Life is not easy for some people. And for the LGBTQAI+ community, it never was. The hurdles they have to face even for basic rights would be unimaginable to privileged people like us.
The first thing they deserve is acceptance from their families. Even though there is a slight appreciable shift in this, the mentality of the majority remains the same. Acceptance from the families and friends are primary. Parents should accept their children’s choices rather than opposing them and persuading them to hide what they are. Just imagine your emotions and feelings being shut forcefully due to the pressure of society and others. Is there anything unbearable than being forced to live with a fake identity?
We live in a society where heterosexuality is celebrated and non-binary gender types considered abnormal. All the mainstream media, movies, arts, books, songs, poems, posts, and everything around us is heterosexual centered and at the same time mock other gender communities. We all grew up hearing stories of Romeo-Juliet or Laila-Majnu that non-binary genders were unacceptable to us in the beginning. That is where the change should begin. From the school level itself, children must be educated about different gender types and sexuality.
Many souls in the LGBTQAI+ community still hide their identity due to the fear of family and societal pressure. They believe they are a curse, and many of them want to end up their life. They face discrimination at work, harassment in offices and public places, and many of them are homeless or abandoned. The social stigma around this has to end. And like all of us, these people should be able to live a free life.
After the landmark judgment by the Supreme Court in 2018, which decriminalized adult consensual same-sex relationships in the Section 377 judgment review, things have changed quite a bit in India. But we are still miles away from legalizing same-sex marriages and allowing them to have all the rights heterosexual couples have in India. LGBTQ also deserves all the legal status and rights heterosexual married couples in India take for granted.
