Most of us know from a very young age we are Queer. It’s like this: we look around and we see Heteronormativity everywhere. Which is like everything and everyone screaming to us ” 2+ 2 =5″. And we’re thinking “errr…no, 2 + 2 =4…but your 4 is different from my 4″. But this happens long enough , the screaming that is and eventually with much reluctance in line with humouring a crazy person, we shake our heads and say “Ok! 2 + 2 = 5, but this feels wrong”. So we get along with our lives, grow up, all the while thinking the whole world can’t bloody count! But this is where the Internet comes in. I belong to a generation that both has and did not have the internet. But lets say, I had it from a good age ( or maybe not. it was 56 Kbps with a dial-up modem, you know that one that sounds like a bugs bunny cartoon ? ) But with the explosion of the web ( two point oh, n point oh… blah blah ) Queers everywhere were connected. Lets be honest, growing up for the most part all we needed was information to understand and to make ourselves feel better and not alone. Going to the local library did NOT do that. Unless you had something in common with the librarian and she ‘helped’ you out.
Sorry, I am digressing. And, no that did not happen to me. But what I am getting at is when so much information is a click away – Being Queer feels communal. Not easier. Just more OK.
So what does the Big Queer Web offer us ? Plenty, well for starters there is YouTube. Where do I even start ? Well at the beginning, Sometime in ‘96 or ‘97 I remember reading in those little news bites on the last page of India Today Magazine about Nishat Saran’s self-documentary “Summer in my Veins” where he came out to his mother and saw it shortly after. Sadly, Nishat passed away in 2002 in a car crash. A while back I discovered it again on YouTube and while it is only 20 minutes long, It offered me reassurance at a time when I could not conceive of how I could reconcile myself with being Queer. Watch it:
Apart from this, there is plenty – Coming out stories, advice, video clips of two women kissing (OMG. They actually do that?) , I like this one by the Beaver Bunch’s Michelle with her mom about Coming Out. Plenty Plenty Plenty. But YouTube is pretty darn new. Well before that, After Ellen ( or AfterElton for you gentlemen) came onto the scene – the After Ellen we see now is very different from the one at the very beginning but it was enough. It has literally transformed from scraps of information that were put together by Sarah Warn and folks to the lesb-o-rama/deluge of media it offers these days. Quite something! Oooook, but what about before 2002? Well before 2002, from the mid 90’s there was Amazon by which I mean there were books ( For any young ones, its a thing you hold in your hand and flip after which a new page emerges on the other side ). One book I would recommend is Beyond Acceptance. Sure its a little depressing in the end and does focus on one religion when it speaks about religion which may not apply to a lot of us, but 3/4ths of the book is worth having or better yet, worth giving.
This post could go on and on so maybe I will continue this a bit later, but if you have any thoughts, I would love to hear them. Leave a comment/send me an e-mail !
No comments:
Post a Comment