It would have been ironic if India's most cosmopolitan, liberal city were to put the brakes on a march that helps the community take up mainstream spaces. While the Pride March had a huge novelty value when it started off in 2008, and some of that has worn off as the years progressed, it is vital that the event remain part of the city's calendar. For all the so-called progress and even as gay voices are being heard more frequently, it will still take time to blur the lines between gay and mainstream.

The LGBTQ community must not now be confined to different spaces or a world different from the rest. What better way to illustrate that than allow gay voices and supporters to walk on the streets to make a statement?

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Some time ago, a book on stories by the gay community was launched at a mainstream bookstore in South Mumbai. The space was significant and proved that demarcations between what spaces gay and the mainstream inhabit should disappear. Cohesiveness, acceptance and awareness comes not only in the mind, but in physical spaces too.