Nats and LGBTQ+

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Natasha aka Nats, my Gen Z neighbour had re-dyed her hair - from a burgundy-maroon hue, she had now coloured it in six distinct streaks… red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

I was intrigued.

"Are you following a football club, or some fashion icon, or a film star, or a fragrance, or are you supporting some flag, or furious about some issue, or merely doing a female number with your follicles?" I asked, my tongue firmly in my cheek.

(Triple eye roll, a ‘pffft' and a quick blow of her hair)

"I stand with LGBTQ!" Nats said defiantly. "This is no laughing matter, Rahul bruh!"

"Right, you're sporting the Rainbow colours, I get it," I said, warily.

"Bruh… let's get serious, I wish to know your views on the Supreme Court decision to disallow same sex marriage," Nats asked, watching me like a hawk with owl's eyes.

"I abide by what the Supreme Court has declared," I said safely.

"Aw come on, you're giving me a politically correct answer!?"

"It is politically correct, Nats… the SC is following the law… merely interpreting it, they can't overturn the Constitution… they're leaving it to Parliament to take the call," I said, hoping for a termination of the dialogue.

(Eye roll, many ‘hrmmmphs')

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"Dude get off your objective fence and give me your judgement! Your personal view," Nats thundered.

I sighed with a sense of resignation.

"What are you really asking me, Nats, honestly?"

"Are you comfy with two people of the same sex getting married?" she said.

I did the smartest thing I could do under the circumstances - deflect the question.

"What's your stance on same sex ‘shaadi' Nats. I'd love to know your opinion."

And thus flowed Niagara Falls.

"Bruh… it's so ‘obvio'… why should there be any discrimination - finally, it's two people in love. They wanna make a commitment. If they can live together, they can adopt kids, they can holiday, they can party, why not marry? If heterosexuals can marry, why not homosexuals or lesbians?"

(Eyes rolls, fists clench, room pacing. Some steam out of ears)

Joan of Arc/Rani of Jhansi was now firmly on her white steed, idealistic and incensed.

"I think we're frankly a few light years away from this conversation, this dialogue, this acceptance," I found myself saying suddenly.

"Whaaaaaat?" she said, surprised.

"Nats, I feel you, I feel for you… I feel all your emotions, but I'm pretty certain, that Parliament isn't going to pass the bill on same sex marriage… not now, not ever."

"Whyyyyy, bruh… how can you say that with 100 per cent certainty!"

"It goes beyond politics, Nats. Deep down, it's personal. It's not about an archaic law, or AI or algorithms… It's about an age-old bias… a prejudice that abides by the belief that homosexuality is unnatural… that nurture and nature conspire to create it.

I do believe that homophobia is rampant, in lesser and greater degrees, up front, back of the mind, it exists - it's not politically correct to outright ‘diss' homosexuality, but tongues wag, at the thought of a person not being heterosexual - No homosexual I know can proudly wear his "orientation" on his badge.

There may be some acknowledgement , but not approval… so if most, certainly in our country, haven't fully embraced the concept, how can they accept matrimony?"

Nats was now besides herself with righteous indignation.

"Dude come on, I have loads of friends who are gay, queer/questioning, intersexual, transexual, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, non-binary… man… These are young people, all non-heterosexual, all non-conventional!

How can you just ignore everyone? Do they all stay single just coz they don't abide by our biological realities? Dude, 10 per cent of our population falls into LGBTQ… capeesh?"

"Nats, I have a simple question for you… beyond the ‘he' ‘she' ‘they' them' discussion, and whether you staunchly believe in gender pronouns and live in a non-binary world… if you walked through your parents door in Hoshiarpur, hand-in-hand with a female fiancée, you're telling me your parents would immediately start printing wedding cards and organising a horse for the baaraat… they'd start rejoicing to the neighbours…

‘Our daughter Natasha is marrying her long time sweetheart, Niharika?' You see that as a reality?"

A look of doubt crossed Nats' face, before two eye rolls took over and Rani of Jhansi was gone.

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com