to the community Earlier this year the government took away the right of transgender people to selfidentify their gender with the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Amendment Act and just this week a new petition was filed in the apex court by the Womenrsquos Declaration International India challenging trans rights furtherSakhi in green uses theythem pronouns says that queer people have finally found a way to organise during these protestsAs protestors take the streets this time to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar the queer representation mdash not just in demonstration but also in leadership mdash is hard to miss Neha Bora who goes by theythem pronouns and Mumbairsquos own Anish Gawande have emerged as leaders in mobilising youth across the countryGlobally during Brazilrsquos historic October 2026 election LGBTQIA candidates achieved unprecedented political representation with Black transgender congresswoman Erika Hilton getting reelected Sakhi is a 22yearold nonbinary activist who has been leading protests in Delhi They are one of the organisers behind the Delhi University Pride March which was held on October 29Pakiz Khan is JNUrsquos first openly gay elected councillorldquoAt Jantar Mantar in July and even this time I cannot emphasise enough how much queer representation I have been seeing There were lesbians everywhere It makes me so happyrdquo they say After decades of struggle is India finally ready to see queer leaders in the revolution ldquoWersquore bloody running the showrdquo a queer friend whorsquos been participating in the protests tells usWhatrsquos different about this movement that it gets to see this queer representation ldquoEarlier this year the LGBTQIA community experienced a giant blow with the Trans Amendment Actrdquo says queer historian and allIndia head of the Congressrsquos AIPC LGBTQIA vertical Mario Da Penha ldquoThe Trans Amendment Act took away trans peoplersquos identities Therersquos a lot of heldover anger from that as well And in many ways SIR is a parallel policy which strips Indians of their citizenship of the very basic right of votingldquoSIR also disproportionately affects queer and trans people way more The SIR process assumes a certain stability in what yoursquove been doing and where yoursquove been living over the last two decades Very few of us are afforded that stability in our lives And certainly not the members of the trans community who are very often thrown out of their homesrdquo Da Penha saysPehna says that hersquos been hearing horror stories from friends who belong to the community and have been left out of electoral rolls ldquoEven the ones who have after much hard work accumulated a bit of privilege have been left out It doesnrsquot matter how well you are doing or if you are accomplished professionals who are the strength of our economy mdash if yoursquore being left out it means somethingrdquo Da Penha saysMario Da Penha queer historian and allIndia head of the Congressrsquos AIPC LGBTQIA vertical is headed to Delhi for Congressrsquos November 1 march PICASHISH RAJEDa Penha says that queer people have been no strangers to agitation ldquoAs queer people wersquove always seen our struggles as linked to other peoplersquos Irsquove lived in an era before Section 377 was struck down So we know exactly what it means for the government to see you as a threat and for your life to not be considered a complete lifeldquoEven in the UPA times I remember being in Delhi in 2006 for the Narmada Bachao Andolan I have also been part of the farmer protests in 2021 Even during the 2019 antiCAA protests there was a very prominent queer representationrdquo With collectives like The Queer Muslim Project Queer Azadi Mumbai LABIA Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action leading mobilisationAnish Gawande is Indiarsquos first openly gay politician FILE PICOn October 24 filmmaker Avijit Mukul Kishore screened his documentary lsquoThe Minuscule Minorityrsquo at Soho House in Juhu ldquoThe title is in quotes because in 2013 the Supreme Court of India referred to the queer community as a lsquominuscule minorityrsquo using that size as a rationale to uphold Section 377rdquo Kishore tells usKishore made the documentary during the 2024 general elections ldquoIn the 77 years since Independence absolutely no political party has actively campaigned for LGBTQIA rights The difference now is that we have young politicians within the parties putting queer rights onto manifestosrdquo he says ldquoIt was a major shift in the entire approach towards queer rights from a courtbased kind of activism to something which is more election and ParliamentbasedrdquoPakiz Khan and Avijit Mukul KishoreKishorersquos film is ldquoa set of interviews with people who are engaged with party politics and the electoral processrdquo ldquoTheyrsquove really tried and in many ways succeeded in talking about queer rights in that domainrdquo he says Kishore says that young people today enter the streets in a post2018 India ldquoFor the queer Gen Zs the introduction to queerhood is not from the lens of being a victim They enter the streets knowing that their Constitution recognises and protects themrdquoNonbinary activist Sakhi who belongs to the Studentsrsquo Federation of India SFI says that this time queer people have organised spaces to gather ldquoI think a big difference is that queer students have found a way to organise At SFI we have a dedicated queer cellrdquo they say At Jantar Mantar in July SFI had a tent called ldquoKranti Cornerrdquo ldquowhich became a safe space for