While the world is steady heading towards progressiveness and tolerance, India is still held back because of its archaic laws. It is 2016, and yet homosexuality is illegal in India. The section 377 of the Indian Penal Code deems consensual homosexuality as unnatural sex and considers it illegal.

The battle for repealing this law has been an uphill one. The fact that it violates the fundamental rights of citizens of India has not yet been taken into notice by the judiciary in spite of repeated attempts to take it down.

But changing the law is only the first step. What is truly needed is acceptance. A large chunk of our population lives under the impression that one's sexual orientation is a choice that can be changed on a whim. Some even believe that it is a disease that can be cured by Ayurvedic medicine and prayers. And others consider it a perversion.

It is this kind of narrow mindedness that makes the members of the LGBTQI community stay in hiding. While a lot of activists are vocal about their sexual orientation, a majority of the people don't advertise it simply because they fear the oppression.

A recent answer on a Quora post about homosexuality in India talks about all the little difficulties and the problems that homosexuals face on a daily basis in India.

Quora user Anamika Pareek's answer to the question "What is it like to be a lesbian in India?" touches a few raw nerves. Her answer is testament to how much the LGBTQI community has to go through.

Our life would have been much easier had people accepted us. Since they don't, so our life revolves around pretending and hiding.

Life gets complicated somehow. Especially if we go away from our home for further studies and share room with just another girl. It's easy to hide for some time but can't hide it all the time. If not everyone then room mate surely will get some hint. Though we don't fall for every other girl but there are things which make us uncomfortable, and that's the grey area where we find it difficult to hide. But then the problem is we can't control it plus if we confess it then it will leave others uncomfortable around us. Like, the other day my room mate was asking me if her nipples were visible in the top she was wearing. I looked and told her no. But when I said this, I had a smile on my face which I could not control. Now this question was normal that two girls can ask each other but you tell me will she ask the same question the moment she gets to know that I'm a lesbian?

This was just a minute example that I gave but there are many things which makes us uncomfortable and people think that either we are weird or insane to smile for no specific reason.

The reason we have to hide and pretend all the time is that society will hate us. The only reason we live in depression most of the times and have suicidal thoughts are that we can't tell anyone and not everyone is courageous to come out and face the trouble.

The other day my gf wanted to kiss me. I told her to wait for like years till we start living together because if anyone see us, we will be in jail. Though I consoled her, but here "living together" looks like a distant dream when my parents are worried about getting me married (obviously with a boy). They have no clue about anything.

Accepting the fact that there exists people of different genre can make our lives much more easy. Till then we are hiding and pretending to be straight. The problem is this mask can't be affixed permanently.

Her answer was well received by a lot of people and has received more than 2000 upvotes since it was posted.

More courageous voices like Anamika's are needed to bring about the change the LGBTQI community has deserved for a very long time.