LGBTQ

9 famous LGBT celebrities in India and their Opinion

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LGBT celebrities in India always have positive things to say. Equal rights for everyone to live in this lovely world are essential. Bisexuality, lesbianism, or transgender identity do not put an end to this. Gender discrimination has no place in our culture.

LGBT celebrities in India

  1. Manish Arora
  2. Apurva Asrani
  3. Rohit Bal
  4. Pablo Ganguli
  5. Harish Iyer
  6. Akkai Padmashali
  7. Hiten Noonwal
  8. Alex Mathew
  9. Rohit Khosla

Manish Arora (5 Sep 1973)

Manish Arora | The world celebrated fashion designer. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

The world celebrated fashion designer, Manish Arora, who lived in Delhi. He is a member of LGBTQ celebrities and worked as a creative directer of women's wear collection at Paco Robanne, a French fashion house. “I never had a doubt about my sexuality, even as a teenager. But did I ever feel a need to talk about it? No. May be because I thought, ‘Why do I need to discuss it?’ Straight people do not go around telling the world about who they are, so why should I be ‘discussing’ it? I always believed that you should not justify who you are to anyone”. Manish also said that not he or someone should not justify who you are to anyone.

I never thought twice about my sexuality, it is natural.

Manish Arora

Apurva Asrani (21 March 1978)

apurva Asrani
Apurva Asrani | A filmmaker from Goa, India. A national, filmfare award recipient. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

A filmmaker from Goa, India. He has also received a national  award, filmfare award and is a member of LGBTQ. “Same-sex couples in India have no references and no role models to seek inspiration from.” Apurva and Siddharth has announced their separation of 14 years old relationship.

Rohit Bal  (8 May 1961)

Rohit Bal | The Designer of Kon Banega Crorepati. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

Born in a family of Kashmiri Pandit of Srinagar, Bal was the one who designed costumes for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In 2006, Rohit won the award “Designer of the year” from Indian Fashion Awards.

Pablo Ganguli (23 Nov 1983)

Pablo Ganguli | Entrepreneur, artist, directer, producer. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

Multi talented Pablo has worked as entrepreneur, artist, directer, producer as well as directed many international festivals. Moreover, Ganguli is also a founder of Liberatum (A cultural content company, promotes films, cultural activities, arts, films, and media) and organize the events worldwide. Pablo is Bengali born, lived in Kolkata and a member of LGBTQ celebrities.

Harish Iyer (16 April 1979)

Harish Iyer | Indian equal rights activist. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

Indian equal rights activist Harish Iyer who has been promoting rights of gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender community. Moreover, he is one of those who is a survivor of child sexual abuse. Harish is also a writer who flashed the lights through his writings and letters on difficult life of LGBTQ community.

Akkai Padmashali

Akkai Padmashali | a singer, motivational speaker and transgender activist. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

Another LGBTQ celebrities and transgender from India, Akkai Padmashali, is a singer, motivational speaker and transgender activist. She has received Rajyotsava awards from the Government of Karnataka.

“I did not choose to become an anti-social element or unwanted person to the society. My fight was for 'Acceptance and Social Inclusion', for the transformation and the discrimination against biological sex which was with me since birth.”

She tried to kill herself at the age of 12, quit her education at tenth grade and was forced to go to sex work.

Hiten Noonwal

Hiten Noonwal | Cosplayer, Free Bird, Designer & Dancer. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

Indian, performance artist who sometimes becomes a cosplayer, worked as fashion designer. He danced in more than 700 shows. However, all that he was doing, his family was not to know.

“I am a Hiten Noonwal, and I am a free bird. As I say, I am a free bird, I say it so easily, but  the Journey was so difficult. People usually look at me as two different identities…. The students never used to sit with me, and used to called me with a lot of names. They used to say ladaki, chhakka, hijada, 50-50…”

Alex Mathew or Mayamma (12 Oct 1988)

Maya the drag Queen | Inspirational speaker, drag queen. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

Maya the drag Queen or Alex Mathew or Mayamma is a drag queen from India. Mother lover boy finally admitted that he is gay in September 2014. Many drag queen around the world are his inspirations, said in one of the TEDx Talks. When he saw a film called Mrs. Doubtfire, he came to know that he can also do drag and become a drag queen. According to Mayamma, drag is a pure performance of art.

Drag is not to be mixed with sexuality, I love being who I am, and not caught in the wrong body, and I love to perform as a woman onstage.

