Vaid, who died of cancer on May 14th, in Manhattan, at the age of sixty-three, wasn’t the head of all the gays, but only because that job does not exist. She realized that he was, unknowingly, talking about her. As evidence, he offered-and, at this point, Vaid would turn on a distinctly Indian English pronunciation, “an Indian woman is the head of all the gays.” Vaid was so confused that the man had to repeat his claim. As she told the story, the organizer claimed that the reasons the association had been turned away had nothing to do with homophobia.
Vaid went to the Queens office of one of the parade organizers to make her case. In 1992, Urvashi Vaid, a thirty-three-year-old Indian American lesbian activist, was campaigning for the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association to be included in the annual India Day Parade in New York City.
