Gay people India live a double life and ’s time we talk about s mental health implitns | HealthShots

Contents:

• ‘THERE ARE FEW GAY PEOPLE INDIA’: STIGMA LGERS SPE LEGAL VICTORY
• DELHI GAY TRAVEL
• GAY PEOPLE INDIA LIVE A DOUBLE LIFE AND ’S TIME WE TALK ABOUT S MENTAL HEALTH IMPLITNS

‘THERE ARE FEW GAY PEOPLE INDIA’: STIGMA LGERS SPE LEGAL VICTORY

In 2017, when he told his parents he was gay, their illn of him as the perfect son shattered. Unlike Sourav, who nfintly asserts himself as a gay man spe the phback om his loved on, back the 1980s and 1990s, I had no termology to scribe what I was. There was emotnal blackmail, cludg beg blamed for his mother’s illns; beg taken by his parents to nsult a homophobic nropsychiatrist who diagnosed him wh a “sexual disorr”, prcribed meditn for and remend unsellg to rrect his ways; and opprsive parental surveillance, aid by the lack of privacy their two-room home.

To his horror, she told him that he was “not normal”, followed by advice monly given to young gay men: bee more “mascule”.

DELHI GAY TRAVEL

He believ that if his father had not been homophobic, his mother would have e around by now.

The transphobic and homophobic people peddlg illegal, unscpulo treatments are not likely to disappear overnight. When India’s supreme urt announced was legalisg gay sex, people hugged twos and thre on the lawns outsi the Delhi urthoe.

A law agast “unnatural sex” enshred by the lonial Brish ernment (and fend by succsive Indian on) was unanimoly led to no longer prohib homosexual acts. The reverberatns of the cisn – on sheer numbers, perhaps the largt sgle act of gay liberatn ever – are still ripplg across a vast, diverse and nservative untry.

GAY PEOPLE INDIA LIVE A DOUBLE LIFE AND ’S TIME WE TALK ABOUT S MENTAL HEALTH IMPLITNS

“They wrote, ‘Congratulatns to my homosexual iends’. “The iology of marryg a woman and havg children here is eply rooted, ” says Shubhankar Mondal, a medil stunt and one of the few openly gay people at his llege the cy. A few days after the verdict last September, Patna threw s first gay party.

”The lgerg fear reflects the fact that Indian society do a better job of policg s gay members than law enforcement ever did. Vlatg India’s ban on homosexual acts was punishable by up to 10 years prison.

Its real impact, acrdg to reports by human rights groups, was to emboln police and others to extort and abe gay people, knowg most would be reluctant to seek help om a ernment that regard them as stigma still lgers. “In India, is a se of ethics, ” says Sanjay Paswan, a member of the Bihar state uncil and former Indian feral mister who opposed the cisn to lift the gay ban.