Manifesting a manifesto: What queer people want from parties

“I want a dyke for a president. I want a person with AIDS for president and I want a f*g for vice-president and I want someone with no health insurance and I want someone who grew up in a place where the earth is so saturated with toxic waste that they didn’t have a choice about getting leukaemia.”  Thus read Zoe Leonard’s poem written after the 1992 presidential elections in the aftermath of the AIDS crisis in the UK. As we approach elections in the mother of democracy, what is it that we, the queers, want from political parties, and from our next elected government?

Rainbow house: It’s time an openly queer candidate is elected to Parliament

Less than half a decade ago, queer people were not considered an electoral vote bank, and even a mention of queerness was a political faux pas. But times are changing. It is evident that parties want to engage with queer people, and that some queer issues are going to be spoken of in mainstream elections. In the final budget session of the 17th Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister said that the world has appreciated what India has done for its transgender people. He said this as only 12 out of 29 states have a transgender welfare board; the membership of National Council for Transgender Persons has no trans men or nonbinary persons, but has ciswomen who have been transphobic; and Garima Grehs are criminally underfunded. But one thing is evident: queer people are now important enough to be spoken of in mainstream electoral politics, and perhaps the days of us being treated as political hot potatoes are behind us. As the country gears up for general elections, what is it that queer people expect in terms of manifesto commitments?

1. First and foremost, one expects that there will be openly queer candidates fielded by political parties of all hues across the country. Thus far, we have seen a few transgender candidates elected to local bodies and as members of legislative assemblies and councils. A few have been made national spokespersons of regional parties. But there has never been an openly queer candidate who has been elected to Parliament. To have a population that forms, by conservative estimates, 10% of the Indian population (through a juxtaposition of global data) without representation in both Houses of Parliament is a mockery of representative democracy that the Constitution envisages.
2. At the heart of the constitutional project that we undertook in 1951 is the principle of substantive equality. An anti-discrimination law for queer persons is still a distant dream. Of course, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 does prohibit some discrimination, but the Act is limited in its scope, and even more limited in its enforcement. The new law must go beyond this, and have a wide application dealing, inter alia, with homophobic abuse, bullying, cyberbullying, as well as discrimination in employment and education institutions.
3. Through the judicial activism of Justice Anand Venkatesh, conversion therapy was declared professional misconduct, but this applies only to medical professionals, leaving out Ayush practitioners, religious leaders, and quacks who seek to cure queerness. There is almost a unanimous scientific consensus that queerness cannot be cured and does not need to be cured. Simultaneously, affordable, accessible, and affirmative healthcare remains elusive for most queer people. Such healthcare should include mental health, gender affirmative care, and primary, secondary, and tertiary care as required. The community is at a greater risk for mental and physical health problems, and it is time that the right to health is truly realised.
4. After the Supreme Court judgment in Supriya Chakraborty v. Union of India, the ball to deliver marriage equality is now in the court of Parliament. A law that seeks to ensure marriage equality, either under the Special Marriage Act, or under a new statute must be brought in by the 18th Lok Sabha. Justice Chandrachud’s judgment did have a massive list of the things which need to be done, including appropriate funding for shelter homes, police and government sensitisation, protection from natal violence, and other provisions for queer people that gives them rights over and with their loved ones.
5. The Transgender Person (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 must be repealed and replaced with a new statute drafted with consultations from the community. It should take their lived experiences and diversity into account, and ensure that there are no different punishments for crimes against cis and trans women, and that self-determination should be enough proof of trans-ness instead of the current medical model.
6. To annihilate caste, and ensure that queer people are represented in education, and in public offices of the state, it falls to political parties and Parliament to deliver horizontal reservations for transgender persons. While free bus travel has been announced by multiple states, the metaphorical bus that queer people want to board will take us to unchartered territories, of freedom, liberty, and equality in its true meanings along with upward social, economic, and political mobility.

Of course, electoral politics alone cannot ensure queer liberation nor is this piece an exhaustive charter. But, it is a start.

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