Queer

Oscars 2022: West Side Story's Ariana DeBose becomes first openly queer person of colour to win Best Supporting Actress

“To anybody who has ever questioned your identity, I promise you there is a place for us," Ariana DeBose said in her Oscars 2022 acceptance speech.

Oscars 2022: What makes Flee, Danish International Feature, a watershed in LGBTQ+ representation

Flee does not make a song and dance about self-disclosure and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen leans into it quietly, and with dignity.

Reading the courtesan as a queer figure: Suffering at the heart of spectacle in films from Pakeezah to Gangubai Kathiawadi

The fact that Gangubai Kathiawadi begins with Begum Akhtar’s voice crooning 'Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat' places this film as an offering to the silsila of courtesan culture and its queer association.

The curious contradiction of male muscularity in queer movies, from Dostana to Badhaai Do

Shardul's obsession with his muscularity in Badhaai Do makes him possess the markers of heterosexuality and strength, but also contradicts that by giving him a sensitive personality, one without agency, one whose muscle is mere armoury.

Reading Bappi Lahiri as a queer icon: From all the gold jewellery to the defiant lyrics of his hits

It takes courage to be Bappi Lahiri, the odd one out in showbiz, among the immaculately attired who dare not repeat clothes and accessories.

How Badhaai Do presents an alternative to institutionalized homophobia with Rajkummar Rao's gay cop

Badhaai Do captures the nuances of the emotional terrain that a gay cop would have to navigate in real life

Valentine's Day 2022: Read these six Indian books on queer fiction, from The Other Man to Ritu Weds Chandni

These queer books will compel you to reexamine your definition of love. They will pull the rug from under your feet. They will hold up a mirror and wink at you.

Pandit Birju Maharaj's ability to express 'feminine' threw light on the queer possibilities of Kathak

In a world where we use markers to assert gender — the length of hair on the head, facial hair on the face, the existence of breasts, make-up — how do we interpret gender when the same body is producing both the masculine and the feminine?

'An attempt to strangulate an artiste's voice': Onir opens up on Defence Ministry's objection to his true-life story of a gay Major

"You’re humiliating the queer community by saying that the queer community is not ‘fit enough’ to serve the nation because you’re being judged not by your skillset, but by something that is nobody’s business, which is your sexuality," says Onir.

2021 Queer Roundup: Unassuming gayness of ACP Khan in Aarya over laboured representation in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

My hope for queer storytelling as we step into a new year is to be more irreverent, to see more easy queerness, more desire, and more queer authorship as opposed to only queer characters.