Queer & Political

Pallav Patankar & Shwetambera Parasher

2014
An Analysis of the Indian Queer Voters Political Affiliation for Indian General Election 2014.

Queer & Political Executive Summary: This report analyses the political affiliations of the Queer Community(Lesbian , Gay , Bisexual , Transgender, Intersex) in India. The Supreme Court recriminalized same sex relations on December 11 2013 by not upholding the Delhi High Court verdict of 2nd July 2009 thereby placing the onus of this decision on the Indian Parliament. The queer movement in India has been by and large apolitical. However the Supreme court decision has resulted to a political turn to the movement. The Queer movement will henceforth have to engage the political class and advocate the need for upholding the rights of the queer citizens of India. To begin this process the first step is to understand the mindset of the queer voter. This report is a preliminary effort to understand the political affiliations and the underlying reasons of the Queer Citizens of India in a multi-party democracy. The methodology followed has been dual by way of a consultation and an internet based survey. The consultation with the queer community members yielded enough qualitative data and generated debate and discussion on the political affiliations of various queer community members in Mumbai. The internet survey on the other hand yielded quantitative data of the queer community members as well as their supporters across India. This survey was far reaching and also collected qualitative data on queer issues that need to be included on party manifestos. The Congress, AAP and the BJP were the main political parties that were discussed. The Congress showed the greatest amount of support from the Queer community followed closely by the AAP. BJP despite having taken an anti -Queer stand still has some degree of support from within the queer community. A differential analysis of the confidence levels of the BJP, AAP and Congress supporters indicates that the queer voters and their supporters are a heterogeneous group and have different political viewpoints. Queer voters and their supporters have indicated that they expect political parties to have queer rights on their party manifesto. The highest ranking demand is the decriminalization of homosexuality, followed by passing an anti-discrimination law and then marriage equality for same sex partners. While queer voters and their supporters are not very crisp in their political ideologies, the process of politicization of the queer movement has begun. It would be thus advisable for political parties to take cognizance of such reports and hear out the voice of the queer community and their supporters, as they reflect a voter base that opines differently from popular moralistic ideologies. It would be highly necessary to devise poll strategies that incorporate the needs of sexual minorities and end discrimination of any kind. A political analysis within the queer community has never been done before. While this report is an honest and straightforward attempt to quantify political affiliation of queer individuals in India it should be noted that the qualitative portions are representative only of Mumbai. The internet survey is pan India, but responded to by a certain socio economic class that understands English and is internet savvy. Conducting an offline survey with local language options would greatly refine this study.

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Queer & Political Queer and Political The Queer Movement in India is a little over 20 years old but is relatively still a new movement in the political landscape of the Indian Sub continent. The pre and post independent social movements in India have had a far reaching influence in our social ideologies, our value systems and our identity as Indian citizens. Besides the rhetoric of Indian identity, one asks what it means to be gay, queer , lesbian , transgender in the Indian context. How do these diverse social ideologies that pervade our existence further compound with our ideology of being Queer. These ideologies shape our politics, the candidates we vote for and the political parties we support. Is our Queer identity influenced by other contemporary social movements or does it have its own identity? The time to ask this question has arrived. After a long protracted legal fight in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court on section 377, we are back to ground zero. As a sexual minority community we are recriminalized and now face the uncertainty of filing curative petitions in the Supreme Court. The two review petitions submitted in the Supreme Court have already been rejected. The prospect of the Judiciary doing justice to its queer citizens looks bleak. We now face the prospect of our fate being decided by the Parliament, our fate of not only being decriminalized but also having rights that uphold our dignity. But, do we think that our Parliamentarians are ready to discuss issues of sexual orientation in the Parliament and do we think they will do justice to these discussions? The time for political dialogue amongst the queer community has arrived. Can the Queer Movement in India continue to remain apolitical ? Can the Queer movement only take another route to fight for its rights apart from legal protocol? Is the Queer Movement a vote bank that can make a difference to election outcomes? How do we interact with our elected representatives? How do we let them know what we want as Queer Voting Citizens of this country? For this we as queer citizens in India need a political ideology that is strategic, goal oriented and principled in our belief systems. Queer & Political aims to ask all of the above questions. However to drive home the point lets ask a straightforward question

" As a queer citizen of India, whom will you vote for in 2014 and why ?"

