A few years ago when Kolkata-based dance outfit Sapphire Creations staged Alien Flower, a ballet about homosexual love, they had a pretty bad time. Posters for the play were torn to pieces by angry protesters and organisers at the auditorium where the ballet was being performed insisted Sapphire take down their "provocative" banner. Troupe leader Sudarshan Chakraborty had to endure threat calls at home for weeks. "There was nothing provocative about the posters or the banner," he says. "It was simply the tag line-Celebrate Your Sexuality-that seemed to have bothered people. We had not used the words homosexual or same-sex love anywhere in our publicity material." Last week, when he finally reprised it, Chakraborty deliberately added a teaser: an onstage, lip-to-lip kiss between two of the male protagonists. This time, there wasn't a murmur from the audience.

RAINING EUPHORIA: The gay march in Kolkata; (above) a scene from Alien Flower

Sapphire members say they felt emboldened by the new consciousness sweeping Bengal, where lesbians and gays have begun to find greater acceptance. Now a sudden burst of activity among the state's gay community is forcing a change in the way they were looked upon till now. Last month, Kolkata's first-ever gay march commemorated Pride Week along with the rest of the world. As over 100 homosexual men and women took to the streets, the state Government which would have normally frowned on such events, gave them unprecedented police protection. On June 25, Sappho, the only lesbian group in the state, organised a meet on "Gender and Sexuality" where controversial topics like sexual orientation and femininity were discussed in detail. The participants included members of the state human rights commission, writers, playwrights and other "moral guardians" of society. In September, the professor of a well-known north Kolkata college (he doesn't want to be named till the work is finished) will come out with a "potentially explosive" study on gay identity in Bengali literature, particularly in the works of Rabindranath Tagore and poet Jibanananda Das.

How come this sudden acceptance? According to Rafiquel Haque Dowjah of Integration Society, which organised the Pride March, while earlier generations in the gay community mainly focused on issues of health, the younger lot are expressing their sexuality through cultural events and human rights assertions. Last week, when Xpose organised a play about two men in love in a much-publicised event, there were no protests outside the auditorium about the explicit dialogues.

Another group, Pratyay, is now drafting a play named Brihannala, a modern-day take-off on the Mahabharata episode where Arjun spent a year in drag. Recently, eight Kolkata-based groups who work with male sex workers formed Manas Bengal, a forum for transgendered men in the state. "The new boldness might make Kolkata overtake Mumbai as the country's gay capital," says Dowjah.

The numbers are certainly swelling. A 2002 study in Kolkata showed that there were over 5,000 MSMS (Men who have Sex with Men) who could be contacted any time. The number of gay-support groups has also gone up to about 10 in the state, from three in 1999. And this is not just an urban phenomenon. Amazingly, the districts of Hooghly and Jalpaiguri have their own network of gay associations under two very active clubs at the district headquarters-Amite in Chandannagar and Mitju in Siliguri.

In 2000, after an article was published in the local newspapers, Integration received over 1,800 letters from men all over Bengal wanting to become part of the homosexual rights movement. Integration has now set up eight support groups outside Kolkata to organise programmes and monthly meetings for the "still-closeted" homosexuals. Sappho, which operates a telephone helpline two days a week, says it receives as many as 70 phone calls in two hours, and about 25 per cent of these are from women in mofussil towns. All sure signs that the homosexual rights movement has taken deep roots in the state.

— Labonita Ghosh