Thoughts — Sexuality

How to find the right way to respond? We have all used this GIF at least once in our chats, whether it is to express shock, despair, or just plain melodrama. It carries a comic element that makes Kirron Kher’s character very endearing. But in reality, if someone were to react to their child coming out as gay like this, it wouldn’t be funny. At all. The Coming Out Business When someone does not identify as straight (heterosexual) or does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth (cis-gendered), they are faced with the difficult choice of whether or not they would...

“If you also put in a little effort, you’d look beautiful too!”, was a common platitude I was used to receiving from well-wishers throughout my adolescent years. They would say this looking at my comfortably loose clothes, hair cut short and tied back in the most unassuming manner, and face devoid of any grooming or accessories. What they meant by effort was to rid my body of “any hair below my eyebrows”, style my hair in a presentable fashion, exercising my body into a “fit” shape, and wearing flattering clothes and accessories. Every time my mother contorts her face in...

“When did you know that you’re straight?”“It took me a lecture on gender and sexuality in the second year of my bachelor’s course to realise that I might not be straight. While I was extremely fortunate to have a professor who was aware and queer affirmative, not everyone has the privilege of being guided to rediscover what one’s sexual orientation may be.”Very often queer identified individuals get questioned on “how do we know we are queer?” but no one questions a straight person on “how do they know they are straight? or when did they know they were straight?”Our sexual...