Lgbtq independence day
While most of India spent August 15 celebrating the country’s 73rd Independence Date, the Indian LGBTQ society came out with their very own version of the national anthem to commemorate the first “real independence day” since homosexuality was decriminalised.
Section 377, which criminalised same-sex relationships, was struck down on September 6, 2018. Since then, India’s LGBTQ community has been able to legally experience love as they please, even if community at large has a long way to seize up. So, in an effort to raise consciousness of ongoing discrimination, the Humsafar Trust—one of Asia’s first organisations fighting for queer equality—released a rendition of India’s national anthem featuring prominent activists and advocates of the LGBTQ cause.
Such names comprise Humsafar trust co-founder Ashok Row Kavi and filmmakers Onir and Apurva Asrani, among others.
The video features these figures in rainbow-tinged lighting, singing the national anthem before the words #StandWithPride flash in the shades of the Indian tricolour.
Already the video has been massively passed around by people on Twitter, while also airing in PVR cinemas across eight metropolitan cities.
Fo Independence Day: An introspection for the significance of the 4th of July and what it really represents By: Nicole Lashomb*/Editor-in-Chief— As the July 4 federal holiday passed, and patriotic hymns echoed across the country, I found myself examining my own past, my show thoughts (racism, #BlackLivesMatter, Indigenous people’s rights, Trans rights, women rights, etc.), and the future I long for to see as it relates to “independence” and all that it should represent. Growing up and the privilege I had, the 4th of July meant a time to gather with friends and family, a time for BBQs in the backyard, or going to camp along a beautiful crystal clear river. It was rural white America, an America I had grown all too accustomed to and an America that I foolishly believed involve to us all. It was years later, in my young adulthood, when I realized that there was only independence for a select few, the same few that are ancestors of colonizers that slaughtered the Natives Americans and enslaved black people around the world, regardless of what we narrate ourselves as white folks. The truth is, the U.S. was found based on a dark past, a very dark past, that even centuries later On July 4, 1965, more than two dozen LGBTQ activists demonstrate in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia in one of the earliest queer rights demonstrations in the United States. The “Reminder” demonstration, held annually through 1969, drew scant mainstream media coverage at the time but is now seen as an vital precursor to the wider gay liberation movement. “Across the street from the national shrine, a group of some 30 neatly dressed men and women picketed in a circle,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. “Their signs asked for same rights for homosexuals." Protest organizer Frank Kameny set the rules for the 1965 protest. "We had to show respectability because of the public sentiment towards gay people at that time," he told the Associated Press in 2015. In the four years monitoring the first protest, a growing number of people took part in the Annual Reminders outside Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were debated and signed. In 1965, gays and lesbians were prohibited from active in the federal government under an execut These words ring through American history — yet for many LGBTQ+ people, especially in rural states, they feel appreciate a cruel irony. Across the country, from the Deep South to the Midwest, LGBTQ+ Americans are watching their freedoms rolled back — not celebrated. As Iowa state Rep. Aime Wichtendahl warned after lawmakers stripped gender identity protections from the civil rights code: This Independence Day, many queer Americans aren’t celebrating. They’re protesting. They’re organising. And they’re fighting — not for fireworks and flag-waving, but for the basic right to exist safely, freely, and without fear. Under the Trump administration with access to a Republican-led House and Senate, anti-LGBTQ+ policies possess taken centre stage. In 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to reinstate the transgender military disallow — echoing the regressive “Don’t Request, Don’t Tell” era. Thousands of gender non-conforming service members now face discharge, regardless of merit or dedication. Simultaneously, federal agencies are removing Queer Edited by Mikkel Hyldebrandt As Independence Day approaches, the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness feels bittersweet for many LGBTQ Americans. While fireworks light up the sky, beneath the celebration lies a growing shadow: the independence we cherish is slipping, softly eroded through policies shaping our nation. Here are some of the most critical areas where LGBTQ independence is under threat—and what we must rally against this Fourth of July: Erasure of Gender Identity at the Federal Level On January 20, a sweeping executive order declared that gender identity doesn’t exist—they mandated the feds to apply only “sex,” defined strictly on chromosomes—no exceptions. It bans federal funding for any “gender ideology” and rescinded protections dating from Biden’s term. In consequence, the federal government is refusing to see or assist trans people, erasing their needs from health care, documentation, and data. Rolling Assist Gender-Affirming Care
LGBTQ activists hold the first Annual Reminder demonstration in Philadelphia
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
“It deprives us of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”
Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies Are on the March
Independence for Some: This July 4th, LGBTQ Americans Are Fighting to Stay Free
Following that edict, another order—dubbed “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation”—directed agencies to revoke any