Veteran actor Zeenat Aman took to Instagram on June 26 to share a message for 'straight folks' on Pride Month.
Calling herself an ally of the LGBTQIA community, she shared a long note, especially for the older generations who are struggling to accept or are outright denying, the existence of queer identities. She further quoted Rabindranath Tagore's poem, 'Where the mind is without fear?' and urged those who carry apprehensions about queerness to not be a slave to the dead habit of hate or ignorance.
Zeenat captioned her post, 'Happy Pride Month, dear followers. When @googleindia reached out to me to be a part of their #searchforchange campaign, my first instinct was to suggest they approach someone from the LGBTQIA+ community. As a straight person I have not lived any of their experiences and so cannot speak for them. I do however consider myself an ally. I have befriended, known and worked with many talented, creative, artistic and wonderful people from this community.'
She said, 'My message thus is not for the LGBTQIA+ community; they know their own experiences best. My message is for straight folk, especially those older generations who are struggling to accept, or are outright denying, the existence of queer identities. Culture and nature are the two banal arguments that I hear cited against such relationships time and again. I am no anthropologist, but I know that healthy cultures are ever-evolving. Neither am I a naturalist, but I know that queer relationships exist in a diversity of species. Beyond this is the simple matter of free will. My own philosophy has always been to live and let live, and it perplexes me that anyone should take offence to the personal choices of another when it does them no harm. That too in matters of love.
Zeenat added, 'Do you remember that beautiful Tagore poem ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’? It is a rousing vision of freedom, and I would like to quote from it in the hope that it will encourage you to choose love over hate, and reason over prejudice. Tagore calls for a world: Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way/Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit/Where the mind is led forward by thee/Into ever-widening thought and action.'
Zeenat said the times are (always) changing and with it so can our thoughts.
She concluded, 'If you are someone who carries apprehensions about queerness, I urge you to not be a slave to the dead habit of hate or ignorance. The times are (always) changing, and with it so can our thoughts. The shame lies not so much in being ignorant, but in choosing ignorance. We have the tools at our disposal to know better. So if you're still wondering about that Tagore poem, queer animals, or what LGBTQIA+ stands for...#Searchforchange, Google it.#Ad.'
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