Members of the Gay community in Gujarat state now refuse to live double lives.
Today it is a year since the Delhi high court struck down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and decriminalised homosexuality. A year of freedom from the offensive section has had a small but significant impact on the gay population in Gujarat.
According to activists, the past year has seen a 15-20% surge in the number of people coming out of the closet in the state. “This has been most pronounced in urban areas, among the educated youth, the non-resident Indians...,” says Manvendra Singh Gohil, prince of the erstwhile estate of Rajpipla. Gohil is the global face of gay activism in India.
Forced marriage of gay people with heterosexual partners has shown a marginal decline, and married men have started confessing to their families with varying degrees of acceptance. But most importantly, there is a distinct increase in spouses seeking counselling.
Though it is difficult to arrive at an exact figure, observers, psychologists and activists working with the gay section of society say that scrapping of section 377 has helped. Founder-member of Vadodara-based Lakshya Trust, Sylvester Merchant, says there has been a 20% rise in the number of women reaching out to break free from marriage to gay men. The trust, which has a four-year-old ‘female partners of MSM (men having sex with men)’ programme, works with over 10,000 gay people in Gujarat.
“Many gay men and women have taken a stand against being forced into conventional marriages,” Gohil said. “Men realise that sleeping outside marriage, even if it is with another man, is also cheating.”
These advantages, however, seem to be limited to the urban sections of society as gay men in rural areas continue to enter into conventional marriage or take to priesthood. Chandu Patel, project manager of city-based NGO Chuval Gram Vikas which works with 3,000 MSMs in Ahmedabad, says that decriminalization has not changed their lives.
“No arrest was ever made in Ahmedabad so the gay people do not know what the scrapping of section 377 means,” he said.
“Awareness has indeed grown because activists are intensely working to protect spouses from HIV-Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases.” Patel said that there are 80-90 NGOs working in Gujarat with homosexuals.
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