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In the open, finally

CHANGING TIMES Sunil Gupta at the Gay Pride in New Delhi

It wasn’t easy”, 50-year-old Sunil Gupta, Indian-born British travel photographer minces no words. He is among a handful of HIV positive persons who have “dared to come out of the closet” to make people understand “that being gay is not just about sexuality”.

His coming out has much to do with his debut album of family pictures “Wish You Were Here – Memories of a Gay Life” published by Yoda Press and launched by the newly-opened Vadehra Book Store at Defence Colony in New Delhi recently.

This year in June, Gupta was a part of the Gay-Lesbian Pride March that took place in Delhi. He was at the forefront. Even as people looked on amusingly, the participants shouted, “Long live queer movement”, waved rainbow colour flags and wore colourful masks. And a point was registered in public memory.

“Unnatural sex” is an offence under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and attracts punishment up to life imprisonment.

There has been a silent movement afoot within the community to get the Section repealed, to enable people to have consensual relations. With the society and polity speaking in different voices, the matter is pending before the Delhi High Court. Unhappy with the government’s “unscientific” remarks that gay sex is injurious to health and it spreads AIDS, the High Court said there is no evidence to believe it is injurious to health. Says Gupta, “I expect the judges to separate religion, politics and age with gays. Why does the Indian law take it as a ‘criminal act’?”

An upset Gupta has poured his heart out in the book. It has personal pictures taken by Gupta and serves as a nice little nostalgic journey. They are of his own family members – mother Penny, father Ram, two sisters and gay friends whom he lost because of AIDS and otherwise.

Sunil selected these pictures from around 2000 photos he took from the time he began photography several years ago. He founded The Association of Black Photographers in London in 1971 which has done several solo and group shows across the world. The first such book launch in Delhi, as Gupta puts it, is the “indication of the emergence of personal photography on the art scene”.

Those looking for some ‘spice’ in the book would be disappointed for it is an account of a personal journey in which sexuality is just a small part.

Rues Gupta, “Unfortunately, law discusses gays only in terms of sodomy and so does the society. It de-humanises them and makes them criminal. They fail to understand that gay people are also family people. They have their relations, siblings, cousins, friends and colleagues and these relations are much more important than sex. The only thing law and society concentrate on is their sexuality.”

Hailing from Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh before he moved to the U.K., for Gupta too, making his parents understand that he had a different predilection was a daunting task.

“They thought it was a disease and marriage would solve the ‘problem’. I refused to marry as I didn’t want to spoil a girl’s life and traumatise her family. It took my mom ages to understand me because she had the habit of living the way the society did. So, finally, we agreed to disagree,” laughs Gupta adding that the younger generation would have things better.

“Now the change is quicker because of changing economics, IT and communication networks. Younger generations would lead a better life than we did,” he hopes. At the same time, Gupta feels wary of the way media highlights serious issues of sexuality.

For instance, if a group of people gather to support homosexual relations, it is often given a lead story in national dailies for reasons other than concern.

“Media now sells sex and earns money. It is now a fad to write on gays and lesbians. It is not out of concern but for attracting cheap sales. I hope it ends when such relations are legalised in India,” concludes Gupta.

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