Be it smartphone technology, artificial intelligence, structure of the economy, or even culture, India has had a history of importing from the west its habits. One such habit is the ‘pride’ movement which goes by the name of ‘Gender Ideology’ or ‘LGBTQIA+ community’ in general.

Five years ago, no 12th-grader had heard about the phenomena that was going to take over their conversations. All we did in the name of LGBTQIA+ ideology was shame people by calling them ‘gays’ and ‘lesbians’, which was a system placed by the predominantly patriarchal civilisation which considered anything and everything that was feminine as inferior.

Words like lesbians, gays, and transgenders existed, and their meaning was known in limited contexts albeit. Related to the experience as I recall, are the visible struggles of the transgender (‘Kinnar’ or ‘Hijra’) community in the traffic during the daylight and the invisible struggles during the night. There was a great effort from society dwellers to install the latest version of transphobia to the extent that young children used to get scared at the sight of a transgender person. This hate was contrary to the invitation and reception they used to get at celebratory family functions, marriages or childbirths.

But the very new Gender Ideology has gathered support from a large group of youngsters across all colleges of our country. Every college in the University of Delhi has a group of queer students who, although still do not care about the daily struggles of the ‘Kinnar/Hijra’ community but are finding their rebellious voices in the ‘safe spaces’ and the ‘collectives’ that they have created for themselves. Although these spaces are meant to raise awareness about the struggles and alienation faced by LGBTQIA+ people along with the systemic oppression, they end up as mere hangout/matchmaking spaces, devoid of hate, transphobia, violence, and homophobia that is rampant in the majorly-cis-gendered society.

If one can save oneself from the peer pressure of trying to fit into a group, the ‘gender ideology’ does have a lot of literature to offer. There is always the pursuit of critical thought and knowledge to be had. There are always books to be read about it. Experts to talk to. One such experience was made possible by the humble members of The Aarambh organisation, an NGO which works to fight against the issues of society. A panel discussion called ‘Prismatic Dreams’ was arranged inviting some of the prominent queer activists to throw light on the subject of gender ideology and the experiences of queer people in our society