From the treacherous \u2018sex trucks\u2019 of New York to the grim days of Aids and Clause 28 in Britain, Sunil Gupta had a ringside seat at the fight for gay liberation. At last, the Zelig-like photographer is getting his dues<\/p>\n
Sunil Gupta can remember the names the white schoolkids called each other when he arrived in Montreal in the late 1960s, having moved there from Delhi. \u201cThere were Greeks and Italians,\u201d he says over a cup of tea in his loft-like apartment and workspace in London. \u201cPeople used very pejorative terms freely. I learned the whole vocabulary.\u201d His fellow pupils, however, did not yet have the words to describe Gupta. \u201cThey had never heard of India. My \u2018baggage\u2019 was useless.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also recalls his first boyfriend. \u201cThis American boy: blond hair, blue-eyed, Irish, from Wisconsin.\u201d He didn\u2019t know much about Indians, says Gupta, \u201cbut he was very knowledgeable about the streets.\u201d Again, Gupta hadn\u2019t the terminology for what they did together. \u201cI\u2019d been very sexually active since as far back as I can remember,\u201d he explains. \u201cIn large Indian families, there is a very strict formality on the surface, but underneath everything goes. There were boys in the neighbourhood, but it didn\u2019t have a name. Besides, my future was laid out: at the right age, your mum and dad found you a spouse.\u201d<\/p>\n