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Queer & Political

Method A: Consultation amongst members of the queer community .

Venue: Holy Family Hospital, Morello Hall Date: 18th January 2014 No. Of Participants : 37 queer voters The aim of the consultation was to do a preliminary analysis of the political ideologies that pervade the queer community. Although political dialogues within the queer community happen in an interspersed, periodic manner, there is little or poor documentation of these dialogues. The consultation encouraged participants to take non ambiguous political stands with clear reasoning and logic. This set the tone of the consultation. This discussion that followed provided opinions about the political parties contesting the General Elections in 2014. The Consultation followed a specific format and was divided into three sessions

Session 1: Writing on the Graffitti Wall:

The participants were invited to express their opinions on flipcharts put across the hall. The manifestos of major political parties were available for reference. The opinions that emerged from the exercise were varied ranging from strong opinions towards supporting specific political parties to a generalized opinion on supporting any party that supports the Queer cause. Following were the comments written by the participants: Prostitutes have been illegal, yet they have been forever. What is the big deal? None of the political parties will support LGBT. It will not be given, you have to take it. No to BJP/RSS/Any homophobic party Is India ready to accept LGBT rights? Regressive and bigoted parties will not get my vote! Queer rights are not important! National interests should decide whom to vote. My rights are as important as national interests. My rights are as important as I am. Vote? Can I vote for a dictatorship? It is the only hope this country has. Pushing for economic growth without securing civil rights first is like running an economy on the backs of slaves, not free people.

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Queer & Political Session 2: Which Political Party do I belong to and why ! The moderator explained the idea behind the exercise. While the queer community has been inadvertently subjected to the dynamics of current political dynamics in the country and views of political parties on section 377, there has not been enough introspection and discussion around understanding the communitys own political preferences. Hence in order to determine if at all sexuality is an axis in a queer political discourse needed to be explored. The moderator then laid down the ground rules of the event which were primarily that it was a closed space and people from outside this community were not allowed. This was to allow people to freely voice their opinions. Differences in opinion were to be respected and no personal attacks were to be made, clicking pictures was not allowed and it was ensured that the minute takers would not include any names. Thereafter, the moderators requested the participants to form groups based on their political affiliations. Every individual was asked to choose a political party and hence a political stance Each group was to discuss and subsequently present a justification for their respective stance. The following groups were formed: BJP 6 voters Congress 8 voters AAP 6 voters Others 17 voters

Baseline -Pre Consultation

BJP Congress AAP Others

16%

46% 22%

16%

Although Congress, BJP and AAP have made their stance clear on the issue of section 377, it was noticed that queer voters were divided in their affiliations to political parties. The Others category represented voters who were either not sure of their affiliation or supported local state parties.

The discussion points presented by the respective groups for their affiliations were as follows. Each group was allowed 7 minutes to present their point of view

