Ricky Martin, is no longer Living La Vida in a closet and confirmed what most people suspected all along – he’s a rainbow flag waving rock star. And by ‘rock star’ I mean his attitude, not his music. A lot of people have mocked his coming out with a big ‘Yawn’ and ‘Stale News’, but to give credit where credit is due – he comes from a culture that’s perhaps as repressive as ours is towards gaysis. So to step out of the clutches of fear & to announce this to the whole world was courageous, no matter how long it took him or how obvious his sexuality was. Welcome to the family, Ricky Martin!
It’s the one year anniversary of gay marriage being legalised in Iowa. To put this in desi context, that’s like saying, it’s the one year anniversary of the MNS welcoming non-Maharashtrians into Bombay at VT station with garlands and pooja thaalis. Yes, it’s that implausible that the state of Iowa managed to get gay marriage legalised. But it happened. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the crazies from saying things like Gay marriage is more dangerous than smoking. What I want to know is what the hell are they smoking!?
Speaking of legal issues, Professor Srinivas Ramchandra Siras of AMU was given a much needed break. His suspension was stayed by the High Court. He will also be able to continue living in his official residence. Sadly, the court fell short of stopping the witch hunt which the University claims is an ‘inquiry’ against him. I would understand this in pre-377 days, but what the hell are they trying to inquire? Gay sex is no longer a criminal offence. Back off, AMU!
Speaking of 377, the Supreme Court of India lost it’s temper with the Centre for ignoring the Delhi High Court ruling on gay sex. I don’t know how to interpret this. As far as I could tell, the Centre was ignoring this on purpose – it doesn’t want to piss off the religious crazies from all the different religions (who disagree on everything but have miraculously all agreed on this one issue) but also wanted to show support for the High Court ruling. Now, while I would love to have a government that is brave and speaks up for the rights of minorities, I am also pragmatic and realise that these things are not black and white. It worries me that the Supreme court is yelling at the Government to pick a side. Is it because the Supreme Court wants the Government to grow a pair & stand for minority rights or is it because the Supreme Court wants to get the Centre to push us all back into our illegal closets? Only time will tell. Any lawyers reading this – please feel free to give us your two cents.
An ad on the subway, here in Toronto, caused a brouhaha and also reminded me why I love this city and this country so much. In most other places, people wouldn’t care that something homophobic was doing the rounds of the city. In Toronto, people actually bothered to voice their displeasure towards the ad that asks, ‘Does God care if I’m Gay?’. The outrage caused the, very aptly acronymed organisation, BSBS to take down their write up about how they think God cares that I’m gay. The long and the short of their post was that God loves us faggots and that it’s ok to be gay as long as we aren’t sexually active with the same sex. Hmmm. So God has time to care about whether two women are getting it on, but no time to care about murderers and rapists and pedophiles. Got it?
Let’s end on a happy and fashionable note – designer Niki Mahajan themed her collection for Fashion week on lesbians. That’s right! In an interview, she states:
“I chose to use the subject of lesbian love for my line because it is an important issue and the message I wanted to give to my audience was that when a husband can love his wife…why can’t a woman love another woman?”
Amen! I don’t have a link to the actual collection, but if the images on her website are anything to go by, I love her style.
That’s it from all of us here, for today. Have a great weekend, people!
