The World of Queer Literature Post-377
The Indian queer community still remains a hushed conversation piece. While change is not omni-pervasive immediately, representation of queer society as people rather than subordinates of sexual desire and behavioural stereotypes in literature is an ever-growing issue. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community have grown up reading, learning, and absorbing the lives of heterosexual relationships – platonic, romantic, and erotic – and are resultingly left with the burden of translating the life experiences of cis-het culture to our own. I call it ‘translation’ because we queer individuals consciously translate pronouns in text and characterizations in prose, a process that is disheartening for many. Despite what the mainstream media’s idea of inclusion is, queer identity extends far beyond homosexuals and transpersons to asexuals, aromantics, and genderqueer people too. By failing to represent queer people on screen and in text, it forces them into labels that they may not be...