(On 6 September 2018, the Supreme Court of India read down IPC's Section 377, decriminalising homosexuality. FIT is re-publishing this piece in honor of its one year anniversary.)
India is known to be a country of paradox. We accept homo-social behaviour and yet there is a law which criminalises homosexual acts. It's very common to find same sex people arm-in-arm in public, hugging, embracing, holding hands but if a heterosexual couple is practicing the same behaviour in public, it catches all eyes.
Similarly, it's easy to hire a room in a flat or hotel for people of same sex but the heterosexual couple has to prove their relation.
It’s an irony – in the land of Kamasutra and Khajuraho, homosexuality is still seen as a western influence, forcing most of the sexual minority communities such as gay, lesbian, transgender, etc to be closeted or else face stigma and discrimination.