Maya the drag Queen

Rohit Khosla (29 Nov 1958 – 16 Feb 1994)

Rohit Khosla | Pioneer of Indian contemporary fashion. Picture credit to Wikimedia Commons.

A Bisexual who became pioneer of Indian contemporary fashion industry. Born in an affluent Punjabi family, died when he was 36 due to cancer. His sister, Rohini Khosla, published a Biography titled “Rohit Khosla Vanguard” on his life and work. His earlier influencer was the Indian artist, Jamini Roy and actress, Vahida Rahman. The ambition of his teacher that he should become an actor, but Khosla did not stick to it.

Magnus Hirschfeld: Einstein of Sex and His Theory of Love

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The most controversial and a kind man, Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was born as Jewish to a physician, Hermann Hirschfeld, in Poland. After his medical degree in 1892, he traveled for eight months in the United States, Chicago. His interest dive him deep for homosexual culture and their people. Berlin and Chicago taught him two different homes of sexual subculture. From that, he developed a theory of homosexuality around the world. The profound research about the existence of gay in Tokyo, Tangier, and Rio de Janciro. In 1896, he liked to learn and practice naturopathy in Magdeburg.

Magnus Hirschfeld: Einstein of Sex and His Theory of Love
i'mBiking | Magnus Hirschfeld: Einstein of Sex and His Theory of Love: Credit to Wikipedia Commons

I met Magnus Hirschfeld through a friend of mine, I found him a very sympathetic gentleman.

Michael Ritterman

His inclination toward the theory of love became more interesting and important when his gay patients took their lives. Hirschfeld was a kind and open-minded. Through his work, he always represented Germany. However, in 1906–9 he was caught in “Harden–Eulenburg affair”, a sex scandal which was widely famous in Imperial Germany. “While I was there, all homosexuals were transported away to Mauthausen and almost all perished.” Heing F (Paragraph 175)

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The more we delve into the essence of personality, the more we learn that in this world, certainly rich with natural beauty and things worthy of seeing, nothing is more attractive and worthier of knowing and experiencing than people.

Magnus Hirschfeld, Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress

Belief and Findings

The Vossische Zeitung: “A freak who acted for freaks in the name of pseudoscience.”

At the beginning, Hirschfeld believed homosexuals made of “third sex” and continued his studies and jumped away to find more relative studies of sexology. His hard works, studies and researched practices gained enormous amount of work throughout of his life. In 1897, Hirschfeld with Max Spohr, Franz Josef von Bülow, and Eduard Oberg founded an organization called “Scientific Humanitarian Committee”. He believed that the homosexuality is a plan of nature creation like another love. Hirschfeld testified “homosexuality was part of the plan of nature and creation just like normal love”. This testimony and thus it brought heavy cyclone in the entire Germany. The editor of “The Vossische Zeitung” newspaper called Hirschfeld a freak upon his asseveration on homosexual findings.

L0024860 World League for Sexual Reform conference. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org World League for Sexual Reform conference including letters from Dr. E. Elkan {donor} 3. Professor Magnus Hirschfeld with a visiting Chinese doctor in Brunn 1929. 4. Professor Magnus Hirschfeld and Dr. E. Elkan 1929? Papers relating to the Family Planning Association SA/FPA/A23/1/1 Published: — Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Achievements and Hurdles

Some achievements and hurdles in the life of Magnus Hirschfeld during the life in year wise.

  • 1897: Established scientific humanitarian organization committee
  • 1899: Yearbook of intermediate sexual typos
  • 1910: The transvestites
  • 1913: Medical society for sexual science and eugenics
  • 1914: Study of sexuality in men and women
  • 1919: First sexology institute in the world
  • 1920: Attach by Right-Wing Supporters
  • 1928: World league for sexual reform
  • 1933: Nazis destroyed all the archives and library

Death and Legacy

Hirschfeld, being a Jews, sexual activist and a gay man, he was targeted to kill in 1920 as well as suffered continuous assaults by Nazis. His lectures disturbed many times.  His legacy spread across the United States when American homosexual rights activist Henry Gerber impressed by Hirschfeld absorbed many ideas of him. Gerber was such an inspired to form the short-lived “Society of Human Rights” in 1924. Therefore, in 1932, he was forced to live in France. However, the next year, Hirschfeld died due to heart attach. In Germany, it's Nazis who put the end to the “homosexual rights movements”.

In this world, being a good man or being a bad man, you have to play for both.

