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Washington: Indian-American LGBTQ members on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to support equal rights for the LGBTQ community in India. Prime Minister Modi will pay his first state visit to the US this month at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. During their four-day visit that begins on June 21, the US President and the First Lady will host a state dinner for Modi on June 22.
“I would say that the Indian Supreme Court has been debating the issue of same-sex marriage, LGBTQ marriage for a few months now. I would urge Prime Minister Modi to support this to understand and support equal rights for the LGBTQ community in India.” Aruna Rao, executive director of Desi Rainbow, told PTI that our children and LGBTQ people deserve equal rights because we are all human beings.
Rao was among a handful of Indian Americans who were invited to participate in the historic Pride rally on the South Lawn of the White House, which was addressed by President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. “My understanding is in metro areas, there is some support for LGBTQ people. Legislatively as well, the government has made strides in terms of transgender rights. But a lot more needs to be done, especially not in metro areas, but in smaller areas and towns. In villages where there is no support of the people, there is no access to any kind of equal rights,” she said.
“In every way, economically, socially, culturally, LGBTQ people in India need a lot more support than they do in South Asia,” Rao said. Another Indian-American participant in the White House Pride rally, Leslie Kingston expressed hope that President Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have a good meeting later this month.
“I hope that their bilateral relations between the two countries will be stronger. But I hope that Prime Minister Modi will actually spend some time in South Asian, looking at the Indian community here and how we are trying to make progress And to be able to implement the same kind of things and give rights to LGBTQ people in India: all the rights that we have here and more. Because they deserve it,” Kingston said.
“It is 2023, and all of us, including Americans, need to move past this and realize that we share the same blood. We are made of the same stuff. We are all human beings and we all deserve equality. So I think the biggest challenge for us is to recognize that we are a colonized people and we have colonized minds, and we need to move beyond that,” Kingston said.
