Because I am a woman

377 is no more. Did someone sprinkle pixie dust on us?

A powerful graffiti in the streets of Montmarte, Paris caught my eye. Little did I know that I’ll have an occasion to use this image to express an opinion on a position taken in my own country.
Published at Women’s Web.

Rewind one month

August 5, 2018. I was in Paris, amazed to see the expressive and fearless support for gay rights everywhere. Life size graffiti on walls celebrated lesbian sexuality unabashedly. The strong visual imagery was not defaced. Rainbow coloured flags outside people’s houses proudly danced in the wind. People walked over rainbow zebra crossings in Le Marais. Rainbow painted roads exhibited colours of gender-agnostic love in prime parts of the city, running up to the iconic Alexander III Bridge.

I never imagined our society anywhere close to that kind of liberated life.

Fast forward to the present

September 6, 2018. I can picture Indian streets reflecting similar shades of inclusiveness and freedom that I felt in Paris. And that too in the current audaciously irrational times. Someone pinch me – the Supreme Court’s stand on decriminalizing homosexuality feels blissfully unreal. Almost as if the judges are sprinkling the society and government with pixie dust.

As a citizen of this country, I feel infinitely proud.

Kudos to the relentless efforts of social groups and organizations such as the Naz Foundation, vocal members of the LGBTQ+ community, host of lawyers and academicians, who have sincerely fought for this moment, for over two decades now.

Thank you for seeing this through. Thank you for proving once again that our country actually believes in, fights for, and can die for hope, freedom and love.

This article was published at Women’s Web.

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