Today, several local residents of Jammu region organised a pride march in support of the local LGBT community, from Gandhi Nagar to Bahu Plaza in Jammu.
The LGBT Pride march was held for the first time in the history of Jammu where the local participants were seen celebrating the pride month while waving rainbow flags, masks and shouting love is love.
Arnavi Sharma said, “I am the first ever trans student of Jammu and I am the one who came forward because of which this LGBT pride march is happening today in the region. We the LGBTQIA+ community of Jammu want equity in every sphere and we want to strive like every other community”.
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“Love is Love and we the people of Jammu need to educate ourselves about the rights of LGBT community. The pride month is observed every where in India but it is not celebrated in here so today we took an initative to celebrate the pride month here in Jammu”, one of the participants said.
Another participant said, “ The world is breaking all the stereotypes today regarding the LGBT community and recently India has de-criminalised section 377, today all of us took to the streets to give the message that the people of Jammu should free themselves from the orthodox traditions. I have never seen any trans student in my class when I was studying in educational institutions in Jammu but today the situation is changing”.
Adding further he said, “ For the first time a Trans person like Arnavi is studying in one of the higher education institutions of Jammu. In many universities of India, there are so many LGBT students who are studying and in Jammu we demand the similar milieu and rights for our local LGBT community. We will always be their ally but the Jammu LGBT+ community must lead all the fronts themselves”.
Aman Zutshi
