Beyond Migration: Navigating Queer Safety through Streets of T1 Cities

While R Balaji, a queer public speaker and an advertising professional, felt that Dombivali, an area around Mumbai where she lived, was safe, she still did not consider Mumbai her “safe space.” Turns out, she, already a migrant in the city, finds solace in Indiranagar, in Silicon Valley, Bengaluru. 

Owing to various reasons, such as safety, employability, and a quest for acceptance, the LGBTIA+ community has been shifting to the T1 cities from the T2 or T3 cities for quite a long time. 

Local Samosa talked about the phenomenon and the cultural shift yesterday. 

However, merely migrating to the bigger or metropolitan cities do not just end the battle for prolonged safety of the queer community and they have to also work hard to ensure the safety to the new place they are moving in and if the newer streets promise it to them or not. 

As Local Samosa conducted a survey to map the areas in the T1 cities that feel safer to the community, varied responses were received that talk about the nuanced realities of the streets, both positive and negative.

In the quest for safe streets: Delhi and Bengaluru

Balaji, for instance, also finds the area around Infosys, while calling Delhi NCR, to be her second home. “These are my comfort zone, and these places matter because I do not go out for the parties or some other casual meetings. So, just like my parents, whom I consider my comfort zone, it is these places as well,” she says, adding that the DLF mall, along with Rajiv Chowk, Connaught Place in Noida and Delhi, while Lower Parel in Mumbai, are the areas that seem safer for her. 

Rohit Nallana echoes the same sentiment. After migrating from Raipur in 2021 to Delhi, he later shifted to Noida 137 due to safety issues. “Even though it is comparatively expensive, I chose the area because it is safer and people are quite ‘open-minded’ towards the LGBTIA+ community,” he says. Before selecting the place, the 21-year-old did his research, asked his friends. “Safety played a crucial role, especially as a queer individual because I wanted a space where I could express myself freely without any judgement,” he says adding that Sector 19, 15, 16, 27, 45, 75 provide safer streets experiences, at least in the daytime. 

Shams, 22, migrated from Bijnor to the nation’s capital in 2019, and safety was one of the reasons, along with others. After speaking to a few queer friends already living in Delhi, he chose Chattarpur. “I had heard of a few queer folks living there which eased the decision,’ he says adding that streets of Hauz Khas, Green Park, Majnu ka Tila feel safer. “They are relatively safe with more youth presence, cafes and are visibly queer-friendly spaces.”

However, not everyone enjoys the privilege of being able to choose the “safe streets and areas” for themselves, as the harassment and teasing deeply troubles them.

For both Dev Chawla, 22, and his partner Geetanjali Chowdhary, 24, Garima Grih, a shelter home and its streets only feel safer. “She (Geetanjali) belongs from Palwal, and, while her family helped her in the sex assigning surgery, she was not accepted by the society and while migrating here, her safety was utmost important for her mother and sister,” Chawala says adding that Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar, however, also feels safe to them.

However, such is not the case for all. Ayush, who migrated from Varanasi to Delhi mentioned that "no area is safe for the queer community". "I didn't pick up a queer-friendly area for comfort, but it was a low-risk zone for survival," they say, adding that no research methods come to help. "There is no real research method for finding a place for us; it’s mostly just going street to street, figuring it out on foot," Ayush says, who lives in New Ashok Nagar. They also mention that, sometimes, friends can help in navigating the safer streets and areas. 

Mumbai not behind 

Considered to be an accepting space for the LGBTQIA+ community, several respondents also talked about street safety in Mumbai. For Asim Sarkar, who migrated to Mumbai in 2017 from Indore, overseeing social media, the acceptance the community receives in Mumbai, he stayed beyond his postgraduate studies. While he does not pinpoint a particular area, comparatively, he considers the streets of Mumbai to be safer. 

Rayyaan, who migrated from Dubai, considers safety to be a huge factor in remaining in Mumbai. While they already had a house in the city that prevented the strain of researching safer areas and streets, they named Mahalaxmi – also the area they reside in – and Bandra to be the safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Under a woman’s leadership: Kolkata

Hailing from Shyamnagar in West Bengal and having faced harassment by the Adivasis living in her area, Surya Mandal migrated to Kolkata, however researched the safer streets and areas. “Kolkata is not safe; I have been groped and almost kidnapped in front of a lavish mall where not even the security guards came for any help. Even the police do not help if we are harassed by a group of men in public and rather expect us to provide sexual advances to them,” Mandal narrates. 

In such a situation, it was difficult to stay in the city, however, she later shifted to southern Kolkata which she considers safe. “People are open-minded here,” she says adding that she might migrate outside India as “India, in general, has still not given ample security to the community despite the rights given and the advocacy around.”

Born and brought up in Kolkata, even Sumit Nath aims to either migrate soon to Delhi or Hyderabad for safety purposes. He shares that he will research on the internet and with his friends before selecting the areas to reside in.

Exploring streets within the cities

While many get the opportunity to migrate, many respondents filled in for the safe spaces within their cities. Hyderabad-based Ganesh Goyal accepts that places like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru are safer, but also considers the “posh areas of Hyderabad” to be accepting towards the community. He names areas like Vidya Nagar, where he resides, along with Hitech City, Gowlidowdi, Himayat Nagar, Madhavpur, Banjara Hills, and Gachibowli to be safer. “One of the reasons is that it has tech companies also offering jobs to community persons, and hence, the representation is quite visible.

For Vivek Mohan, 34, who has heard stories of harassment in bigger cities by his acquaintance, living in a city like Kochi seems fine. “Though the community is not celebrated here much, I can still mind my own business and live without the fear of being scammed and harassed,” he says. As per the pattern of the responses, it is the areas with the tech companies that feel safer to the community. Like Ganesh Goyal, Mohan considers the streets around City Centre and the IT Park to be more “accepting and tolerant”. 

Amongst other responses received for the survey, another contrasting shift came to light where a few community persons mentioned having migrated from T1 to T2 cities. One of them is Warun Wadhwani who, after living in Delhi for five years pursuing graduation and another three years in Chennai for postgraduation shifted back home to Bhopal. 

In a nutshell and from the survey conducted, what remains constant is the need for safer streets and how mouth publicity remains the most chosen method in ascertaining the safe streets and areas for the people belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community.