A special thank you to the 3 brilliant young individuals who have assisted with the research of the book. Prathyush Parasuraman spent 3 months helping kickstart the primary and secondary research after shifting to Mumbai from Bhubaneshwar and before becoming a Film Companion superstar reviewer. My amazing Culture Lab teammates Saniya and Nayanika took over after. Interviews, transcribing… citations. In fact the paper that Nayanika and I wrote in 2018 about trans inclusion served as a starting point for this book. My entire Lab team has been super supportive – and this book would not have come about without their contributions – so Dianne, Mukta, Koni and Pallavi – thank you!

A big thank you to the best publishing team in the world!!!! I can’t even begin to share how grateful I am to all at my  Westland Books family – for believing in Queeristan, for lovingly nurturing it over the past 2 years and for actually entrusting it to launch the brand new Westland Business imprint!!!! Business un-usual, for sure As we get ready to launch our baby into the world, I am missing our times in the Westland Delhi office so badly…. can’t wait to see everyone again in person, instead of on Chime calls Karthika, Gautam, Janani, Shweta, Arunima, Neha…the entire team and darling Vishwajyoti Ghosh for bringing us together and making it all happen…. lots of pyaar and hugs.

I owe so much to all the different educational spaces that I have been lucky to access. From just being able to go to good Mumbai colleges like Sydenham, Xavier’s and Bombay Teacher Training College to global programs like MIT, Yale World Fellows, the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders Program and TED Fellows, that literally changed my life, I am truly grateful to all my professors, program coordinators and classmates. I have learnt so much from each of them and I try my best to share this with those I come across. 

To my wonderful interviewees within Queeristan – thank you for all that you do. I am grateful to my family and friends – my village, spread out all over the world. But I am most grateful to each and every person that actually goes out and buys this book and puts their faith in it.   It’s a strange kind of book – memoir meets manifesto meets guide. I hope that it entertains and inspires you if you do happen to read it, but above all, that it spurs you to action, to help create a more inclusive LGBTQ India, and world. 

In a sense this response is also symbolic of what the queer movement after 377 has been about. Great efforts from within the community, in the face of hostility or ignorance not just from outside but also, often, from different parts of the queer movement itself.

I am writing this post to mark my book Gay Bombay’s new edition which came out some weeks ago.  The world has changed so much between when it first came out in 2008 and now – so you might wonder, what is the point of reading this old book 12 years after it was published? I think it is important because our queer lives and stories continue to matter! When the book first came out, it was anthropology but now I think it can be read as a slice of queer history. This book takes you back to the early days, and tells you how it all began through the 1990s and 2000s based on my research within the Gay Bombay group as well as my own diary entries – there is lots of naughty stuff in the book, which perhaps might not be considered naughty by today’s standards, but it is what it is!

In the new edition I ask the question – what kind of world are we going to create together now that section 377 is gone but we have a regressive trans act? How do we find the connectedness between trans rights, Dalit rights, Adivasi rights, and the rights of other minorities and move ahead together? I believe that we need the modus vivendi of this book’s conclusion now, more than ever. I talk about coalition politics from a decade ago that continue to be needed at this time.

I am especially proud of the additional chapters in this edition by Professor Ulka Anjaria of Brandeis University and Professor Kareem Khubchandani of Tufts University. The loving way through which they contextualize the book, and indeed, their generosity as well as that of so many other professors from across the world in using it as a teaching aide for their classes on gender, sexuality or digital studies, has been overwhelming. I am also very proud of the closing conversation that ends this edition, between me and Professor Dhiren Borisa of O. P. Jindal Global University, in which we reflect on both our work and the future queer histories that still need to be written – especially more intersectional queer histories.

To me, the queer movement post 377 is going to be about these intersectional histories, told through multiple voices and multiple perspectives. While 377 existed, it was something that everyone galvanized around, or was urged to galvanize around, what kind of a coalition politics will we create now? Will we gather around the issue of marriage like so many other Western countries? There are already efforts being made in this direction. Can we also we re-frame our struggle in a more inclusive way?