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Queer & Political BJP (6 voters) All the BJP ruled states have the best governance, infrastructure, and least corruption. They have shown numbers, however the numbers are not projected enough due to a biased media. The face of BJP, Narendra Modi, instills confidence as compared to his competitors. BJP offers concrete tangible ideas as compared to the other players - Power projects, JnNURM, better foreign policy. However, it should not get absolute majority considering the fundamentalist angle. There is a need for allies who can support queer cause. Ridiculous comments have come from senior political party members. But, there would not be rolling back to darker times. Though Congress has supported openly and AAP has supported feebly, doing something about the cause is a different issue altogether. These parties are not strong enough to bring in real change. There was hope expressed that the future stance of BJP will be in favour of the Queer community. Congress (8 voters) BJPs Prime Ministerial candidate demonstrated a lack of spine by not clearly expressing his opinion on SC verdict. Congress has at least came out in support openly for minority rights and human rights. Given the two options available, Congress at least pushes for plurality rather than majority. It has historically been a progressive party with capable leaders like Manmohan Singh who as an economist was behind the countrys liberalization policies in early 1990s. Though, the group was explicitly against dynasty politics they maintained that Rahul Gandhi too is showing hope when it comes to progressiveness. Congress has been globally accepted as a liberal party unlike BJP. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, governed by Congress are examples where transgender rights have been greatly advocated. Finally, there are experienced leaders in the party and are aware of the procedural aspects of democracy while not simply relying on activism. AAP (6 voters) It was the first party to take a stance and make a public statement against 377 ruling. Also, they openly stated that they will give chance to LGBT candidates. We do not want Narendra Modi as our PM. Certain things to be considered before voting: We do not have an economic ideology based party. There is a trend seen in parties which do not support human rights. Those who do not support some human rights, probably support none. We expect that at least AAP will be able to become pressure points in the government if not singlehandedly form the government. We would like a possibility of splitting BJP for a 2/3rd majority to overturn SC verdict, irrespective of who is the PM candidate.

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Queer & Political Others (17 Voters) BJP is clearly against any kind of minorities and there has been no decisive stand taken by NaMo. Congress came out openly in our support. But, this is probably just a strategy to entice the support. BJD was the first party to support the Queer cause. The group came out with number of seats won by regional parties in the last elections and asserted that ignoring regional parties is ignoring the reality of Indian politics and being in the western zone, we tend to underestimate the parties in the eastern belt. Session 3: Debating my stand ! While each group presented their affiliations and announced the reasons for their stand, each party group took down notes to counter some of the above statements. An effort was made to bring an issue to closure and take the discussion to its logical end. In case of long discussions the moderator brought the discussion to a close. 1) Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh are the poorest states with high incidences of human rights violations. The case of Gujarat is not very different when it comes to minority rights and social indicators. BJP has just played inflammatory politics and roads and number of cars do not signify development. Voter 1: Congress has seen maximum riots in its tenure and has even supported rioters (instances of riots were mentioned). Moderator requested the participants to build an analysis on impact on us as a queer citizen Voter 2: BJP has perpetually supported riots (instances mentioned) Voter 3: Riots in any form cannot be justified. So, let us shun the premise of who killed lesser number of people. If one party has supported riots does not justify another party to commit the same. As a gay man I do not feel safe with BJP. (example of film Indradhanush. The film was not given tax exemption which is applicable to every censor board approved film screened in Gujarat). Tomorrow we might not even be able to do pride walk if BJP comes to power. 2) Gujarat is the only feather in the cap of BJP which it showcases. It does not offer much beyond the majority and minority politics. We need to side with the lesser evil and Cong probably fits the bill 3) BJPs ideology is based on othering the communities. It has targeted minorities of every kind. 4)There has been increased inflation in the reign of Congress which makes life difficult for people living in the lower economic strata. Do we need our rights at the cost of the poorest people in the country? 5) Bureaucracy, corruption and vote bank politics is rampant in Gujarat. Greed associated with the leadership of Modi is very scary and not good for poorest of the population

