Five years free: A new life for many LGBTQ+ Indians
Hemant Kumar dreams of living a simple life – with a loving husband, doting daughter and all the respectability that comes from being an old-fashioned family man in small-town India.
Five years ago, Kumar thought that was just a pipe dream. But a historic 2018 ruling by the country’s Supreme Court to decriminalise homosexuality opened the door to love for millions of LGBTQ+ Indians like Kumar who live in small cities and towns around the country.
Now the 21-year-old student dares to dream of finding love, living openly with another man, and raising a child together – all free from fear. “From my childhood, in my family and in my society, everyone has a family.
So inside myself there is a father who wants a kid,” said Kumar, who lives in Jamshedpur, a steel manufacturing town in eastern India.