In Ireland, in 1979, National LGBT Federation established Hirschfeld Center, it is the second Gay lesbian community center. The German researchers and scientist founded Magnus Hirschfeld Society in West Berlin and continued research on history of Sexology. The Federal Cabinet of Germany granted 10 million euros for establishment of the “Magnus Hirschfeld National Foundation” to support research and education about Magnus Hirschfeld.

Obama: “Milk Harvey Gave Us Hope, Unashamed and Unafraid”

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milk carter
milk carter
Harvey Milk meets Jimmy Carter, May 1976

The member of San Francisco Board of Supervisors Harvey Milk (b. 22 May 1930 — d. 27 Nov 1978) was Gay Rights Activist and Community Leader. The first homosexual politician in the history of American politics of California. The iconic figure often called “the most famous and most significantly open gay (LGBT) official ever elected in the United States”.

Champaign Manager,
“What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head, and then he set about to create it for real for all.”

Harvey gave us hope, all of us, hope unashamed, hope unafraid.

Barack Obama

Milk had very short period in his political career. To make this possible he had to go through and met many unsuccessful paths of his life, but he was not one of them who give up on first thought. Milk tore down many failed pavements and created his existence in politics of California.

I like to sit in the window and watch the cute boys walk by.

Harvey Milk

Milk had very different attitude looking at his life, “I think he was happier than at any time I heard ever seen him in his entire life.” faced many ups and downs in his entire life was hidden under his smily face. Simply to win, he kept walking, learning and facing challenges to reach his destiny. Finely he raised voice against gay freedom and rights.

The vision of Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk’s dream for a better tomorrow filled with the hope for equality and a world without hate guided the Foundation. Harvey Milk’s groundbreaking election in 1977 as one of the world’s first openly gay elected officials-and its most visible one- symbolized the freedom to live life with authenticity to millions of LGBT women and men around the world.

Milk served less than a year publicly office before his brutal assassination but his life profoundly changed a city, state, nation and a global community. His courage, passion and sense of justice rocked a country and stirred the very core of a put down and pushed out community, bringing forward new hope and a new vision of freedom.
As a not- for-profit global organization, our program goals — to empower local, regional, national and global organizations so that they may fully realize the power of Harvey Milk’s story, style, and collaborative relationship building — are as large and bold as Harvey taught us! The Foundation, through Harvey’s dream for a just tomorrow, envisions governments that celebrate the rich and universally empowering diversity of humanity, where all individuals — gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, the young, the disabled — all who had been excluded can fully participate in all societal rights universally. >>Continue reading

Harvey was fired from the naval department of California and asked to resign from his post as diving instructor because of raising a concern on his sexuality. His support and struggle for gay rights brought freedom in the Gay Community and huge changes existing today. He also wanted to dig a wide variety of issues but following years of his selection of city’s officer (in 1977), Milk was murdered with five bullets. Dan White (Daniel James White was an American politician who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall.) shot Milk, two bullets into the head and three on his body.

Also Read: Letter of Subhash Chandra Bose to Mahatma Gandhi also, Mrs Bixby's letter to Abraham Lincoln

Sylvia Rivera: “…don’t even like the label transgender.”

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“Sylvia Rivera, the woman who faced child abuse, pushed to the doors of a child prostitute and threw out of The Gay Rights Movement”

In her later days, Sylvia Rivera (b. 2 Jul 1951 — d. 19 Feb 2002) called herself half-sister. Her essay she kept herself an optional human who admit that she is neither transgender, nor she was a lesbian. Sylvia wrote in her essay, “Transvestites: Your Half Sisters and Half Brothers of the Revolution” one who dresses in clothes of opposite sex. Here statement does not show any evidence that she was a transgender or lesbian.

“I left home at age 10 in 1961. I hustled on 42nd Street. The early 60s was not a good time for drag queens, effeminate boys or boys that wore makeup like we did. Back then we were beat up by the police, by everybody. I didn't really come out as a drag queen until the late 60s when drag queens were arrested, what degradation there was. I remember the first time I got arrested, I wasn't even in full drag. I was walking down the street and the cops just snatched me. People now want to call me a lesbian because I'm with Julia, and I say, “No. I'm just me. I'm not a lesbian.” I'm tired of being labelled. I don't even like the label transgender. I'm tired of living with labels. I just want to be who I am. I am Sylvia Rivera. Ray Rivera left home at the age of 10 to become Sylvia. And that's who I am.”

Marsha and I fought for the liberation of our people.

