Queer The People

By Juhi Gautam

They say “don’t talk about it”, “act straight”

and remember to wear clothes that are ‘appropriate’. The HETEROS need not know that you are ‘different’. Wait what? Doesn’t the word ‘hetero’ actually mean different?

We take pride in the fact that our country is now free, but what is the point if a he can’t marry a he?

I always thought that love was blind,

then why is choosing our sexuality not fine?

They get down the brass tacks

going about the social evils.

The list is endless, unless

HETERONORMATIVITY finds a place in it.

Don’t call yourself unorthodox

if you call your friend gay for wearing

a pink pyjama-set.

And using words like ‘lesbo’ and ‘faggot’

won’t make you a babe-magnet.

In this world filled with impostors,

we see people who use she/her in their

Instagram bios and

#PRIDE just to look cool and avant-garde,

but turn a blind eye towards homophobic violence and go like “Bro! that push was nice and hard”.

It’s time we teach our kids AND

our teachers,

because being a subject of interest in the school staffroom is the least they would want.

Not ‘they’, but ‘we’, coz we’re the same community of people who aim to erase the dichotomy.

And TRULY celebrate love in ‘all’ forms.

By Juhi Gautam