Yeah, a guy from my college fraternity.
Russel Peters has a hilarious bit about his dad seeing some gay Indians on TV and assuming Russel must know them “because he’s in the show biz”. The routine then went on to how India really needs more gay guys (overpopulation, you know), and (after a brief mention of arranged marriages) how “things are really getting out of hand if you have arranged gay marriages”. I’m sure it’s on YouTube somewhere (some of his best stuff is), but I’m too busy to look.
Personally I can’t see how you can be straight and speak in what is a stereotypical Indian accent …
I clicked on this thread to post the Russell Peters skit.
Two of my major vocations in life are analytics and Sanskrit, so I happen to work with lots of South Asians. Two I know were gay, and a few more I had some suspicions about. The subject only came up with my best female Indian friend and only after some alcohol.
This is my understanding as well - that the primary use of the anti-homosexuality law was the police using it to blackmail people they knew were gay.
I did a research paper on gay Indians. It seems most don’t consider themselves gay. It seems to be mainly between men who have sex with male prostitutes and keep it hidden while also having a family. Perhaps it’s a lot like black men who are (I believe it’s called) on the down low.
In the old country, there’s a very much emphasis on having a family and perpetuating the family and traditional values. So you’re not likely to find very many openly gay people in India and even the children of first generation immigrants may fear their parents’ reaction if they are openly gay.
Appropriate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_C6Q9KLJbs
Oh, and since I’m drunk, I also wanted to say to this:
“in my life I have come across, blacks, white, arabs, East Asian (China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea) people who were gay.”
snicker
I have met several at a piano bar here in Memphis. I had met two of them previously where the preference was not clear (dance class-we have leads and follows not males and females) and then saw them at the restaurant. Being a little tipsy they had to introduce me to their entire group of friends and explain all of the relationships. I was amused.
From what I understand even in modern urban India what you want for yourself and your life come a distinct second to what your family want, so whether you’re gay or not you’re getting married and popping out some kids.
I knew some gay south Asians - some Sikh, some Muslim - and they all lived in terror of their families finding out and/or being told that they were going to get married to some woman.
i) Pakistani are not Indians. So there.
ii) She is a journalist. People back home would be surprised if she was not a lesbian.
Well, it could also simply be because I’m in England, not India. From what I know of the Indian subcontinent, yes, it would be very difficult to get away without being married whichever religion or ethnic group you’re from - but not impossible.
Well to be fair, I wrote Indian in the title but I qualified it in the post to include South Asians from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, etc etc
You’re not wrong, but it’s an interesting observation anyway.
I mean people usually think a Muslim would be the most affected, but I have known a bunch of Gay Muslims. Turkey, Lebanon and the UAE seem to have a lot of them. Well at least a lot of gay males who are from there and are being gay in Chicago 
A guy I was at uni was Indian and gay. He was part of the very upper crust of Indian society - I think his family were royalty of some sort - so I think he’d been waiting to get to the UK so he could be openly gay. No idea whether this family knew but I don’t think he was particularly close to them so might not have been discussed.
I can only speak about what I know of Pakistani culture or more accurately Pakistani cultures. But in Pakistan;
i) You don’t have homosexuality as a concept as you have in the west, as an exclusive sexual preference that defines the individual. Its just…sex. Some guy likes to do or be done by other guys, opinions will range from what is the big deal, to gross depending on the person and also the area in question. In the Frontier and Punjab to a lesser extent, no big deal and even accepted. Less so in Sindh.
ii) As a result of the above, you won’t have people who define themselves as homosexual as you would see in the west, even if for all intents and purposes they are in fact that. People see sexual activity as something separate from the family a person is expected to have.
iii) Finally Pakistani’s and in my experience other people in S Asia and the ME have a much more strict separation between the personal and the public. It is perfectly normal to work with somebody for years and have been very good friends with them and have never met their family or even know much about it. Furthermore people are much more reserved about what is appropriate for discussion and outside people with whom you have almost familial ties, discussion of sex except in the most broad terms is verboten.
For the above reason you no doubt have met gays from S Asia, they just would not think that that is an appropriate point of discussion.
Literally the first other gay man I met was Indian, back in cegep. I’ve met any number of LGBT people of South Asian descent living in Canada. I’ve also had the pleasure of attending speeches by two of the architects of the decriminalization of homosexuality in India, at the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights in Copenhagen and here in Montreal.
Here’s a bio of a member of a royal family in India who is openly gay and now advocates for LGBT rights.
Not personally, but shortly after same-sex marriage was approved in Spain, there was a bit on the news about a couple that wanted to get married but couldn’t, because one of them was from India: under Spanish marriage law, a marriage can’t be registered if it would be illegal for one of the parties in his/her country of citienship. For example, if a 14yo citizen of the beautiful kingdom of Oonga Boonga wanted to get married in Spain and had parental permission, the Civil Registrar would have to consult a judge, who would have to check whether Oongaboongian laws allow that marriage or not (if there was no parental permission, then it’s Spanish law which doesn’t allow the marriage at that age). In the case in the news, since one of the two grooms was from India and India doesn’t allow SSM, the marriage could not be registered: they had to wait until the Indian acquired Spanish citizenship.
I’ve met 3 openly gay Indians. One of whom is the most flambotantly gay person I know.
Well aware of that, cheers. Please read the OPs whole post and not just the thread title.
I’m not aware of this ‘in-joke’. Care to elaborate?
A cousin of a friend. I was around him for 3 weeks when I went to Guyana over Christmas one year. Never pinged my gaydar at all. AFAIK, he is still married to his exceptionally beautiful wife.
His mother is deeply in denial about this and maintains that he sleeps with men because of … wait for it … Tourette’s.
I can say a very similar thing about the gay Indian I know, only it is in the US. I don’t think he is royalty or anything, but I know he comes from a lot of money. His brother is also here in the US, only his brother and his mother know he is gay.
Here’s an article about gay people in Pakistan.