Hundreds mark Rainbow Pride Week on Kolkata streets

Express News Service

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=189960

Kolkata, June 25: Kolkata today witnessed another march organised to
mark solidarity among homosexual people, as hundreds walked to
observe the Rainbow Pride Week. It's an annual event of the community
that has been observed in the city since 1999. Kolkata is the first
city in India to observe the Rainbow Pride Week. The Rainbow Pride
Week will also be marked by events like dance recitals, film shows,
music videos, panel discussions, street plays, and opening of a new
meeting place for "lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans" (LGBT) people
(those attracted to same sex) at Chandannagar in Hooghly district.
The inauguration of a new hangout of the community will take place
early next month.

``Our march is not only to create an awareness among people in the
society that there is a good number of people who are attracted to
the same sex, and this is quite normal, we also want to create
awareness among the people about the threat of HIV to the society as
a whole,'' Pawan Dhall of Saathi, an organisation of LGBT people
which spearheads the movement, told Newsline. The LGBT people are
also fighting for the repeal of Section 377 of IPC that makes
homosexuality a punishable offence. A petition pending in this regard
in Delhi High Court is likely to come up for hearing next month. ``We
are eagerly waiting for the Section to be disposed of. This will give
recognition to the fact that same sex love is quite normal among
human beings,'' Dhall added. The Rainbow Pride Walk is organised
every year to mark Stonewall Riots Day, a historic event that took
place on June 27, 1969, in New York. The riots took place
as "lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans" (LGBT) people (those attracted
to same sex) during a demonstration clashed with police to lodge
protest against their harassment by cops, a daily feature of their
lives in those days.