Five Queer Persons Open Up About 'What They Want From Society'

Queer people have faced strong discrimination over the centuries and unfortunately, they are discriminated against by their loved ones. The community has time and again had to face prejudice because of the stereotypes. They are consciously seen by many as mentally sick, and their queerness is seen as a sign of amorality and perversion and a foe of traditional familial values. However, the gender and sexuality spectrum has existed for a long time under society's shadow.

In a heteronormative society where strict standards for gender and sexuality are upheld, a queer person can be alienated from the community. How fair is it that we inflict violence on someone, segregate them because of their sexual orientation, and allow this discrimination? Why don't we, as a society, become better for the queer community?

This Pride Month, we spoke to some young queer people in order to find out what they want from society

“There are seven billion people on the planet, someone out there will definitely accept you. You will surely find a home somewhere,” says Manjishtha with a calm yet ignited demeanor. A budding illustrator from IP university Manjishtha told SheThePeople how it is important for heterosexual people to build a support system for queer folks. She said, “The least you can do is to support us and please let us be." 

They were name-called by their teacher, they were sexually harassed by the boys in their hostel. They deserved none of it but still tolerated that for the time being. Reason? They were Gay. Suraj, a research aspirant at IISER Bhopal, once fought against a lot of discrimination.

They, alluding to their personal experience, said, “I want more straight people to come forward to be allies to us. To promote our community. Being supportive of us on social media is one thing, and then the same people alienate us in person. Because they think about being judged and alienated. It shouldn't be this way.”

A graduate in Biotechnology, but a magnificent dancer, Smitin remarked that everyone must embrace their quirks. He said, "It's a beautiful feeling to be yourself. It could insignificant to straight people, but ask a queer person ." Smitin also told us how a certain level of fear they feel every day for being openly out, which is quite pointless.

Mentioning that he said, “You see, I came home after performing in a costume. Now whether I will be able to live in that place, totally depends on the landlord. Whether he saw me or not, Whether it's okay for him or not. That irrational fear is always there. But it shouldn’t,”

Society's shunning affected bright engineering student and drove them to suicide. Today Pulkit Mishra stands strong and has only one request to make. He asks society to be a little less rude and kinder. He says, “I want society to stop labelling everyone. Moreover, stop asking everyone to fit into boxes. I wore an androgynous dress in college and they didn’t let me in. That happened because the authority there have labelled clothes. So, stop labelling everything clothes, make-up and literally everything."

Utkarsh told us about how they publicly come out on stage during a SOPE event. Very enthusiastically they grove into the details and mentioned how that event gave them a boost of self-confidence. They further said, “I hope the discrimination is lessened than what happened to me every day. Just today I was wearing rainbow earrings,  and believe me, every single person moved their neck to see what was wrong. Why is a man wearing earrings? Like no one will do the same if it was a woman. Just stop discriminating against us!”

Being queer does not make people aberrant, diseased, or deprived—and, more significantly. It does not make them undeserving of equal human rights—if they do not fit into the prevalent conceptions of acceptable sexuality and gender expression. Let people be themselves, as controlling other people's lives is both impossible and inappropriate.

Views are not subjugated in any way. People from the LGBTQIA+ were interviewed for this purpose. 

Suggested Reading: The Jasmine Throne To Carry On: 6 Queer Fantasy Books To Read This Pride Month