Is your MP hot pink or baby pink?

Smriti Deora and Anish Gawande Pic/ Ashish Kamble

Anish Gawande was always interested in politics. He lives and breathes it but, "As a gay man, I always thought that I would never be able to meaningfully participate in the Indian political landscape, given that queer rights don't seem to be a priority for most elected representatives in our country." Gawande, 23, is currently a Rhodes Scholar pursuing a degree in intellectual history from Oxford University. Things took a turn for the better when an exciting opportunity knocked on his door before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It allowed him to work for Mumbai-based Congress leader Milind Deora and by extension, the Indian National Congress' (INC) election campaign in the state of Maharashtra.

Supriya Sule. Pic/ Ashish Raje

Not only did he find his experience as a political consultant enriching, it also led to a chance meeting with a senior from school, Smriti Deora. Deora, 25, is a brand strategist and graphic designer. Gawande connected with her, a straight ally committed to the cause of queer rights, while the both of them were campaigning. Their tête-à-tête led to the birth of Pink List India. It was founded by them and journalist Devina Buckshee. It was conceptualised as a project at the intersection of queerness, politics, and technology. They came together to create a series of Instagram posts featuring candidates who supported LGBTQIA+ rights. Their intention was to allow queer people and other potential voters to make a more informed choice about who they were going to back in the Lok Sabha elections.

The interactive map of the State of the QUnion. Pics/@pinklistindia, Instagram

"We didn't intend to endorse any particular candidate because even if they are pro-queer, they might have problematic stances on other fronts. We wanted Pink List India to act as a dynamic and intersectional database instead," said Deora. Their latest initiative, State of the Queer Union (or State of the QUnion), addresses this snag. It is a political archive which was launched on May 23. It has relevant statements from 151 Members of Parliament (MPs), out of the total 543 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Not only does it contain positive statements issued by MPs, it has documented the homophobic ones as well. "It's a great resource for queer people. It will also benefit academics, activists, concerned citizens, even journalists, who can use it to better inform themselves and hold their MPs accountable," adds Gawande.

Jwalika Balaji

Creating such a behemoth archive meant spending countless hours on research. The duo knew they would need to rely on helping hands from the LGBTQIA+ community to pull this off. From two, they became a dedicated team of 10. They roped in eight volunteers and 80 per cent of their team is from the queer community. Interestingly, the team members have never met each other in person and work remotely from across India. "Each volunteer was assigned a certain number of states or MPs. We combed through newspaper articles, Facebook posts, and other sources to create an exhaustive list of where they stand with respect to queer rights and issues," explains Jwalika Balaji, a volunteer and student from the National Law School of India University
in Bengaluru.

Vaarun Sardesai

State of the QUnion is an interactive map that generates a report card of your MP. Areas of the map highlighted in hot pink indicate that the MP has spoken up about LGBTQIA+ issues, and those fading into the background in baby pink indicate that the MP has been silent. You can find your MP by entering your address in the search bar. The report card gives you insight about the leanings of a particular representative or political party. "Some estimates say that LGBTQIA+ folk make up about seven per cent of the Indian population. That's not a miniscule minority. Hence, policy makers should take the concerns of the queer community into account when formulating laws and policies," asserts Vaarun Sardesai, another volunteer and a city-based public policy researcher.

Mridul Pic /Pradeep Dhivar

State of the QUnion is a collaborative platform. Users can share any new information or statements by MPs with the curators before they are added to the database. Mridul, a freelance technology professional and member of LABIA, a queer feminist collective based in Mumbai, opines that he liked the interface of the platform, which was easy on the eye and simple to use. He was impressed by the fact that anonymity is respected as one doesn't have to provide any personal information to use it. "It has the potential to act as the bridge between queer citizens and elected representatives. Often, we end up in echo chambers and our concerns don't get relayed to relevant policy-makers. State of the QUnion gives us a more direct route to reach them."

Supriya Sule's tweet about her State of the Qunion report card. Pic/supriya_sule, Twitter

Supriya Sule, the MP from Baramati, tweeted her State of the QUnion report card on May 24 saying she was happy to be featured in Pink List India's initiative. "Being an advocate for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, I believe that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. We must work together to eliminate prejudice and discrimination," Sule tells mid-day. The writer doesn't think they could have put it any better than the Nationalist Congress Party leader did. That's one MP down, many more to go.

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