The September 6, 2018 progressive judgement, popularly called as the Navtej judgement, that read down 377, came on the heels of two other progressive Supreme Court judgments – one on Privacy (2017) and another on Trans rights (the NALSA judgement of 2014). However, the rights that the progressive judgments like NALSA and Navtej have given us have been severely been curtailed by the new Transgender (Protection of) Rights Act 2019, which was passed without any debate in the Lok Sabha on August 5, 2019. This regressive act now mandates that India’s transgender citizens submit themselves to a “certification process” involving a government official and doctor. Also, if transgender people are sexually attacked, their attackers face a maximum jail term of two years, against a minimum of seven years for women who are attacked.

The regressive Trans Act certainly needs to be modified. I sincerely hope that the queer movement after 377 galvanises around this important issue, the same way as it did around 377. There are so many other laws that need to change. Our laws need to recognize same sex marriage and enable same sex partners to inherit their spouse’s property and also make decisions about the medical treatment of their spouses. We need anti-discrimination legislation, legislation that bans conversion therapy and protects intersex babies and minors from non-consensual conversion surgeries.

Alongside this urgency to create further legal change in a post 377 world, we also need to create change in mindsets across the country. I am enthused that there are many progressive states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh, that are supporting their LGBTQ residents either with progressive policies, or with employment opportunities and I am hopeful that these acts of inclusion will percolate outward to other states in the country, as well as upwards, to a national level. There are also so many progressive companies create inclusive work environments for their employees. We are seeing more and more diverse queer representation in popular media like films and on web series. All of these efforts will add up to societal change, and that is what the queer movement post 377 is going to be about – how do we mainstream queerness in Indian society?

The thing is, after 377 has gone, we are no longer criminals. But between being non-criminals and equal citizens, there is a long road to travel, and my hope is that our Indian queer movement post 377 walks that road in solidarity, both within, and also outside, by aligning with other social justice movements in the country, such as those around caste, gender, ability, and so many others.

Before the Manifesto, our Lab – for the past eight years – had been circling around various issues within the queer community. I happen to be gay and a part of the movement in so many ways, and over the years I think – becasue of that – we’ve attracted people to the Lab and Godrej at large and we’ve tried to make our campus a safe space for the queer community. So we have curated with the intent to have a lot of LGBTQ conversations – and also specficially trans conversations. 

I’m thinking back to the Zainab Patel and Gauri Sawant Facebook Live, which was a one-hour conversation on trans rights which got 300,000 views, I’m thinking of the Dancing Queens and our journey with them over the years – where they did their first ever huge public performance at the Lab, Jeff Roy (our scholar-in-residence) filmed them, that become a film that our Culture Lab produced and then circulated, I’m thinking of the Aravani Art Collective and how we took them to ‘We The Women’ at Mehboob Studios and the incredible reaction we got from the audiences there.

So I think there was a feeling in the community that once Section 377 goes away – we’ll be happy – but we have realized that we have to do a lot more. For us at the Lab it was a realization that we must do more not just through our programming. Over the years of us doing these events at the Lab, and being an integral part of the community at large, we also became one of the key voices of the LGBTQ community. 

In 2017, the United Nations reached out to us and asked if they could partner with us for the launch of the UN Standards of Conduct for Business, and we were proud to host the global release. This report was very important for us to see just how much other companies look to us at Godrej for guidance, and how much the community trusts us. The fact that we were hosting that launch gave them a lot of confidence. 

So we realised we were uniquely positioned at the Lab in this regard – and we thought about what we could do to take the spirit of the 377 verdict forward. We decided to work from where the UN manifesto left off – what if we could do something about India in particular? I think our engagement with the trans community over the years made us realise how important they are within the LGBTQ umbrella. 92% of India’s trans people are unable to participate in any economic activity. Less than half of them have access to education, and 62% of those that do, face abuse and discrimination. Moreover, only 2% live with their families. We really felt that it would be a useful effort to focus on the trans community and help other companies who were asking Godrej what they could do. We also really wanted to create something of value for the trans community. 

