India decriminalized gay sex. LGBTQ activists say the next step is changing society’s ‘mindset.’

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When homosexuality was first decriminalized in India in 2009, Namrata Mukherjee didn’t understand the full ramifications of the Delhi High Court’s judgement declaring that discrimination on sexual orientation would be prohibited.

Then the judgement was overturned in 2013.

“It deeply impacted and upset me,” she says.

Since then, 25-year-old Mukherjee, a research fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in New Delhi who identifies as queer, became a strong advocate against the law, which was enacted during British colonial rule in 1861.

Early Thursday, a five-member Supreme Court bench overturned the 2013 judgement, unanimously ending the country’s ban on gay sex.

Hours after the judgement was passed, celebrations continued across the capital city of Delhi and throughout the country.

Justice Indu Malhotra, the only woman on the constitution bench, in a separate judgement, noted that an apology to the members of the LGBT community was in order.

“History owes an apology to the members of this community and their families, for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries,” she wrote.

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Ruchi

I am an Indian journalist based in Kabul for nearly three years now. I primarily covering post-conflict, developmental and cultural stories from the region, and sometimes report on the ongoing conflict as well.

ruchihkumar@gmail.com