IN A LOT of ways, despite the stifling formal strictures of our land, the gay community in India has made rapid strides. Our mainstream discourse might still be largely homophobic. Gay sex may still be criminalised. But everywhere you look, both in our large cosmopolitan cities and smaller towns, people are coming out of the closet. You can see them in colourful pride parades, protesting against the law that criminalises homosexuality, setting up support systems for themselves, converting conservative parents and relatives to their cause, showing that homosexuality—unlike what the courts say—cannot be dismissed as ‘against the order of nature’.
Yet, save for a few, the upper echelons of Indian society maintain a frightening silence on the issue. Film stars, sportspersons, industrialists, artists, anyone with an image that can be…
