Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr Amerin Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) adults have higher levels of mental health issu, physil abe and enomic
Contents:
- INDIA'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRCE ENDURED YEARS OF TORTURO NVERSN THERAPY. NOW, HE'S FIGHTG TO MAKE THE PRACTICE ILLEGAL.
- THE SLOW EVOLUTN OF GAY CULTURE INDIA
- GAY INDIA
- WHAT DO MEAN TO BE A GAY DOCTOR INDIA?
INDIA'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRCE ENDURED YEARS OF TORTURO NVERSN THERAPY. NOW, HE'S FIGHTG TO MAKE THE PRACTICE ILLEGAL.
For Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer Pri Month, Dennis Zotigh, a cultural specialist at the Natnal Mm of the Amerin Indian, ved Native iends to tell how their tradnal culture saw s LGBTQ members. A Chirihua Apache iend replied, “Now, Dennis, this is a human qutn, not [jt] Native.” We agree. But we also appreciate hearg what Native Amerins have learned, renstcted, or been unable to renstct about this part of our shared history and experience. * indian and gay *
In 2017, when he told his parents he was gay, their illn of him as the perfect son shattered. Unlike Sourav, who nfintly asserts himself as a gay man spe the phback om his loved on, back the 1980s and 1990s, I had no termology to scribe what I was. There was emotnal blackmail, cludg beg blamed for his mother’s illns; beg taken by his parents to nsult a homophobic nropsychiatrist who diagnosed him wh a “sexual disorr”, prcribed meditn for and remend unsellg to rrect his ways; and opprsive parental surveillance, aid by the lack of privacy their two-room home.
To his horror, she told him that he was “not normal”, followed by advice monly given to young gay men: bee more “mascule”. He believ that if his father had not been homophobic, his mother would have e around by now. The transphobic and homophobic people peddlg illegal, unscpulo treatments are not likely to disappear overnight.
June is Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer Pri Month the Uned Stat.
THE SLOW EVOLUTN OF GAY CULTURE INDIA
* indian and gay *
Native natns are siar to other world populatns the mographic reprentatn of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr dividuals. Adopted as part of the morn pan-Indian vobulary 1990 durg the third annual ter-tribal Native Amerin/First Natns Gay and Lbian Amerin Conference, Wnipeg, Manoba, refers to dividuals who intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgenr, transsexual, or genr-fluid. For our pri observance this year, the mm asked our Native iends, “How did your tribe tradnally view dividuals who are lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr?
My grandmother, the late Lucy Lewis, had gay and lbian iends. Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr Amerin Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) adults have higher levels of mental health issu, physil abe and enomic stabily than their non-LGBTQ peers, acrdg to a new report. A 2015 report om the Natnal Congrs of Amerin Indians found 54 percent of gay and lbian AIAN stunts reported beg subject to physil vlence bee of their sexual orientatn, and more than 1 3 said they missed class at least once the last month for fear of beg bullied or harassed.
In 1987, she helped anize the Basket and the Bow, the first natnal gatherg of gay and lbian Amerin Indians, held at the Mneapolis Amerin Indian Center. “The are not gay-iendly church, and they’re the on that have a lot of sway those areas. They may preach the native language, but they still preach the dogma of whe, homophobic Christiany.
GAY INDIA
For many gay and lbian South Asians livg the US, g out volv bridgg gaps between culture, muny and sexualy * indian and gay *
” For many years, intifyg as gay meant leavg the rervatn, Day said, for much the same reasons whe people who me out left small towns — isolatn, alienatn and discrimatn. Read more: Column: Homophobia Is Not an Asian Value It’s for this reason that some activists believe India might not be ready for same-sex marriage—at least until genr and sexual orientatn discrimatn are outlawed.
WHAT DO MEAN TO BE A GAY DOCTOR INDIA?
Societal valu, the ste system, arranged marriag, the high probabily of beg dishered for g out — India, everythg ns unter to gay liberatn. * indian and gay *
“There are host of other battl to be fought and won, ” says Shep Sgh, an activist and founr of Gaylaxy, a LGBTQ magaze. “The society is not gog to sh to embrace gay marriage but that’s not what we are necsarily lookg for, ” says Srabh Kirpal, a lawyer who helped challenged the law crimalizg same-sex relatns. At the time, he was his fal semter at the Universy of Texas and cid he had hidn his sexualy om his fay long was 1999, well before Mehta beme Barack Obama’s first liaison to the LGBT muny – the first of three Indian Amerins to eventually hold that post – and before his current appotment as chief of staff to the new surgeon general, Vivek those days Indian Amerins were eply nial about homosexualy, so when Mehta told his parents he was gay, he was worried they would sever all ti to him.
My role mol was tellg me somethg that I, beg as homophobic as I am, always regard as an aberratn and a product of this liberated, wtern culture, ” Dr Mehta wrote, reuntg the first moments after his son me out.
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”“We really do not know anyone personally the Indian muny who is gay, ” the letter ntued. Dpe his imprsive crentials, he said he was “misrmed” about homosexualy until Parag forced the issue by g said was only after reviewg the scientific lerature immediately after his son me out, hop of fdg a medil “cure” for homosexualy, that he realized there was nothg to be cured. “There is a shame that’s associated wh this, ” pecially among the olr generatn, who are all too willg, he said, to get their gay children married off to members of the oppose sex, simply to mata Mehta had been warned by one iend that publicizg his son’s gayns uld prompt a quiet backlash, rultg some fai qutng whether the Mehta home was safe for their children.
But Sunu reasons this was partly bee the married to a whe fay, one prumably ls shocked by the existence of gay people.
They opted not to attend another weddg, bee that was marryg someone om India and the ia of nontg awkward qutns or star at the weddg receptn was more than Sunu uld addn to pg wh homophobia, Indian Amerins often have to al wh racial and class-based bigotry. It’s not merely the fact that their parents are gettg to know each other, but that they’re posg for pictur together, vg the evable probg qutns om domtic workers and even before the two started datg, Parag’s father had taken the unual step (by si standards) of tryg to play matchmaker for his gay son.