The freedom to be me

Two years after the reading down of Section 377, Mohnish Malhotra believes it is just the first hour of the dawn with a very long day ahead

Nations like ours that assert to be democracies have often proved dystopian when it comes to the LGBTQIA+ community’s equal rights. We are on the cusp of an era where we witness the remaining vestiges of the disdained fate of Queer folks, or so it appears. Two years after the reading down of Section 377, in my opinion, it is just the first hour of the dawn with a very long day ahead.

The year 1986, when journalist Ashok Row Kavi came out as openly gay and gave an interview to a glossy, it launched a possibility of a dialogue in the media that would slowly cultivate into gradual debates, airtime, and more personal reports on this issue over the year. Over the last 34 years, veterans like Anjali Gopalan of Naz Foundation — responsible for appealing the Delhi High Court to decriminalise homosexuality — and individual petitioners like Navtej Johar, Keshav Suri, Ayesha Sood have laid the foundation to a more inclusive future. This law had rarely demonstrated to serve the true nature of any law to protect citizens’ rights. Instead, it had been exercised as a tool to extort, blackmail, and bully by its very own custodians and the authorities. The first short circuit to this system was the victory that came in the 2009 judgement of the Delhi High Court. It was then, for the first time, the legal platform granted by the honourable high court allowed Dr Ramachandran Siras of Aligarh Muslim University to fight his bullies and demand for justice.

A vast majority of cases go unreported due to the stigma and shame that follows the exposure. But this was different. For the first time, there was a nationwide protest and uproar. He was eventually reinstated and sadly was found dead on the eve when he was meant to resume his post.

In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld Section 377 following an appeal by some right-wing and religious groups. Millions of Queer folks who found the courage to come out of the closet after 2009 demonstrated no going back. The power of 377 had started to diminish with quantum leaps. I remember we organised a global day of rage to protest the 2013 verdict. Then came the historic National Legal Services Authority judgement in 2014, recognising the transgender community as the third gender. Finally, in 2018, when the case resumed in the Supreme Court, more and more individual petitioners started coming forward, appealing the bench that changed the direction of this discourse.

A lot is yet to be achieved, and the community is preparing the way forward to the next steps. Still, for now, we will cherish what we have and be grateful that we are not forced to assume criminality based on who we love and what we do in our bedrooms.

(The author is an activist)