Maya Sharma is anxiously awaiting the decision because India’s Supreme Court is expected to rule on legalizing same-sex relationships in the upcoming weeks.
The 73-year-old is an LGBTQ advocate who resides in Vadodara, in the west, with her sexual partner.
She is one of the 21 plaintiffs who are calling for wedding equality, including same-sex couples, transgender people, and organizations. Along with nine other people, she filed a petition asking for the freedom for LGBTQ people to choose their own households, even if they are not married.
Ms. Sharma” despises the idea” and left a bisexual marriage three decades ago. She doesn’t like marriage for herself. She claims that the word” marriage” has many connotations and would rather refer to her relationship as a” partnership.”
” I’m hoping that after the prayer, people’s thoughts will shift to institutions that are more equitable than wedding.”
When Ms. Sharma first became interested in women, she was a student at the time. She had” deep and personal friends” with some of them. However, she claimed that at the time,” the world was very homosexual” to accept a lesbian relationship.
After school, she relocated to Delhi in the 1960s and started working for a women’s freedom organization, which changed this. She came across a number of people there who were either trapped in unfaithful marriages or secretly in love with another women. She was” reminded of her own needs” by the experience.
Gay relationships were also frowned upon and regarded as extremely unusual in India at the time. Mr. Sharma claimed that occasionally change would have an impact. For example, two policewomen made headlines in 1988 after getting married. A few gay couples also made unspoken commitments to stay together in” partnership agreements ,” or casual contracts.
But the neighborhood still had to deal with reaction. Ms. Sharma emphasized that even the adult policemen later had their employment terminated without warning or justification.
She claimed that one of the first turning points occurred in 1991 when non-profit Aids Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan published a 70-page report on gay rights in India, which is commonly regarded as the country’s earliest file on the subject. This report sought to dispel stigma associated with same-sex relationships.
The document, Less Than Gay, also known as” the pink book,” made a number of demands, such as the decriminalization of gay sex, marriage equality, and certain civil and sexual rights for transgender people.
Although the green book received little public support, it did provide Ms. Sharma the courage to call off her 16-year marriage.
She claimed that the decision she made was motivated by the fact that she” could not digest how unequal and oppressive marriage was ,” not by her sexuality, which she was still coming to terms with.
I left without telling my husband that I had packed a little bag.
A few years after, when she fell in love with a woman, she discovered that she was once more yearning for” the world to be unique” and more receptive to relationships between people of the same sex.
Knowing oneself is one factor. However, she added,” When you fall in love, it’s a step forward.”
Up until 1998, when the movie Fire was released in India, she continued to struggle with her emotions.
The movie, which starred well-known players Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, was among the first in Bollywood to depict a gay marriage and generated significant backlash. Theaters were vandalized by political events, and protesters attacked people who went to see the movie.
Counter-protests from LGBTQ groups were sparked by the backlash. Ms. Sharma created a flyer that read” Indian and Lesbian” and displayed it alongside people in front of Delhi’s renowned Regal Cinema.
She initially feared that people would recognize her, but the protests’ effects on the nation afterward gave her confidence.
” Lesbian was making news stories for the first time. Gradually, I wasn’t the only one experiencing fear. We had now confidently state,” Yes, we exist. What can you do about it?”
However, her engagement had ramifications; she was forced to leave a trade union after it charged her with” spoiling their graphic.”
She relocated to Vadodara and joined a local organization advocating for the right of trans, bisexual, and women.
According to Ms. Sharma, court battles have been crucial in advancing the rights of LGBTQ individuals, and” what went behind the war has frequently mattered more than the results.”
For instance, she claims that the LGBTQ community was” scattered and divided” prior to the Supreme Court’s 2018 decriminalization of gay sex. Rarely did the entire group” come together with an knowing” at this point.
Another decisions made along the way even aided the cause. In a historic decision made in 2014, the Supreme Court acknowledged trans people as being of the third female, granting them certain rights and enabling them to” argue with the government.”
According to Ms. Sharma, if same-sex union were legalized by the Supreme Court, more change may result. The action will still need to do more work, she continues, regardless of the outcome.
” Social shift is on the other side of the search for law, which is one side.” However, it is a lovely idea that the two might always cross paths.
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