Monday, May 20, 2013

Gay Indians 'seriously pissed off' with LBT in Mumbai

The male homosexual community in India is 'seriously pissed off' about being left out of the LBT introduced by BMC and rallied yesterday on Carter Road, Bandra to express their anger with the authorities. A somewhat modest number of eight gay citizens attended the rally in everyday clothes, which raised several eyebrows in the city.

Pradip Panhale, the President of Gays of India (GoI), spoke to us on the sidelines of the rally and said, "This pattern of blatant discrimination has now become a permanent feature with this Government. The Chief Minister should explain why only the 'G' community in 'LGBT' has remained untouchable to the Municipal authorities of Mumbai. Why just LBT? Why not LGBT?? I mean, you want Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgenders in your new schemes, but you don't want the Gays to be a part of anything?? This is fucking disgusting!"

An unrelated photo of gay men.
(Just for kicks)
The Deputy President of GoI, Dr. Rajesh Pillai added, "After the Delhi High Court's order on Section 377, we thought our troubles were over. But, the Gay community is still treated like a pariah, and the latest example of that is LBT! We are seriously pissed off at this and need clear answers from the Government today."

The rally didn't attract much attendance from the affected community, and the passing public too paid hardly any notice until the news spread that it was a rally by the gay community. Rakesh Shah, a retiree and regular walker along the Carter Road promenade was visibly angry with the protesters for dressing like normal people. Speaking to this correspondent, he said, "This cannot be allowed in a high class locality like Bandra. I mean, these guys look normal and talk normally. How is that possible? We all see in movies how gay people talk like women and dress like Bobby Darling. If they also behave and live normally, how can we find out who is gay and deny them rental space?" Several angry locals gathered against the rally after this and threatened to disrupt the peace of a sultry Sunday evening by the sea side.

Luckily, the local Corporator, Talwar Singh, happened to be in the Joggers Park nearby and came down to check out on the commotion. His timely intervention dispersed the GoI rally and everybody went home peacefully. We believe his exact words to the protesters were, 'The LBT is actually a type of tax. Initially the BMC included gays also and called it LGBT, but I protested and got you all a tax exemption. But if you want to be included....", at which point, Dr. Rajesh Pillai intervened and declared that their protest has ended peacefully. Talwar Singh was later seen making a passionate case for the gay vote bank with the GoI leadership.

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