I was 13 when I first fell in love with a boy. I didn't realize it then. I only knew that I was willing to learn 9th grade Sanskrit without any prior knowledge of the language just to be in a class with him. (1/9)
I was 16 when I fell in love with another boy. This time, I knew what it was, but was able to successfully convince myself it was a phase - or even better, that it was a one-off kind of love, that I'd just as easily fall for a woman. (2/9)
I was 17 when I realized that I wasn't going to fall for women. That year, for the first time I spoke the words that would make the jigsaw confusion of the last 6 years fall into place. "I'm gay" I said, sitting in the dark, practicing the utterance. (3/9)
I was 18 when I began reading about the law that was not on my side, and when I began to see how its existence seemed to validate the silences that had slowly accrued. (4/9)
I was 19 when I fell in love with a man, sense what it could mean for love to be reciprocated and then what it could mean for it to be lost. (5/9)
I was 24 when the Supreme Court delivered the Suresh Kumar Koushal judgment and told me that the rights I assumed were part of my innate humanity did not in fact exist. (6/9)
The Koushal Court's words were weighted down with prejudice and hate. I laughed and brushed them off but they often became an unsaid justification to tolerate casual indignities in public or casual cruelties in private. (7/9)
I am 29. The highest constitutional court of my country has finally told me that
I am, unambiguously, an equal citizen. That I have, unambiguously, the right to love. (8/9)
I am, unambiguously, an equal citizen. That I have, unambiguously, the right to love. (8/9)
About fucking time. #377Verdict
