In September last year, history was made and millions rejoiced as India’s Supreme Court finally decriminalised homosexuality by ruling section 377 of the penal code unconstitutional. The verdict, predicted to directly affect more than 100 million people (estimates suggest that eight per cent of India’s population may be LGBTQ), concludes a long battle against homophobia.
When the ruling was announced, Supreme Court Judge Indu Malhotra commented: “History owes an apology to the members of this community and their families… for the ignominy and ostracism that they have sufered through the centuries.”
Present in the courtroom was hotelier Keshav Suri, one of several whose writ petitions had brought India’s LGBTQ community to the precipice of liberty. “I went in with a sense of ‘We’ve won’,” he tells Attitude. “I was internally screaming ‘Yass!’ I wanted to do backlips and the splits and I wanted to kiss the judges.