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Queer & Political 6) Gujarat does not fare well on social parameters Voter 6: In response to the point on hikes in petrol prices, a participant mentioned that BJP was the first to de-regularize the price of petrol. 8) The question of rights is not about my rights vs your rights. 9) There was a point made about Mayor of Ahmedabad flagging off the Gujarat pride. However, the moderator clarified that it might have been confused with World AIDS day events. 10) Most of the parties in the aforementioned Eastern block are a part of NDA 11) We do not have time to wait for leaders to come up in favour from BJP. Congress was initially not in favour but over time has changed its mind. We want change fast for further generations 12)BJP is known to gag voices which is dangerous. 13) BJP can be made aware of the historic facts before British criminalizing LGBT. 14) We do not have time for this sensitization. 15) NDA is preferred over BJP 16) Queer rights vs economic development is not the case. BJP and NaMo do not have a sound economic ideology per se (they opposed FDI for example) 17) Third Front is an alternative. 18) It was concluded that if Politics is the art of possible, then we need to check who is on our side. Right now my rights are my priority. Right now congress, AAP are in our favour and political parties change their stance quite often hence we should not discount the fact that we can split BJP. If Cong and AAP are on our side then next step is to lobby and split the others and negotiate with everybody. 19) It will be the beginning of a political discourse and we might not arrive at any consensus on a party but on specific issues.

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Queer & Political Session 4: Anonymous Ballot As a final exercise the moderator then invited the participants to cast their votes anonymously to understand if there was any defection as a result of the debate and group presentations. The results were as follows:

Post Consultation -Ballot

BJP 7 participants Congress 18 participants AAP 8 participants
21% 3% 8% 19%

BJP Congress AAP BSP

BSP 1 participant Undecided 3 participants

49%

Others

Results: It was noticed that post discussion a large part of the undecided queer voter base supported the Congress. The Congress was the biggest gainer, followed by the AAP. BJP showed an increase in its voter base marginally. It was interesting to note that BJP loyalists continued to support the party. The emergence of local parties was seen with one voter feeling that BSP deserved mention. Conclusion: Although the main political parties such as the Congress , AAP and BJP have spelled out their stand on Queer rights by responding to the Supreme Court verdict on Section 377 , the Queer community remains divided on their affiliation to political parties. Although BJP has pointedly been in favour of the Supreme court decision on section 377, there is a segment of the queer community who feel very strongly about the BJPs ability in bringing about an overall change in the governance and economy. This segment feels that the BJP will eventually be soft in it approach to the queer community and repose faith in their decision. This faction also feels that the BJP should not be the only majority partner, it should have coalition partners that are queer friendly and will help in deciding their policy. Thereby faith is reposed in local parties that could ally with the BJP and drive the queer agenda in the coalition. The Congress by far has been the most supportive party for queer rights. The Congress supporters were successful in convincing an undecided queer voter base by establishing precedence of Congress support of minorities and an evolved thinking. While most queer voters felt that issues of corruption , economy and governance were not adequately addressed by the Congress , they felt assured that their rights would not be violated under a Congress regime.

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Queer & Political

The AAP received top honours for being the first party to give their stand on the SC verdict. However there was apprehension that their stand would get diluted in case they have coalition partners OR if they would be successful in implementation of their programs and schemes. While the Queer community is hopeful of AAPs success and watches it with keen interest. The larger issue is whether at th is juncture can the AAP help its queer voter base. Local parties represent a strong voter affiliation and the BSP, CPI(M), DMK, AIADMK are looked upon as strong parties . While the queer community has strong political opinions which are quite diverse, one consensus that emerged was that nobody needs to die for realizing rights of the queer community. The Queer community will need to come up with more social indicators, segment them and argue them out for different political parties We need such discussions every month and at some point, invite politicians and present these findings. *************************************************************************************

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Method: B:

The Queer And Political Internet Survey:

