As the Chennai Rainbow Pride Parade returned after a two-year gap on Sunday, the unassuming Langs Garden Road, Egmore turned into a riot of colour and song. Flags were aloft, drums were beating, speakers were blaring, as an estimated 7,000 people showed up over four hours.
“In 2019, we had around 3,000 participants. This year, the crowd is larger after two years of COVID,” says transwoman G Sankari, co-founder of Nirangal Charitable Trust, one of the organisations that form Tamil Nadu Rainbow Coalition that unites to organise this parade. Sankari takes a couple of minutes to sit down and get her breath back, after hours of cheering and chanting with participants old and new.