In a 1981 interview

Her childhood was almost too sad to live like an ordinary girl. Sylvia in her young age soon learned how suicidal mothers behave and why a broken relationship had that ugly end. Her mother committed suicide when she was just three (her father already had left both mother and daughter so early). Thus, the abandoned girl started living on the streets, worked as a sex-worker and met a group of drag queens. The Sylvia name was her welcoming (token) name Marsha had given and Rivera became another drag queen.

Also, The Stonewall Riots protests was occurred in 1960, she claimed that she was the part of it, but Johnson said loud and clear that Sylvia was not the part of the riots. Rivera was a kind of exaggerated her presence at every protest. She was co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front and STAR.
Moreover, her never-ending feelings of poor, orphan, stamp of sex-worker, and living on blood of all time drugs remained till the end of her life. The riots, thousands of Transgender and Gay came out on the streets for the rights of liberty, however, she disliked being herself tagged for the same. Rivera died sudden due to liver cancer.

Sylvia Rivera once pushed out of the “Gay Rights Movements” is now well recognized figure

However, the legacy of Sylvia has registered through many incidents, one of them was on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall Riots, a large painted mural depicting Marsha P Johnson and Silvia Rivera in Dallas in 2019. Also, on the Christopher corner, was renamed to Sylvia Rivera Way on Huston Streets.

Read, Barbara Gittings on “How I Discovered The Power Of The Press.” and Marsha P Johnson's poetry, “The Soul”

Barbara Gittings: “I discovered the power of the press.”

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Barbara Gittings
Barbara Gittings life
Barbara Gittings

Barbara Gittings (b. 31 July 1932 to d. 18 Feb 2007) was the mother of gay men and lesbian of the late 50s and founder of “Daughters of Bilitis” it was the first lesbian rights organization. Miss Barbara being the first editor of the publication, The Ladder (Magazine of Lesbian she studied deeply what is the definition of Uranian).

I wore drag because I thought that was a way to show I was gay. It’s changed now, but in the early 50s, there were basically two types of women in the gay bars: the so-called butch ones in short hair and plain masculine attire and the so-called femme one's in dresses and high heels and makeup. I knew high heels and makeups weren’t my personal style, so I thought… I must be the other kind!


Barbara Gittings

ㅡ David Carter, author of “Stonewall”,

She was one of the rare people in the homophile movement before Stonewall who took a million stance.

The stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay community. Barbara had also helped the American Psychiatric Association with an understanding of people of homosexuality.

I had to find bits and pieces under headings like “Sexual perversion and “Sexual abbreviation” in books on abnormal psychology. Miss Gittings told the publication in 1999.

Barbara Gittings

She took ownership of ending the discrimination against guy men and lesbians. But how young Barbara had evoked her interest in exploring homosexuality? Her father who spit out the truth about it. At an early age, she had read a book called, “The Well of Loneliness” in 1928 a novel of lesbian love by the English writer Radclyffe Hall. It was the beginning of her journey exploring the various studies of sex and discrimination against being a homophile.

I kept thinking about it, it’s me they are writing about, but it does not feel like me at all.

Barbara Gittings
Barbara Gittings doing protest

Her contribution was remarkable, Gay marriage, openness, and their visibility in the society had never been easy in the late 50s and 60s. Barbara had taken the change, step ahead, and become the mother of thousands of guy men and lesbians community. She fought hard for their rights and quality.

Everybody knew that the battle of ending the intolerance against Uranian was quite difficult, but she stood against it till the end of distinction against LGBTQ (LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which was used to replace the term gay regarding the LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s), read more about it here.
Studying deep, Ms Gittings referred to many psychological books and psychologists, a purposeful woman did at whatever she could go to the extent for what she wanted to get for her fellow gay and lesbians friends.

My mission was not to get a general education, but to find out about me and what my life would be like. So, I stopped going to classes and started going to the library. There were no organizations to turn to in those days, only libraries were safe, although the information contained was dismal.

Barbara Gittings

During Gay Pioneer, (July 4, 1965, almost 40 gay and lesbian turned up in front of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell people from New York, Washington DC and Philadelphia) Barbara said,

We are the first to do this in an organized fashion to stand up for ourselves. We were considered weird and sick, perverted, and just being wrong.
Most of the citizens of this country have been brainwashed into thinking that we were that way. First that we are not perverted, we are not sick, we are not weird. We are right and the whole world is wrong. We have a dress code, and we have conduct of code. We are out facing the public for the first time.

Vito Russo interviews Harry Hay and Barbara Gittings

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