When I posted about sexual minorities in India few weeks back, I didn't imagine India's gay community would take this leap so soon: On June 29, hundreds of gays, lesbians and transgenders marched on the streets of the country's capital city, New Delhi, tech hub Bangalore (Bengaluru), and culture-conscious Kolkata (Calcutta), making it India's first multiple-city gay pride parade.

India's first gay pride march was organized in the eastern city of Kolkata in 1999, when gay activists joined their American counterparts in commemorating Stonewall day. Kolkata has been marching annually since 2003. This year, New Delhi and Bangalore joined in.

The coordinated marches were spiced up with desi fare: transvestites dressed in colorful saris, supporters dancing to drumbeats and chanting "Homophobia quit India", a hark back to the country's Quit India movement against the British. Besides celebrating multiple sexual orientations in India, the participants also highlighted the need to change a colonial-era law that criminalizes homosexuality. The law is now being challenged in the Delhi High Court.

Photo credit: Anindita Sengupta's blog

Modestly dressed, the marchers -- joined by well-wishers and some foreign visitors -- were a far cry from San Francisco's psychedelic annual ritual. I think that goes in favor of the gay movement in India. For a group that is barely beginning to be recognized as human and natural, dressing "queer" will hardly endear them to their uneasy heterosexual counterparts. Those bold statements can come later, if at all.

What impressed me most was the lack of any disruptions, protests or violence. The parades went off peacefully, and neither the police nor the curious public gave the marchers any grief. The right wingers reportedly stayed away in order NOT to give the gay movement any publicity. They got the publicity all right: the media, domestic and foreign, were all over it.

While the parades revealed how much the Indian gay community has grown in confidence, fear of discrimination has kept many of them closeted. Many participants hid behind colorful masks for fear of being recognized by colleagues and family, not unlike the social "masks" that they hide behind on a daily basis. As one of the participants was quoted saying in this report on SFGate,  many gay couples hide behind social etiquette that allows for a remarkable amount of physical proximity among members of the same sex, since interaction between men and women can be restricted in many communities:

"They don't really understand what we're doing," said a mild-mannered 25-year-old software engineer whose face was hidden under a handkerchief, speaking of herself and her similarly veiled girlfriend. "They just think we're best friends, hanging out. It's time people know that we are more than friends."

As the couple rejoined the parade, they raised a sign high in the air. In bold red letters it read: "Give me support; I want to take off my mask."

What the gay community has going for it is lack of any organized, aggressive opposition to the movement. As long as you are not too vocal about your sexual preferences, people seem okay, many a times assuming that you are heterosexual. Not surprisingly, most of the gay movement will be spearheaded by the urban and educated populace. (Kolkata, however, has begun seeing more rural participation.)

Which is the lack of participation in  Mumbai (Bombay) --  the city of dreams and Bollywood-- and the southern city of Chennai -- capital of Tamil Nadu, the first Indian state to allow its universities to teach members of the "third gender" , has left many surprised.

To Each Its Own's Saakshi Juneja is unhappy that Mumbai missed out of parade, but gives us a sneak peak into the city's gay life:

‘Hypocrisy’ is the one-word answer I got when I posed this question to a Gay friend. Apparently, there is much infighting and lack of unity among the various Gay groups and NGOs in the city. [...]

The white-collared lot happily goes about its business without caring about ‘burning’ issues like rights or laws, said another Gay friend. In Mumbai, it seems, not many can be bothered enough to dress up and walk the streets the way they did in Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. But the same does not hold true for parties, I recently discovered.

Boy do they dress up there, and boy, do they party.

Photo credit: Anindita Sengupta's blog

Well, one of Saakshi's complaints may be taken care of. Lesley Esteves, one of the organizers of the Delhi march, told NPR that Mumbai would have its own march of August 16, a day after India's independence day, to underscore how many Indians still aren't free. (Lesley also blogs as Bombay Boy).

Bengaluru's first gay pride march, too, went without a hitch. Anindita Sengupta (who also blogs at Ultra Violet), posts a first hand account of the march with some fabulous pictures, two of which I have used in this post above.

She reports:

The mood was an edgy mix of defiance and celebration; lots of colourful flags swished in the breeze; and while some faces were masked, others were joyfully bare. The media had turned up in droves and the police were surprisingly un-troublesome.

For India's long-suppressed sexual minorities, this is progress. It's almost as if young and urban India wants this change to happen. The ride is nevertheless going to be bumpy, but if the gay movement is successful in decriminalizing the sodomy law, India's social fabric is in for some truly colorful change.