Shut Up!
As a cishet upper middle class man belonging to a religious majority, I really need to shut up. I don¡¯t think I am even a very good ally, or at least I didn't consciously set out to become one. It¡¯s something that just happened, I'd imagine it would have been a slow, possibly infuriating process. But, I can tell you that one of the proudest moments in my professional life has been when some of the team has felt comfortable enough to talk to me about their sexuality.
I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ve been coming out conversations. I don't know if I needed to make a big deal about it, I just know we¡¯ve smiled at each other or done the Google Meet equivalent of it and moved on. When there have been discussions for stories on the community, I haven¡¯t volunteered their stories - and I¡¯m still not sure if their stories were for me to volunteer. In hindsight, by not encouraging them to tell their stories on a large platform, I could have potentially done some damage to the cause too and for this I apologise.?
However, the microsite you see in front of you today is far from an apology, it¡¯s a realisation. It¡¯s a realisation that stems from a chat that happens in all newsrooms on 1st of July - ¡°is it time to swap our temporary rainbow logo to a standard one¡± now that the pride month is over. Does this mean all of us together stop supporting the community 30 days after we start??
The understanding might be too literal, but the takeaway is not. Indiatimes will not be changing its logo, only to switch it back at the end of the month. Today we launch Spectrum, an always-on section that many proud members of the community including those within my team have helped build. We aim to be here in December, next year, and the year after. We hope it endures and evolves.
Spectrum is our attempt to lend the Indiatimes reach to a community that continues to be othered, where granting of equal rights is a matter of popular largesse and can¡¯t be assumed. Spectrum for us is the table at which two Indias can sit and have a sane conversation.?
My role at Spectrum is limited, not to that of an editor but to that of a student. All decisions at Spectrum will be taken by the people I mentioned above, but if we go wrong, I¡¯m the guy you need to hit up. Because I have no doubt we¡¯ll trip and fall, but I can promise you, every time we fall, we¡¯ll keep dusting those pants and chugging along, even beyond June.