While the consultation provided a reasonable insight through quantitative and qualitative format , it was restricted only to the queer community for participation. The numbers were also restricted since many queer members were concerned about voicing their political opinions in an open forum. This was not surprising considering that the Supreme Court verdict had been passed only a month ago . It was also felt that as far as the queer voter base is concerned , it is not restricted to only the queer community, but to the stakeholders of the queer community viz. parents , siblings , colleagues, friends, workmates, allied supporting industries, health professionals . These stake holders are also greatly disturbed by the recent Supreme Court Verdict of Section 377 and have started voicing their opinion in terms of political parties they will support. Many supporters of the queer movement also see this judgment as something that not only impinges on queer rights but also on the rights of privacy and dignity of their own lives. In light of the above facts , it was also felt necessary to have a wider qualitative and quantitative sampling of not just the queer community but also their supporters. It was decided to have an internet based survey that was to be distributed through all fora of social media (mainly Facebook & Twitter), e-mail groups, as well as gay dating sites. To ensure that people attempt the survey and complete it , the survey was kept short restricted to 5 questions , direct in its questioning and quantitative in its measurement. The survey screened individuals through two filtering questions a)queer or supporters of the queer movement b) if they were voters for the oncoming 2014 general elections. This filter helped segment out the target population and ensure that the data was from our target set. The survey was launched on SurveyMonkey for collection and analysis of survey results. The technology of SurveyMonkey disallowed duplicate filling of forms by the same IP address.

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5 main questions that were asked by the Queer & Political Survey were :

Q1:Are you Queer or a Queer Ally?-Qualifier Question(If Yes then Answer Question 2)
Indicator of whether one belongs to the Queer community or supports the queer cause.

Q2:Will you be voting in the Indian General Elections in 2014!-Qualifier Question (If Yes =Continue , If No=Not Eligible to take survey)
Indicates whether the person is an actual voter for the oncoming General elections. All candidates who answered the above two questions were allowed to complete the remaining survey.

Q3:According to you which party in India is worthy of the Queer vote !

The options given were BJP, AAP and Congress, candidates were allowed to give more options by filling the comments section.

Q4:How confident are you that the party that you vote for will uphold the rights of the Indian Queer Citizens?
This was a general opinion of how queer people view political parties and if they will uphold the agenda of queer rights. A further analysis was made on basis of segments of the queer community based on their political affiliation. An analysis of each of the segment and their confidence in the party of their affiliation was also made.

Q5:What would you like to include for Queer rights on the Party Manifestos for the Elections in 2014!
This was a qualitative question based on what the expectation of the Queer community was on party manifestos. While being on the party manifesto may not mean much , the section gives a view of what the queer community expects from the political parties.

Findings and Analysis:

Explanation: A total of 869 respondents took the survey , however due to the qualification criteria of being self identified as a Queer individual OR a Queer Supporter/ Ally, only 618 individuals were eligible to take the rest of the survey. However only 524 individuals completed the entire survey. Since after the qualifying criteria , questions answered were not mandatory, many individuals have chosen to skip questions. While it would make more academic sense to consider only the fully completed survey responses, it was decided not to lose out on the data owing to an individual's decision to skip a question. The data set hence may vary with each question. For the qualitative part the data has been analyzed and interpreted and measured in the final question.

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Qualifier Questions:

Explanation: A total of 869 individuals attempted to take the survey, of these 94.13 % indicated that they were queer individuals or supporters. Almost 6% indicated they were neither queer nor supporters. This survey link was not random sampling , but a targeted sampling specifically to Queer databases, Facebook Pages and Twitter Feeds. The 6% who indicated that they were not queer supporters need further analysis with a different survey targeted for them. In the current framework they did not qualify to take the survey.

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Explanation : Of the 869 only 818 were eligible to answer the 2nd question. Of the 818 only 797 went on to answer this question. Of the 797 only 618 are to vote in the oncoming general elections. The sample size for eligible candidates to take the survey was thus 618. An analysis of the reason 22.46% of this sample set that will not vote in the oncoming elections needs to be made. An understanding of whether this sample is not voting in this general election due to migration , lack of documentation or because of indifference to the general elections needs to be understood more clearly.

