Deepak K, 25 Counselling Psychologist and Education Consultant Lives between Mumbai and Ajmer‘Adult, consensual homosexual sex is no longer illegal in India. The Delhi High Court has just come out with this landmark judgment,’ this news blared on television screens two years back. I was sitting in front of one in the one-horse town of Ajmer, Rajasthan. It was a day when emotions ran high and things in my home changed forever. I was at my family home with my boyfriend, who was, for all appearances, ‘just a good friend’ for my parents. But my life changed after the Delhi High Court Judgment read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Previously sexual intimacy between consenting same sex adults was criminal.
During the commercial break, I realised that my mother was sobbing in the kitchen while cooking our meal. I tried speaking to her but she didn’t say anything then. Two years since, we’ve come out to her as a couple and she has accepted us.
Today queers find it easier to express themselves more confidently. There are more books in stores, film screenings, discussions, cultural events and freer parties. More importantly, it’s become easier to do outreach work. NGOs working on sexual and mental health of the LGBTI community no longer find it hard to reach out to an invisible population in a ‘legal and righteous’ way. My friend, Raj, an outreach worker in a NGO in Gujarat, once said, ‘Now I don’t fear getting arrested while doing advocacy work or distributing condoms to gays. The legal fight in the Supreme Court will become easier when the cultural drive of awareness has picked up. Today, my mother cares about my happiness, irrespective of what the government thinks.’
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