--- In gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com, "Aadi 2106" <aaditya2106@...> wrote: > > With due respect to different party organisers especially the GB party > organisers who have been putting in efforts, I wonder if the gay parties in > Mumbai are safe at all any more. Every other party gets stopped mid-way. > (like the one yesterday had the cops on the dance floor - and no, they > weren't dancing). > > > As a side-note, I remember seeing Dee talking to the cops perhaps calming > them down (or whatever). The cops pointed to two people on the dance floor - > who, completely oblivious to the cops less than 5 feet away from them, were > indulging in some really intimate (and vulgar, though the term is relative) > making-out. Dee looked like he was caught in a tight spot. When the cops > entered the dance floor, a person had to pull the fused dancers apart. > > So while the parties are being stopped mid-way on multiple occasions, I think > the party-goers should also carry themselves in a more dignified manner so as > to help the party organisers handle issues like the one yesterday. > > Regards, > Aadi > Vodafone BlackBerry® ke saujanya se! > --- In gaybom...@yahoogroups.com, "Aadi 2106" <aaditya2106@...> wrote: > > With due respect to different party organisers especially the GB party > organisers who have been putting in efforts, I wonder if the gay parties in > Mumbai are safe at all any more. Every other party gets stopped mid-way. > (like the one yesterday had the cops on the dance floor - and no, they > weren't dancing). > > > As a side-note, I remember seeing Dee talking to the cops perhaps calming > them down (or whatever). The cops pointed to two people on the dance floor - > who, completely oblivious to the cops less than 5 feet away from them, were > indulging in some really intimate (and vulgar, though the term is relative) > making-out. Dee looked like he was caught in a tight spot. When the cops > entered the dance floor, a person had to pull the fused dancers apart. > > So while the parties are being stopped mid-way on multiple occasions, I think > the party-goers should also carry themselves in a more dignified manner so as > to help the party organisers handle issues like the one yesterday. > > Regards, > Aadi > Vodafone BlackBerry® ke saujanya se!
Aadi, what's happening with the parties is infuriating, but I don't think the situation is that bad. For one thing, there are a lot more parties and party organisers, and most of these parties are going off OK. Even at the best of times there have been police issues at parties and I think that given the larger number that are taking place, the proportion of parties with problems is still largely the same. Also, while I don't imagine people at the party will appreciate this, but there are some (very) small signs of the police getting a bit more tolerant. This time when they came in they told Dee that they heard there was a gay party going on and lots of illegal things were happening. Dee told them upfront that this was a gay party and there was nothing illegal about that, and if they suspected anything else they were free to check. Dee tells me that this did have an effect and the police immediately stopped talking about stopping the party because it was a gay party, and didn't bring up the gay subject at all. But they said they had got a call saying illegal things were happening at the party so they had to check. And they proceeded to do that, and couldn't find anything because we had all the licences - but the bummer was that the time they took to do this pretty much meant that the time for having a party got over, and we had to shut anyway. But of course I am not going to pretend that there are no problems. It really really sucks that people seem to be making these calls to the police and that there seems to be no way to identify who they are and on what basis they are making their claims. Of course, the aim is for the parties to stop, which is why the only thing we can do is to keep having the parties, and keep them as safe as we always do, and hopefully the police will see that. One thing we were really happy to note is how as soon as there was news about the police action we got support from some other party organisers and activists who came to the venue to see if they could help. The best way to show that party organisers aren't going to give in to the threats and agendas of our faceless opponents is to help each other and work together, and this was a practical example of that. Many thanks to Vicky, Pallav, Sibi and Praful for being there. And just as party organisers can help each other, party goers can help too. For one, you can keep coming to parties, despite knowing that there might be problems. Yes, its going to be annoying but, as I said, it doesn't happen everytime, and also, well, this is reality, OK? I know a lot of guys seem to assume that once the 377 verdict came in suddenly Mumbai because San Francisco or Bangkok, but please, its not like that for straight people, and its not going to be like that for us. The reality is that we are living in a country where the simple issues of enjoying ourselves in ways that don't affect other people somehow seem to still become issues to be debated by these other people. When you have to buy a permit to drink beer, when parties have to end at 1 despite the fact that the geography of the city means you can really only get to them by 11, when a film like Dirty Picture that has been acclaimed and has already been cut by the censors for TV still isn't allowed to be screened, and when Parliament may soon RAISE the age of consent from 16 to 18, you can see why a matter of going to a party can be rather fraught. Sorry, that became a minor rant, but you get what I mean. Dealing with problems at parties is something that is going to be with us for a while, and the only way to handle it is to stand our ground and behave sensibly (I get what you're saying about that couple going at it - at one level its admirable they weren't bothered by the cops, but at another its also a bit dumb and puts everyone else at a risk) and keep going on. Which we will, and we know the partygoers in Mumbai will too, Vikram >
