BANGALORE: Theatre personality and film director Chitra Palekar introduces herself as a mother - a proud mother of a lesbian . At a talk organized by Community Services of Bangalore, a non-profit organization, on Tuesday, Chitra shared her personal journey with her daughter who walked up to her one day in the early 1990s and said she was homosexual.

"Would you love your child less if he is left-handed? Would you hate her if she is dark? You don't. It is the same case here. Nothing changes because she has a different sexual orientation. Science has proved it's not a disease, it is merely a difference. She is your child. And you want her to flower."

Her daughter had just finished graduation when she confided to her mother. "She told me: 'Amma, I'm a lesbian'. I wasn't shocked. I was just surprised, taken aback. Heterosexuality is what we've all grown up with. My only knowledge about homosexuality was through films and some literature. But I immediately accepted her. Because she was the same that she was till two minutes ago. Nothing about her had changed for me."

The only thing that hurt, Chitra says, is that her daughter knew this 4 to 5 years ago but didn't speak about it then. "I am a liberal, progressive parent. She was aware of her difference years before she spoke up. That hurt. I realized I was an activist who spoke about everything under the sun, except homosexuality."

Her daughter is 41 now, teaching in the University of Western Australia . She has a partner with whom she's been living for 14 years. "Even many heterosexuals don't live together so long!" she chuckles. Chitra laughs, recalling those moments when they teased her, calling her 'mother-in-law'.

Chitra now fights relentlessly for the rights of homosexuals. She was among the 19 parents who argued for them in the Supreme Court. "The phenomenon is not unnatural. The latest science research shows it happens at the foetus level. I call it being different, a variant. The World Health Organization has dropped homosexuality from its list of diseases. There was a time when parents would force children who use left hands to change. This is no longer so. I may see good days in my lifetime too."