Amritsar's First Ever Pride Parade

On 23rd June Amritsar had its first ever pride parade.

This huge initiative was taken by two 18 years old who had just completed their School.

^{the Instagram handle of Amritsar pride.}

Though they expected huge criticism for their giant move from the society who is still stigmatized to accept homosexuality, they still did this in order to uphold the LGBTQ community's rights.

"We will take out Punjab’s first ever 'Pride Parade' on Sunday with around over 100 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Queer’s (LGBT) from Amritsar and Jalandhar,” said Ridham Chadha, an individual voluntary representative of the LGBTQ community of Amritsar while talking to TOI on Saturday.

As per her family reaction when she told them about the parade " they neither opposed nor openly discussed" said ridham. A bisexual herself also said, that even though she hasn't been in a relationship she always she deep down that she is a bisexual.

Ramit Seth, a straight ally, said that "till date society at large had ostracised the LGBTQ’s due to widespread ignorance about them while forgetting the fact that it was a natural trait and any suppression tactics towards LGBTQ’s tantamount to infringements upon their fundamental rights"

They took the help of a non-governmental organization which is Ludhiana based called project koshal. Mohak thukral, the founder of the NGO said that "We are committed to supporting the fundamental rights of LGBTQ community and have provided them with posters, banners, etc”

^{The Instagram handle of pride Amritsar}

"No doubt that government has decriminalized section 377 IPC but it doesn’t mean that their rights are respected and accepted in the society. We are doing this for the LGBTQ community” said Ridham.

Other pride parades in India are:

Awadh queer pride

Bengaluru Namma Pride March

Bhopal Pride March

Bhubaneshwar Pride Parade

Chandigarh LGBT Pride Walk

Chennai Rainbow Pride

Dehradun Pride Parade

Delhi Queer Pride Parade

Gujarat LGBT Pride

Gurgaon queer pride

Hyderabad queer pride

Jamshedpur LGBTQ Pride

Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk

Orange City LGBT Pride March

Patna Pride March

Pride De Goa

Pune Pride

Queer Azaadi Mumbai

Queer Gulabi Pride Jaipur

Queer Pride Guwahati

Queerala

These kinds of parades, events for the LGBTQ community are important as they get to express themselves and not to be afraid of anything or anyone. More than that it is needed to create awareness and remove the taboo that it is some kind of illness, no, it is normal.

The reason June is the pride month is that it goes back to 1969. When homosexuality was still a crime in the US. Men were arrested for wearing drag and women faced the same treatment if seen without more than 3 pieces of feminine clothing. Until 28 June 1969 when police raided a gay bar in Greenwich village called stonewall inn. People didn't wait for being arrested instead they resisted and rioted made themselves very loud and clear about their anger and frustration for the mistreatment. So apart from the party and booze, it has a historical meaning too.

^{Newspaper clipping from the times of India.}