The Harsh Reality of “Recognition” for the Queer Community in Society

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Queer is an umbrella term that describes sexual orientation and gender identities apart from straight and cisgenders. As time goes by, we can see how the queer community as a whole is evolving and there are significant changes with respect to the growth patterns amongst the community and the platforms and opportunities they have been exposed to. When we talk about the importance of recognition, we can see the changing trends in that too. Looking back at the situation ten or fifteen years back, homosexuality was seen as a taboo and indeed a crime in India. As societies developed and transformed, the LGBTQ community gradually started getting the recognition they always looked for.

The community has always remained closeted because they feared discrimination not just by society, but also amongst their own peer groups, families, schools, etc. Today, even though homosexuality has been accepted, understood and acknowledged amongst the younger generations, there have still been stories of struggle when it came to dealing with “acceptance” and “recognition” at the very primary level, family. Hence the fight for recognition stands valid and justified for these marginalised groups who want to live a life of normalcy just like the cis-genders and heterosexuals.

We can see how social media has played a vital role in providing an online platform for the queer community for portraying their beliefs, opinions, thoughts, highlighting their problems and issues, etc. Social media has provided visibility and recognition for the LGBTQ community to a very large extent. In Urban India, we see Universities and colleges practising inclusivity by raising awareness about the community, conducting various events on gender and inclusivity, several NGOs that work for the transgender community, and subjects like Sociology that is taught in educational institutions also specifically studies the community vastly. But, even though these things have to a certain extent given the deserved recognition to the Queer community, these resources are accessible to only a particular section of people and only a small part of the many challenges are portrayed.

The truth is, even though “recognition” of the queer community is seen quite evidently in recent times, this has its own cons too. Secret honour killings, setting up and running of conversion camps, sexual and emotional harassment towards the queer people, have instilled feelings of fear and trauma amongst the people of the community, which shows how even recognition in this modern times fails to provide a normal life to the queer people out there. Not all come out of this fear and fight for their rights, which shows that India, in this sphere, has a long way to go in the progress of its nation.


Content by: Itisha Phukan

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