“My people are magic, know how to fold into their skin and hold themselves up, know how to fit somewhere they are not welcome, learn how little their humanity is worth and still love so fiercely.”
— Arati Warrier
— Arati Warrier
What “people” do you think she’s talking about?
In 2013, India reinstated an old colonial law that criminalizes gay sex acts — effectively making it illegal to be gay. Yep. That’s the law right now!
But it wasn’t always that way. The Indian Supreme Court had reversed that old colonial law in 2009 and, for about four years, being gay was just like most any activity between two consenting adults: legally accepted as a fundamental and constitutional human right.
But now, for Arati and “her people,” their very way of life is illegal.
The implications for these kinds of sweeping laws are real and personal.
She talks more about her experience of being gay in Indian culture through her beautiful spoken-word poem. It really started to give me chills about a minute in:
