8 Things Congress’ Harish Iyer Says About Politics, Queer Representation, Rights & Inclusion

Shweta SengarUpdated: Apr 24, 2019, 13:04 IST

Harish Iyer’s mother posted a “groom wanted” ad in newspaper looking for a male suitor: “25-40, well-placed, animal-loving, vegetarian and preferably Iyer.”

The matrimonial ad received widespread attention and the mother-son duo was applauded for trying to normalise a taboo.

Iyer has come a long way. From a child abuse survivor to a rights activist. He has thrown his hat in the political ring. He joined the Indian National Congress recently and said the real change in policies can only come when non-heterosexuals join political parties and speak about the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer community.

The 39-year-old activist aims to bring the issues of sexual minorities to the fore.

Indiatimes spoke to Iyer on a range of topics like LGBTQ representation in politics, LGBTQ rights, Transgender Bill, etc. Here’s what he said -

1. Getting into politics

Iyer, who roots for diversity in politics says, “If minorities don’t get into politics, then we must be contented with the policies that majorities make for minorities.” He says that as a sexual minority, it becomes extremely important that more people from get into the process of making policies and influence and make them understand that human beings are of all forms, colours, sexualities, all genders.

“And what better lessons can one have than having someone from the LGBT community itself participating in the whole process?” he asks.

2. Choosing Congress party

On April 9, Iyer joined the Congress party. He has not been given any official rank in the party so far and he says he isn’t looking at getting a ticket either. However, Iyer says he believes in the Congress manifesto and the promises they have made for the rights of LGBTQ community.

“The Congress manifesto in 2014 very clearly mentioned that they stand for the further decriminalisation under section 377. The 2018 verdict said that it is the responsibility of the government to get all civic bodies educated and aware on sexual minority issues so that the discrimination comes to an end. In 2019, the Congress manifesto mentioned that they would go back to NALSA judgement, enabling people from the sexual minority community to decide their gender.”

Iyer says he joined Congress not because it lays emphasis on the sexual minorities and their rights but also talks about animal rights and environmental issues.

3. Contesting and winning

“Well I have just joined the party,” he asserts. According to Iyer, the first step is to ensure that every political party has queer representation so that their rights get represented. He hopes that more and more Indian political parties discuss LGBTQ issues explicitly.

harish iyer congress

Facebook/Harrish Iyer

He says that he wants to have environment-friendly laws.

“Does it make sense that we as humans have all the rights in the world but don’t have the planet for us? Global warming and climate change are threats that can’t be ignored and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that it is us who have changed and not the weather, is certainly not correct. I think we need someone intelligent to come in and make intelligent statements and understand that climate change is a real threat.”

Iyer asserts that concentrating only on LGBTQ issues would be extremely myopic and selfish.

4. Transgender Bill

Transgenders are mostly misunderstood in our country. He says we don’t speak about sex, but we definitely have a lot of sex given that fact that our population hasn’t increased in a blink. “The issue here is that we need to understand sex and gender individually,” he says making a point.

Transgender people are those who are assigned a certain gender at birth but they grow to identify themselves with the opposite gender, for instance a man identified as a male at birth but then grows up to identify and feel like a woman.

“The NALSA judgement gave rights to a person who wanted to be identified as any gender – male, female or third gender. It was up to the individual to choose the desirable gender. What really happened in 2018 in the BJP government is that they wanted to take this recommendation away and wanted to form a committee to decide what a person’s gender is thereby infringing upon a person’s liberty. We need to stop treating people as pedestal and instead start treating them as people – people with constitutional rights.”

He insists people from the LGBTQ community need to join politics to raise awareness about their identities, issues and representation.

“If there is a revolution that needs to be taking place, we need to have people from the LGBTQ community at the helm of the revolution.”

5. Harassment Due To Transgender Bill

If the Transgender Bill the community will be subjected to a lot of harassment, Iyer believes. The committee may ask anyone to prove that they belong to a certain gender. “Imagine a woman being asked to prove that she is a woman in front of complete bunch of strangers asking her to strip and checking her body parts. This only amounts to harassment and humiliation.”

6. On Current Politics

Talking about transgenders and intersex people in Indian politics, Iyer says more people from the LGBTQ community must join politics. “Apsara Reddy is already the head of the All India Mahila Congress and we only need more people joining the bandwagon for our rights. There are other Independent transgender candidates, who are fighting in these elections. I really wish to see people of different genders and sexualities coming to the fore in political parties because that is the best way of influencing decisions.”

Harish Iyer Congress

Facebook/Harrish Iyer

7. Why Enough Transgenders Do Not Exercise Their Voting Rights?

The "third gender" is yet to get proper representation in voters’ list. It was in 2014 that “third gender” was recognised as a voter identity after a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

The 2011 Census estimates the transgender population to be close to 4.9 lakh but the number of voters who identify as trans is less than 10 per cent of that number, according to the Election Commission (EC) data.

“I think the transgender community is largely disillusioned. And it is largely to do with how the laws and policies that have been formed in our country. They have been asked to identified as “Third Gender”. Who is first gender? Who is the second gender? And why are we creating such hierarchies?”

8. Ensuring that policies for transgenders do not remain on paper

Iyer says the first step towards this target is to change the mindset of people and it is not something that can happen overnight. “The political parties must have more candidates and members from different communities so as to boost the confidence of minorities.”

He maintains it is imperative in any democracy that “we do not think unilaterally and ensure that diversity is maintained by keeping the discussions open to heterogeneous groups. The need of the hour is to think holistically.”

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