My family thinks homosexuals are strange, and refuse to believe that one of their own could possibly be gay. My friend is coming out to her mother this summer, and she's worried that her mother will not buy it - she just won't internalize it, she says. Every story you hear about women and men being successful and strong gays in India, who make their families accept their sexuality and their partners is just that - one story about one person from a country of more than a billion people. The stories of repression and violence are untold, primarily because of that same repression, and the belief that the family and the community are larger than the individual.

People underestimate how very conservative liberal Indians can be when it comes to someone in their own backyard going against the norm. Beyond the stigma of being gay and therefore a criminal in the eyes of the law, homosexuals have to deal with being less than a person in the eyes of a society that is increasingly becoming less inclusive of the "other", be it religion, behavior, gender or sexuality. Lines have been drawn in the sand.

When Anbumani Ramadoss (the previous Health Minister) suggested decriminalizing homosexuality, not only did the Home Ministry tell him to not speak out of turn, the entire establishment told him to keep his trap shut. I have a lot of issues with Mr Ramadoss, but I respected him for speaking out. However, his motives had less to do with justice and fundamental rights and more to do with taking away some of the stigma surrounding AIDS.

The Delhi High Court's decision, however, talks about how Section 377 "criminalizes his or her core identity". The judgement also says criminalizing homosexuality based on moral grounds goes counter to equality. One assumes that this same argument would hold for gay marriage and adoption rights, but Indians still need to wait to hear from the legal system on those issues.

However, the High Court's decisions do not necessarily translate into Government action on this. The loud voices of the Hindu, Muslim and Christian leaders who shout that homosexuality is immoral and unnatural will carry some weight with the Congress-led government, especially since it needs the Christian and Muslim vote to remain in power, along with a lot of the Hindu vote.

I am hopeful, but not convinced, that this Government, safe for a while before the campaigning starts again, will strike down those parts of Section 377 that criminalize homosexuality. I think there's a long battle still ahead. And I can not wait to participate in it.

I feel guilt in not having participated in the struggle so far. I did not primarily because I was ignorant. I would like to think that is no longer true.

4

You recommended