India’s Girl Husbands
The Indian media’s odd, uneasy and thoroughly confused perception of lesbians. Folks youtube this stuff and other folks blog about it.
Although one thing. One of the commentators in Kafila’s post point out that despite the reporter’s problematic labeling, his overall point is worthwhile. I actually agree to some extent. On the one hand, I can understand Sonali Gulati’s irritation at the inanity of this conversation. On the other hand, is it that absurd to have a reporter ask a gay activist/film-maker a perfectly good question about queer issues?
You be the judge or whatever.
Indian media is made of people. People are stupid. It will take time for stupid people to go through several generations to begin to start developing the brain cells to begin to grasp a concept that is not black and white.
How is the custody of a child a queer issue? It’s a custody issue. And a random queer (I don’t know if that’s a nice word to use, but let’s forget that) or a random heterosexual has no real expertise to comment on it. I think that’s the point Sonali is driving at. For instance, would they be asking a gay activist for comment if the gay ‘husband’ had killed the gay ‘wife’? Wouldn’t it be a homicide, and not a homo-cide (I know that’s a pathetic humor, but that really seems apt to describe the situation)?
I disagree. With that criteria, no issues are really “gay issues”. Which is true, actually. Gay issues are human issues. Anything you can think of (housing, employment, and yes, even children’s custodies) has universal implications. But it has special implications when discussing it for queer people.
My point is the reporter’s question was not so off-the-field at all. It would be one thing if he had asked about a heterosexual couple’s custody rights and asked about the “gay angle”. He didn’t. He asked about a lesbian couple who were going through child custody struggles to a prominent lesbian queer activist. He might not have been so politically correct, but he had a legitimate question (which deserved an answer.)
gay issues are issues that deal with discrimination faced by a couple ‘because’ of the social prevalent morality/legality. here it is NOT social constructs that are creating problems, but rather individuals who have made certain choices. and those choices have no real bearing on the circumstance (it could and does happen in heterosexual marriages/relationships too). ergo, it’s NOT a gay issue.
if a gay person has pneumonia and dies, it’s not gay doctors (much less gay activists) who’re asked to comment. which is pretty much a sane thing. there is no real difference here either.
cheers,
asuph