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Findings : The survey showed some level of parity amongst queer voters between Congress & AAP, with the Congress being the preferred party amongst queer individuals and their supporters. BJP is a distant third as a choice within this voter base. It was noted that as the survey progressed AAP and the Congress maintained an equal affiliation, Congress managed shooting above the AAP number in the last two weeks of the survey. In this particular section the survey participant was allowed to indicate any other party they were hopeful about. Many participants who have chosen not to take the above three options have given their preferred parties. Post the above votes the CPI(M) features as the most favored party and figures prominently in the comments section. JDS , Trinamool Congress , RSP have been mentioned once by survey participants. MNS and Shiv Sena been specifically recommended for Maharashtra. A support for local parties is observed apart from the main national parties.

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Findings: The above graph shows how confident queer voters and their supporters are with the political class. Only 12.54% are "Very Confident" and 34.41% are "Confident" that the voice of the queer cause will be taken seriously by the political class. This amounts to a general confidence percentage of 47% amongst queer voters. 35% of the queer voters and their supporters are unsure of the political class and if they will uphold the rights of the queer citizens. Almost 53% of the queer voters and their supporters range from being "Unsure" to being "Not very confident" that the political class will uphold their rights. The above figures indicate a general opinion of the queer and allied supporter voter base. A further differential analysis was done to understand how a specific party supporter feels about the extent to which his/her party will uphold the rights of queer Indian citizens. 16 | P a g e

Queer & Political Differential Analysis of Q 4:

Findings: 67 Queer and Queer Supporters have shown support to the BJP. A large proportion of these voters(~45%) are unsure of how supportive BJP will be to the queer rights agenda. This proportion of unsure queer voters is greatest for the BJP vis vis the Congress or the BJP. A 32.7% of Queer BJP supporters seem "Confident", however the number of individuals showing high confidence in the BJP support to the queer rights agenda is low in percentage terms and is even lower in terms of absolute numbers(7.5%). 22.4% of the BJP voters were not confident of the BJP considering the Queer rights agenda.

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Findings: Of the 200 AAP Supporters , 49.5% of the queer voters and their supporters are confident of the AAP upholding the rights of the queer community. In fact the proportion of "Very Confident" is the highest for the AAP. While the "Confident" numbers are lower than the Congress , the AAP also shows an "Unsure" status lower than BJP but greater than Congress. The total percentage ranging from Unsure to Not very confident is 50.5%. 13% of the AAP supporters were not sure of their commitment to the Queer cause.

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Findings: Of the 220 Congress Supporters , 56.5% of the queer voters and their supporters are confident of them upholding the rights of the Queer Community . While the proportion of "Very Confident" supporters is a notch lesser than AAP, the Congress has the highest proportion of "Confident" voters. The Congress voters also represent the lowest proportion of being "Unsure". In comparative terms of proportion only 10% of the Congress Voters were not confident of the Congress Support to the Queer Cause.

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Q5:What would you like to include for Queer rights on the Party Manifestos for the Elections in 2014!
250 200 150 100 50 0 Reading down Section 377 % Age Nos. 44.8 188 Marriage Equality for LGBT 14.3 60 Anti Adoption Discrimnat Rights for ion Law LGBT for LGBT 28.1 118 2.4 10 Nos.