so many queer people because they know SFI has so many queer folksrdquo ldquoThose who didnrsquot feel safe coming to the protests eventually felt safe enough to come toordquo they addMario Da Penha and Anish GawandeMore queer representation has also meant more queer harassment Harshit Singh 24 a spoken word artiste who was targeted and harassed by media folks during the NEET leak protests says ldquoPeople want to harass me to get viral For them I am like a switchboard to get viewsrdquo he says Harshit makes an active effort to fully cover up when he goes for protests nowSakhi too recounts similar incidents ldquoThere is a dedicated guy on Instagram who makes troll Reels about me He calls me lsquoSakhi didi bhaiyarsquo or lsquoAloo ka Borarsquo and lsquoNeha Borarsquos younger sisterrsquo mdash very transphobic things about me and my bodyrdquo they say ldquoThere has been a very big increase in queerphobia which is why we are seeing queer leaders coming forwardrdquoHarshit says ldquoI made sure to bring up the Trans Amendment Act whenever I gave a speech during the NEET protests and even now People ask me why I am bringing it up But I know we will see its results going forward Because when you go on a stage and bring up trans issues itrsquos a way of welcoming that community as well Itrsquos a way of saying lsquoYoursquore heard and safe herersquo It is very important for us to see queer and trans people occupy and reclaim spacesrdquoldquoThere is an attempt to delegitimise the movement on the basis of queer presencerdquo says Da Penha Harshit adds ldquoVile things have been said about queer and trans people like lsquoYeh toh R100200 mein aajate hai These people come for Rs 100200rsquo These things are done to trigger your family so that even when yoursquore right your parents donrsquot let you protest because people might say such things about yourdquo Queer folk arenrsquot disillusioned by the harassment though Harshit says ldquoWe can see through these attempts and we will keep showing uprdquoThe fear in queer people has gone down significantly as more queer people assert themselvesrdquo says Pakiz Khan who is an openly gay elected councillor at Jawaharlal Nehru University ldquoNeha Bora gets detained today and calls for another protest tomorrow Today when the police open water cannons protestors are dancing If we look back at CAANRC protests or even Nirbhaya protests people would never have even imagined doing rain dance so as to not belittle the movementrdquoKhan says that this very lsquohumourousrsquo nature of the current Gen Z protest borrows from queer culture ldquoThe fabric of Gen Z political movements has become queer by its very nature When in India could you imagine people at protests dancing or flirting with the police in Reels We are debunking the very heteropatriarchal nature of politics Movements and protests are supposed to have a certain gravitas but that idea has been debunkedldquoQueer resistance too heavily relies on dance joy and humour I think it is this lsquoqueeringrsquo of the nature of politics and movements that has facilitated queer people to come to the forefrontrdquo Khan notes Queer people may be more visible than ever in public movements but does this visibility translate to electoral viability ldquoThe day is not far when we will have an outandproud person elected to office in this country and to the highest echelons of powerrdquo says national spokesperson for NCPSP Anish GawandeldquoWersquove already had Menaka Guruswamy become the first out queer person to be a Rajya Sabha MP Of course thatrsquos a nominated position but the winds of change are moving swiftly Today Pakiz Khan a queer person from Assam has won an election and become a councillor in JNU This is the same JNU where Anjuman the first queer collective that started on campus had to face ridicule and intense public pressurerdquo Gawande notesKhan adds ldquoThings are changing for sure There are student organisations at the forefront right now with their national president a gender nonbinary person Even within the CJP Cockroach Janta Party Vijeta Dahiya was constantly questioned for being transphobic So these sensitivities have been built into the Gen Z who are the largest voting demographic of IndiardquoldquoAt least that is my reading of urban India but I hope that this translates to the grassroots as well I think itrsquos much easier for me to lead an organisation on a campus like JNU But for me to go back to Assam and do politics there as an openly queer individual mdash I still have my doubts But Irsquom hopeful about the future that India will haverdquo he saysGawande adds ldquoI see the current movement as a proof of concept that India is more queerfriendly than it ever was Queerness is as electorally viable as any other form of marginalisation and I say this carefully It is not to discount that queerness will be an impediment to you being elected But movements like these help build an infrastructure of supportldquoThe possibility of you marshalling the resources to win an election was far lower before an entire Ambedkarite movement sprung up to enable Dalit politicians to rely upon their identity as a source of strength rather than an impedimentrdquo Gawande says ldquoRight now wersquore seeing a conscious creation of support structures that will allow young queer people to translate their leadership within these movements into more mainstream electoral acceptancerdquoSo is India ready to see more and more queer people in leadership ldquoIt doesnrsquot matter if society is ready or not Wersquore already hererdquo Sakhi signs off