INDIA: Record Crowd For Mumbai Pride

Unswayed by the Indian Supreme Court’s refusal last month to reconsider its recriminalization of homosexuality, a record crowd turned out for Mumbai’s gay pride events this weekend.

In its seventh edition, Mumbai’s Gay Pride got bigger and bolder, attracting crowds from across the globe. Colourful costumes, innovative headgear and a multitude of balloons in rainbow colours only added to the atmosphere charged with slogans, chanting, singing and waving of whacky, tongue-in-cheek banners and posters which left many chortling and some agape. “Ideally, the march is about taking pride in what you are. But this year’s upsurge in numbers is a reflection of the community’s anger and hurt over being recriminalised,” said one of India’s gay rights pioneer Ashok Row Kavi. “If courts think they can brush us off and treat us like sub-humans they need to see how they have ended up giving the movement a shot in the arm instead. This movement will grow and succeed.”