Gender Neutral Sexual Assault Law 1.7 7

Sex, Gender, Transgend Sexuality er Rights Education in Schools 4.3 18 2.6 11

Anti Ragging Laws for LGBT 0.7 3

Inheritanc e Law for Same sex partners 1.2 5

Findings: The final questions was an open ended qualitative question and queer individuals and queer supporters were free to include any topic that they felt needed to be on the Party Manifestos . The main running themes were captured and a quantitative assessment of what the queer community expects from political parties was made. The main themes that the community wants on party manifestos in order of importance is Reading Down of section 377: Queer individuals do not want to live with a criminal status and decriminalization is an immediate demand. Upholding of the Delhi High Court verdict of 2009 is repeatedly mentioned in the qualitative feedback. Anti Discrimination Law: Queer individuals should be allowed to live a life with an equal citizen status, with dignity , without harassment , with equal opportunities in their education and careers , without discrimination in public spaces or in work places. Marriage Equality For LGBT: Queer individuals would like to have their relationships and their partners acknowledged in the form of a legal recognition through marriage or civil unions. Many would like inheritance laws changed so that they can invest jointly in homes or include their partner's name in their will. The other mentions to be considered for Party Manifestos were Transgender Rights: Documentation clarity, and job opportunities, education. Adoption Rights : Right to adopt as a queer couple or as a single queer individual . Sex, Gender, Sexuality Education: To be included in school curricula. Anti Ragging Laws for LGBT: Ragging laws to include sexual orientation as a basis. Gender Neutral Sexual Assault: Gay men and transgenders to be included under sexual assault laws. Inheritance Law for Same Sex Partners: Ability to transfer assets to same sex partners .

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Queer & Political The Queer Voter -An Analysis Corroborating the real space consultation and the quantitative input from the online survey , we can make the below analyses of the various segments within the Queer Community and its supporters. BJP Voter: While the proportion of BJP supporters within the Queer Community represents only 14% , this voter set has strong reasons for its stand. Although the BJP stand has been anti Queer and anti LGBT community , this voter set yet feels that the BJP in its due time will hear out the issues of the Queer Community and will not be averse to the reading down of section 377. This segment also believes that the BJP has huge potential for the economic development of the country and hence judging the BJP only on their stand on queer rights or their human rights record is incorrect. This voter set believes that they have several other identity affiliations and just being queer will not make them decide whom they vote. A part of this voter set also feels that BJP should not come to absolute power and should be under checks and balances in a coalition government so that the queer agenda is yet heard out and supported. AAP Voter: The AAP has garnered huge support from within the Queer Community and its supporters. This is obvious from their Pro-LGBT stand and that many queer candidates have also joined the political party. While AAP has indicated their pro LGBT stance, there has been little discussion on the issue from the party top brass. Furthermore the party being a new party and with the recent developments in New Delhi , the AAP voters are not clear what to expect from the AAP as far as the queer agenda goes. The AAP voters hence have two distinct sets. One set is totally confident about the AAP upholding the Queer Rights agenda , whereas there is another set that is not at all confident if they will manage keeping the Queer Agenda on their manifesto or their work due to their likelihood of forming a coalition government. The confidence of the AAP voter is hence not as high in comparison to the Congress. Congress Voter: The Congress has garnered the largest support from the queer community and its supporters , however this is only a notch above AAP. The Congress has shown clear indications of its support to the Queer community on many counts. The Delhi High Court verdict of 2009 and the GoI's decision not to contest the decision in the Supreme Court was during the Congress regime. The party top brass and even its local MPs have shown support to the queer community in all its media engagements. After the Supreme Court decision of December 2013, the first review petition in the Supreme Court was filed . The Congress queer voter hence shows the greatest confidence in the party. Unlike the AAP the Congress voter is homogeneous in believing that the party will uphold the queer rights agenda.

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Queer & Political Concluding remarks: The queer community is recovering slowly from the shock of the Supreme Court verdict of 11th December 2013. A community that had long been in hiding had only begun to bloom after the progressive judgment of the Delhi High Court. While the effort to follow up on the legal process is still ongoing, many queer individuals have lost faith in getting justice from the Supreme Court through the Curative Petition. While the community hopes for the best , it also important that the process of engaging the political class begins. In the years to come the Queer community will have to build alliances within the political hierarchies and lobby to have their voice heard and their agenda taken seriously. It would be then important for queer rights activists and politicians alike to understand the queer voter and the queer supporters. Some of the queer activists may also need to enter the realm of politics to make the difference. In the larger scheme of things one must remember that this argument is not just about queer individuals or their supporters , this argument is that of a new India that emerges fighting old social mores , ideologies and espouses to form a state sans discrimination of any form. The Queer struggle is one of these many struggles that fight the inherent discrimination in our social system. We are here , We are Queer and We are now Political! ************************************************************************************* *************************************************************************************

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