Openly gay Congress politician hopes to weed out homophobia, Islamophobia

On April 9, Harish Iyer announced on Twitter that he was joining the Indian National Congress (INC).

"I have officially joined the Congress and look forward to working with the Mumbai Congress team in weeding out homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia and the politics of hate," Harish Iyer announced on Twitter.

Harish, a well-known activist for animal rights, equal rights, and environmentalism, is openly gay. Explaining his move to join politics, Harish said, “apart from writing about our rights, I wanted to be part of the system that actually wrote the rights. And so, joining politics just seemed like the next step. Even though I may not be a part of electoral politics, I wanted to sort of, help balance things rather than sit on a fence.”

When asked why he chose to join Congress, Harish listed the three qualities of the party that motivated him to join — humility to accept fallacies, humanity and clarity. “These put Congress beyond other parties and gave me the motivation to join the party. Also I respect their senior leadership,” he said. “Even before Shashi Tharoor spoke openly of the gay community and gay rights, Milind Deora spoke of it and this inspired me to an extent too,” he added.

“The support from the party has been overwhelming. I have not encountered a homophobic comment or a person from the party yet.” Having said that, Harish feels that India has a long way to go “when it comes to accepting political candidates from my (queer) community”. He added that the US too was not yet ready to embrace someone from the queer community being part of active politics. “Even if there might be a lesbian mayor (Lori Lightfoot of Chicago) or a Pete Buttigieg (an openly gay presidential candidate). More representatives of the community need to stand for its own truth.”

Harish hopes that people realise the stupidity of being a homophobe. Besides this, he wishes to highlight queer rights, environmental concerns, animal welfare and the Islamophobia faced by many Muslims in Indian society. “It is extremely important for us to care for our environment and focus on animal welfare. We as humans cannot survive long if we do not pay attention to our environment and care for animals. Take for example BJP's beef ban. It is not coming from a place of animal welfare. The condition of cows in gaushalas are really bad. If instead, they created awareness about embracing vegetarianism by listing health benefits, it would have made me so happy. Muslims are also right now facing grave injustice in form of Islamophobia. I would like to work toward restoring the secular fabric in our society. Another issue close to my heart is child and women's rights.”

As a survivor of sexual abuse as a child, Harish spoke out about his experience facing sexual abuse on Amir Khan's talk show, Satyameva Jatyate, in 2012. That was also the year when the Parliament of India passed the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, the first legislation to target the issue of sexual abuse against children.

Harish had a long journey towards acknowledging his sexuality and coming out to his parents. “Firstly my mother could not believe that a male child could be sexually violated. But with time she could fathom what I had undergone and understood me being gay too.” In 2015, his mother posted a “groom-wanted” ad in a Mumbai daily newspaper for him.

When asked what his political ambitions were, Harish said, “I am not entirely sure now. Someday, if the circumstance is right, yes, I would like to be part of electoral politics, but I want to try and do what I can while going with the flow of the party and maintaining my individuality. That is very important, as the different views we bring in is what will help bring in change.”