What’s It Like Being A Queer In India? These 10 Photos Capture Their Totally Beautiful Lives.

LGBTQIA

In a country like ours, anti-sodomy laws hailing since the British era were struck down in 2009 only to be restored after a ruling in 2013. So being a member of the LGBTQIA openly comes as a surprise to some. Well, that shouldn’t be the case. Like any individual, they are normal human beings leading a normal human life.

And, capturing their completely ordinary daily routine are photographers Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh. Their work of art ‘Delhi: Communities of Belonging’ — which is also documented in form of a book of 150 images with interviews and testimonials of members of LGBTQ community in India — is on display at New York’s sepiaEYE exhibition (March 31 to May 6).

Here are some of the photographs that are going to be at the exhibition. All we can see are individuals, beautifully captured in their simplistic and ordinary moments of their “normal” lives.

1. Rituaparnah kissing her cat.

 

2. Lily looking at a photo of herself.

Lily

 

3. Rituparnah, getting dressed.

Delhi Queer Pride

 

4. Rizwan getting ready to go out.

Rizwan

 

5. Saleem at his desk, Lucknow.

Delhi Queer Pride

 

6. Sonal with a date.

Delhi Queer Pride

 

7. Zahid asleep with his partner Ranjan.

Ranjan and Zahid

“Even though people are more out today, there is that thing in the back of the mind saying this is still illegal in this country and tomorrow if they decide to crack down on it, we are too exposed already, so we would be in a lot of trouble,” Ranjan told Gupta and Singh.

 

8. Anita with the workmen building her studio.

Delhi Queer Pride

 

9. Deepti, asleep in her flat.

Delhi Queer Pride

 

10. Jatin and his daughter at home.

Jatin

Sunil and Charan met at a HIV conference in Delhi eight years ago and hit it right off. And over time, have portrayed their work addressing gender and sexuality issues in India.

 

When their book was unveiled in November 2016, Sunil told VICE,

“Today, many are still not out, but it’s hugely different in terms of documentary and photography. In 1980, nobody would turn their face to my camera and people certainly did not want to have their name on the picture, which they do in the book. The project now, which is portraits of real people with their names, with them facing the camera, is completely a reversal from how it was then.”

 

Now, isn’t that perfect contemporary imagery? It’s high time that we stop the discrimination toward the members of the LGBTQIA community.

Image and News Source: sepiaEYE

H/T: The Huffington Post

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