<img style="float: left;" src="http://origin.mid-day.com/images/2023/oct/Rahul-op_e.jpg" alt="Rahul Da Cunha" width="200" height="69" /><a href="https://www.mid-day.com/search/Mumbai-articles" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Natasha</a> aka Nats, my Gen Z neighbour had re-dyed her hair&mdash;from a burgundy-maroon hue, she had now coloured it in six distinct streaks&hellip; red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.&nbsp;
I was intrigued.
&ldquo;Are you following a football club, or some fashion icon, or a film star, or a fragrance, or are you supporting some flag, or furious about some issue, or merely doing a female number with your follicles?&rdquo; I asked, my tongue firmly in my cheek.
(Triple eye roll, a &lsquo;pffft&rsquo; and a quick blow of her hair)&nbsp;
&ldquo;I stand with LGBTQ!&rdquo; Nats said defiantly. &ldquo;This is no laughing matter, <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/search/news-articles" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Rahul</a> bruh!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Right, you&rsquo;re sporting the Rainbow colours, I get it,&rdquo; I said, warily.
&ldquo;Bruh&hellip; let&rsquo;s get serious, I wish to know your views on the Supreme Court decision to disallow same sex marriage,&rdquo; Nats asked, watching me like a hawk with owl&rsquo;s eyes.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I abide by what the Supreme Court has declared,&rdquo; I said safely.
&ldquo;Aw come on, you&rsquo;re giving me a politically correct answer!?&rdquo;
&ldquo;It is politically correct, Nats&hellip; the SC is following the law&hellip; merely interpreting it, they can&rsquo;t overturn the Constitution&hellip; they&rsquo;re leaving it to Parliament to take the call,&rdquo; I said, hoping for a termination of the dialogue.
(Eye roll, many &lsquo;hrmmmphs&rsquo;)
<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/mumbai-diary-sunday-dossier-23315718" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Also read: Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier</a>
&ldquo;Dude get off your objective fence and give me your judgement! Your personal view,&rdquo; Nats thundered.
I sighed with a sense of resignation.
&ldquo;What are you really asking me, Nats, honestly?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Are you comfy with two people of the same sex getting married?&rdquo; she said.
I did the smartest thing I could do under the circumstances&mdash;deflect the question.
&ldquo;What&rsquo;s your stance on same sex &lsquo;shaadi&rsquo; Nats. I&rsquo;d love to know your opinion.&rdquo;
And thus flowed Niagara Falls.
&ldquo;Bruh&hellip; it&rsquo;s so &lsquo;obvio&rsquo;&hellip; why should there be any discrimination&mdash;finally, it&rsquo;s two people in love. They wanna make a commitment. If they can live together, they can adopt kids, they can holiday, they can party, why not marry? If heterosexuals can marry, why not homosexuals or lesbians?&rdquo;
(Eyes rolls, fists clench, room pacing. Some steam out of ears)
Joan of Arc/Rani of Jhansi was now firmly on her white steed, idealistic and incensed.
&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re frankly a few light years away from this conversation, this dialogue, this acceptance,&rdquo; I found myself saying suddenly.
&ldquo;Whaaaaaat?&rdquo; she said, surprised.
&ldquo;Nats, I feel you, I feel for you&hellip; I feel all your emotions, but I&rsquo;m pretty certain, that Parliament isn&rsquo;t going to pass the bill on same sex marriage&hellip; not now, not ever.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Whyyyyy, bruh&hellip; how can you say that with 100 per cent certainty!&rdquo;
&ldquo;It goes beyond politics, Nats. Deep down, it&rsquo;s personal. It&rsquo;s not about an archaic law, or AI or algorithms&hellip; It&rsquo;s about an age-old bias&hellip; a prejudice that abides by the belief that homosexuality is unnatural&hellip; that nurture and nature conspire to create it.
I do believe that homophobia is rampant, in lesser and greater degrees, up front, back of the mind, it exists&mdash;it&rsquo;s not politically correct to outright &lsquo;diss&rsquo; homosexuality, but tongues wag, at the thought of a person not being heterosexual&mdash;No homosexual I know can proudly wear his &ldquo;orientation&rdquo; on his badge.
There may be some acknowledgement , but not approval&hellip; so if most, certainly in our country, haven&rsquo;t fully embraced the concept, how can they accept matrimony?&rdquo;&nbsp;
Nats was now besides herself with righteous indignation.
&ldquo;Dude come on, I have loads of friends who are gay, queer/questioning, intersexual, transexual, bisexual, &nbsp;pansexual, asexual, non-binary&hellip; man&hellip; These are young people, all non-heterosexual, all non-conventional!&nbsp;
How can you just ignore everyone? Do they all stay single just coz they don&rsquo;t abide by our biological realities? Dude, 10 per cent of our population falls into LGBTQ&hellip; capeesh?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Nats, I have a simple question for you&hellip; beyond the &lsquo;he&rsquo; &lsquo;she&rsquo; &lsquo;they&rsquo; them&rsquo; &nbsp;discussion, and whether you staunchly believe in gender pronouns and live in a non-binary world&hellip; if you walked through your parents door in Hoshiarpur, hand-in-hand with a female fianc&eacute;e, &nbsp;you&rsquo;re telling me your parents would immediately start printing wedding cards and organising a horse for the baaraat&hellip; they&rsquo;d start rejoicing to the neighbours&hellip;
&lsquo;Our daughter Natasha is marrying her long time sweetheart, Niharika?&rsquo; You see that as a reality?&rdquo;
A look of doubt crossed Nats&rsquo; face, before two eye rolls took over and Rani of Jhansi was gone.
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com

“I stand with LGBTQ!” Nats said defiantly. “This is no laughing matter, Rahul bruh!”

Nats and LGBTQ+

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