The way how India evolved after 6/9/2018...

Yes, this particular date remains in the history of INDIA as a remarkable one, especially for the queer community and the queer people who have been fighting for equality, acceptance, and inclusivity for ages. On this very date, we all know for a fact that the Supreme Court of India made a historic judgment by decriminalizing consensual homosexual encounters that won't be considered as a crime and completely ruled out the typical British law of IPC Sec 377. In simpler words, being a queer person isn't illegal in India, anymore!

Needless to say, being a country with a crazy population count and too many traditions and cultures with a lot of diversity involved among people in society, it was always a difficult scenario for a queer person to be oneself. But thanks to a few activists, journalists, social workers, and many people who took initiation to fight against all the societal odds regarding the existence of queer people in the country, now India has emerged as one of the safest countries for the queer community with no suppressions and oppressions.

But it wasn't a cakewalk for the whole country to accept the queer community the way it is within a day. Even though the judgment was in the favor of queer people, the typical religious norms, societal restrictions, and gender generalizations were very against the whole queer community especially these queerphobic people were hard to handle. On one side the country was immersed in sheer happiness because of the inclusion. Many people felt relaxed and came out openly and proudly as queer, to express their real personalities and faces out there. People who already came out before the judgment felt satisfied with the cause they worked for and they felt like someone who was no more illegal to be themselves in Indian society. But yes, there were still restrictions and everywhere there was a cold-shouldered behavior.

The first year was challenging. Senior citizens couldn't understand the whole concept of LGBTQIA+ people, and the adults didn't want to understand whereas the youth of India was quite confused in understanding and the children weren't allowed to even understand. With the various kinds of people, the queer community in India faced deeper emotional and psychological struggles. It wasn't easy at all for a particular set of people to make them try to understand the aspects of queerness, gender identities, sexual orientations. Gender and sexual fluidity were faraway concepts at that time.

That was the very year, many queer people came out of closets and tried harder to let people around them understand what they were. Most of them were quite successful in proving their points regarding the orientations and identities but a few of them ended up in bad positions because of societal and family influences. That was unpleasant to witness the situations where fellow queer beings were getting attacked, thrown out of their abodes, getting restricted, forcibly diverted towards heterosexuality, committing suicides and there was a lot of chaos among many Indian families with queer people involved.

Out of chaos, there followed the fighting spirit among the queer crowd and queer people started hosting various kinds of awareness activities almost every single day in various parts of the countries, not leaving a single spot or location in India without marking the queer territory. Dramas involved queer characters, kids were involved in queer events, youth were involved in pride parades, parents were involved with their kids' life choices, professional spaces were involved in conducting queer events, people were involved in uplifting the queer community in various possible ways. Slowly, 2019 became the year of queer evolvement in India. Though people faced a lot of chaos, they ended up making a positive impression in Indian society by making everyone aware of the queer community.

2020 was a turning point in world history because of the Covid Pandemic and like everyone, queer people also got affected physically, emotionally, economically, and financially too. But on the brighter side, within the span of two years, society witnessed the greater development in queer inclusions in various sectors. People started recognizing and acknowledging the importance of being a queer person, leading one's own life regardless of differences in gender identities and sexual orientations. The queer community itself has evolved in a better way and stood strong in society with queer people making their appearances, presence, and existence in various occupations, streams, fields, professions, and on a happy note, people started normalizing homosexual couples. Though homosexual marriages aren't allowed in India yet, many queer couples started living together, and some of them indeed got married in other countries and happily living in the country with no restrictions.

Altogether, after the two years of that marvelous judgment, both the queer community and the country have evolved beautifully in terms of acceptance and inclusivity. The entertainment industry played a prominent role in bringing out the untold and inspiring queer stories on screen in the forms of short films, movies, web series, theatrical dramas, album songs, etc. Similarly, the literature also helped many authors to script stories, cover documentaries and release queer story novels to help people understand the real power of a word and to mend their mindsets towards the acceptance of a fellow human being.

Art has evolved indeed with too many artists fighting for the cause of gender fluidity and sexual fluidity. Artists like photographers, models, actors have portrayed and contributed their work for the upliftment of the queer community in India. Out of everything, the fashion game has completely changed, and it became even more glamorous with the gender-fluid, gender-neutral, non-binary, and unisexual concepts. Strictly speaking, now androgynous and gender-fluid fashion is a boom in India.

The country never failed in attracting too many world nations' attention in every particular way. The queer community of India with the involvement of many queer Indians who portrayed their remarkable journeys to the world. Three years after the judgment, the queer community has evolved in every possible way, including the dating scenario. Now you will find gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, asexuals, pansexuals, and all kinds of queer people on every platform be it dating or social media, be it cinema or art, be it private sector or public sector, be it in the form of words or pictures, you can never escape the existence and appearance of a queer person in India.

India still needs to evolve in terms of queer inclusivity, but the country came to a position where it never restricts the presence of a queer personality, unlike many other countries. India is still one of the safe countries for a queer person to make living, explore, and be true to be oneself without any hesitation and doubt. There are a few more parts to work on but so far the country has evolved and transformed from being restrictive and rigid to be accepting and encouraging.