Last Diwali season, Rohan Sheth traded in a candlelit house and rangoli, a traditional Hindu decoration, for eating Indian food at Manhattan's Copper Chimney with his sister.
"I went out and bought a rangoli kit the very next day so this wouldn't happen again," he said, laughing.
Sheth, 23, and other members of the South Asian gay and lesbian community, are finding that despite the prominence of Hindu organizations in New York City, their options for celebrating religious and cultural holidays seem limited. And Diwali, one of the most important and widely celebrated Hindu holidays, is no exception.
Judith Stacey, a NYU sociology professor who has researched queer theory and ethnography, said that many non-white, non-Christian members of the lesbian and gay community struggle to maintain both their cultural and sexual identity simultaneously.
[...]
Complete article at Huffington Post : http://huff.to/umhcpU
