Edit from The Times Of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kind_of_Normal/articleshow/2067546.cms
SOTTO VOCE: Kind of Normal 23 May, 2007 l 0023 hrs ISThttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/images/spacer.giflhttp://timesofindia. indiatimes.com/images/spacer.gifYamini Lohia http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/images/spacer.gifA fairly recent movie encapsulates what one imagines the straight, heterosexual man or woman must feel in our society today. A gay man wakes up in the morning and goes to high school, only to realise that homosexuality is the societal norm whilst heterosexuality is frowned upon. Since he's attracted to a pretty classmate -- a girl -- he has to 'come out' all over again. Now, this movie wasn't especially good, and certainly failed to explore the issues of what is normal and abnormal in a society. But at a film festival on gender and sexuality held in the capital recently, deviant sexuality predictably took centre stage. There were many worthy films that explored issues surrounding homosexuality and queer sexuality. But the regular, average man or woman, confronting his or her sexual issues in a rather puritanical society, were given short shrift. It seems that for now, the avant-garde is 'cool'. The great Indian middle class is therefore co-opting the atypical into the mainstream, by making it hip to be 'different'. Younger people are adopting the abnormal, making it normal, and ending up alienating the majority. It's a strange world where a person has to be apologetic for being attracted to the opposite sex. Yet, that is what has happened in our excessively politically correct times. All it takes is one bleeding-heart liberal to raise an objection about perceived anti-gay remarks, and one is derided as a homophobic individual. The problem here isn't the motive behind a discussion on queer sexuality. No doubt it has more to do with removing the social stigma attached to being gay, or lesbian or transgender, than an attempt to marginalise the mainstream. But in our eagerness to atone for our supposed sins, we go too far, which creates more resentment and leads to the kind of bigotry we were ashamed of in the first place gb <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay <http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay> http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay Website: <http://www.gaybombay.in/> www.gaybombay.in Email: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/post?postID=sF-1WE71anBidHS3GY1SYm 5klKs8kORvsCE-7rTALIhT1GR4Nb5d-rGFtKw58iwvfwc16QBg_UkFzxaeQ6q09Q> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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