In a historic and most welcome move, the Supreme Court of India decriminalised Section 377 of the Indian constitution on 6th September, 2018. It’s been more than a year since that judgement. Has anything changed on the ground?

While it is a huge relief that I cannot get arrested for having sex with another guy, we are still far from a situation where homosexuality is considered normal in Indian society. Societies change slowly. Attitudes of people as a whole change slowly.

So, while we are all happy that the legal aspect of this most sorry affair has been sorted, hopefully for good, we still have a long way to go until being gay is considered as normal as being left handed.

Today, I cannot dream of telling my parents that I am gay. They are more than sixty years old. I don’t blame them at all. It is how they are. They will not disown me or anything. They just won’t understand. They might just feel that God / karma / whatever has been unkind to them. Eventually they will come to terms with it. But they will go through a lot of trauma within. I just want to spare them that agony.

I cannot even dream of talking about this at work. The way our society functions, I know there will be gossip, there will be snide comments made behind my back. And these are mostly young Indians. So, you see, sometimes it has nothing to do with age. It is just how we have been brought up. It is how society as a whole has evolved.

Make no mistake however. The Supreme court judgement is a massive step in the quest for normalcy. It is the first of many battles the community has to win. I believe that as society evolves, things will change. I just feel that the pace is not going to be as fast as we would like.

A battle is won. The war still rages on.