The research involved for the manifesto was amazing because we realised just how much there was that was being done already – whether it’s reports by Community Business, whether it’s organisations like MINGLE (which I was very happy to mentor over the years) and their important 2016 report, whether it was global reports that we started getting access to which made us realise that there was already so much research being done worldwide. We all learned so much through the process.

Our intent was also to work with our partners — I’m so grateful that folks like Zainab gave so much of their time and mentorship to the project telling us about the arguments that we could use. What excites me about the manifesto is that we wrote it alongside our friends from the community, and it became something that we could all then own and use. The love and joy that was in the room at the launch of the manifesto was so special — from all those on stage to the warmth from everyone in the audience. To see 300 people – corporate India, activists and queer citizens at large – come together and interact with each other felt historic. Particularly in terms of corporate interactions with the LGBTQ people. 

A lot of work has happened since then — especially if you look at Pride Circle and the way job fairs have taken off. Ram and Srini (from Pride Circle) say that being in that room that day gave them the confidence that they can do something like that. Keshav Suri has put The Lalit on this meteoric track to being inclusive. He said, in interview after interview, that he came to Godrej and thought ‘this is amazing, why can’t I do this?’. 

I’ve been talking to companies across the country (because now it’s trendy – so people like me are called to talk about LGBTQ inclusion!). Visa, Franklin Templeton, Swiss re, KPMG – you name it – they’ve called me – I’ve gone there. I think Section 377 going away has unlocked the latent inclusion tendencies that companies had and it’s enabled them to try and ‘come out’ as loving, inclusive spaces – which some companies in India always were, but they were operating out of fear. I think 377 going away has really helped them to become that space. 

Of late, I’ve become more circumspect. I’ve realised that so many companies just call you because they want to tick a box and they’re happy that they get to post on social media about you having spoken there. After that, they don’t really do much. So of late, I’ve started asking them to make a payment to an NGO of my choice – based on NGOs in the city that the corporate is located in. What has been amazing is that companies have actually started paying up – Franklin Templeton made a contribution to TWEET Foundation, Swiss re made a contribution to Solidarity Foundation. And that money is already being used for projects. My principle now is, until you figure it out at a corporate level at least help our community do something. Our LGBTQ NGOs really need the money and they know how to spend it. 

I think more than companies, I really enjoy speaking to students now – whether it’s at IIM Lucknow or Trichy. At companies there will always be someone who says stupid things like ‘why don’t we work on gender first?’ or ‘what if everyone comes out and says “I want to transition?”’. I think students are amazing – they don’t ask dumb questions. And if they do, it comes from curiosity or a quest to know how to make the world better. 

To give you one specific example, at IIM Trichy – I asked them how many people identified as LGBTQ in the room (and I do this at every college, typically many people don’t raise their hands). And out of 150 students, 9 raised their hands. Which is amazing – nine people who felt confident enough to say that they’re queer in front of their peers. And that’s a combination of legislation, pop culture, advocacy, even just the fact that they have seen me and recognise that it’s a safe space, or the fact that their college has just funded their first LGBTQ club this year …  I think it’s all coming together. I think that companies that want to change can learn a lot from students – campuses are changing way faster than the companies that they will eventually graduate and go into. Young India is really changing, and if companies want to keep up, I think they better change their policies really, really soon. 

And the people working to this end are doing incredible work – from Neelam Jain from Periferry to Humsafar Trust’s Project TRANScend. And I have to thank corporates that are willing to step up – whether it’s a Bank of America, or an IBM – which has worked very closely with Solidarity Foundation. Because of the systemic discrimination of trans people at every level, a lot of companies are recognising the need for skilling programmes for trans people as well. What Periferry did with ANZ is a great example – they did a residential training programme for about 25 trans people, at the end of which everyone got a certificate and then ANZ decided whether they wanted to recruit some of them for their organisation. 

Trans people are sometimes invited for interviews and then denied entry to the building by the security guards – therefore companies need to go beyond well-meaning HR departments or a CEO that says ‘I want to be inclusive’. You have to sensitise your whole team to create a safe and welcoming space. This process of constant self-correction is very important – and I see companies going on this journey of iteration the same way government organisations like Kochi Metro has been too. I think until we reach a point in our society where trans people are not denied opportunities in education and aren’t discriminated against, companies can recognise the need to make specific interventions that will really help trans people here and now. 

And unsurprisingly, the companies doing good work have hired queer people who are pushing for change from within the company. Thoughtworks has Aditya Batavia and Nayana Udupi, Zainab Patel is at KPMG, Samyukta is at Swiggy..Swiggy just joined Pride Circle, they’re starting their own Employee Resource Group, and are trying to hire more trans people. All these companies are taking steps towards sensitisation of their employees. And this is what I write about in my book ‘Queeristan’ as well – if you create a safe space for queer people – we will be your agents for change, we will bring in other people, we will bring in the talent that exists in our community. And you see that with someone like Anubhuti at Tata Steel. One person changed Tata Steel for so many others. 

I also really like the fact that there are marketplaces and job fairs being set up across the country – whether it’s RISE, whether it’s Qu-rious, whether it’s Vividh, this pace of change is super exciting. When we launched this manifesto I don’t think we imagined that one year after it there would be multiple job fairs in the country. I hear of a new one every week! So the rate of change has been exhilarating. 

In terms of the Trans Bill – I see some parallels between the movement against 377. In 2009, when 377 was deemed as unconstitutional, some companies decided to turn towards progressive policies. In 2013, when Section 377 was reinstated, some companies decided to not go on the inclusion journey. But many companies saw it as something that would take its own course legally and worked towards creating an ideal inclusive space for themselves and their employees. And I see that happening in corporate India with the Trans Bill as well. The version of the Bill that has been passed right now is far from ideal, but I think our movement is strong enough to push for change and mobilise – it’s important to remember that we have the 2014 NALSA judgement in our favour. Clearly the version of the Bill which has been passed goes against the spirit of the judgement. So I don’t see the existing Trans Bill as an excuse for companies that want to be inclusive – the NALSA judgement is their blueprint.  

In any case, there are enough examples of organisations that will help you on this journey despite the legal scenario. From Community Business, to Interweave Consulting, to Solidarity Foundation – click here for the manifesto and the resources that you can check out for any and all expertise on the matter! 

There is a growing body of evidence that shows diverse and inclusive societies foster an environment that enables businesses to thrive and economies to prosper. By bringing together different groups of people, societies cultivate an ecosystem where ideas are exchanged, creativity flows and value is unlocked through innovation. Diversity comes in various forms and there remains significant progress to be made for one particular group – the LGBT+ community.

As economies around the world continue to grow, it is encouraging to see that many are changing their laws to be inclusive of the LGBT+ community – India, together with Angola, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nauru, Palau, Seychelles as well as Trinidad and Tobago, have decriminalized same-sex acts in the last five years. However, many countries remain unfriendly for LGBT+ people, which creates growing tension for companies headquartered there that are looking to adopt best practices on LGBT+ inclusion as they grow and expand across borders.

One of the most common concerns emerging-market companies have on becoming more LGBT+ inclusive is the potential negative impacts on their reputation and financial performance. Companies are worried that open support for LGBT+ inclusion could trigger a backlash from their consumers. The findings from this report show otherwise. An analysis of the high-potential emerging-market companies found that LGBT+ inclusion enables these companies to tap into global markets and supply chains more effectively, without seeing any negative financial impacts.

Against today’s backdrop of intense competition, diversity and inclusion are now essential if companies and societies want to foster sustainable growth. This is especially true for emerging-market companies as they continue to grow beyond their home markets and compete with their global competitors. Furthermore, consumer and employee expectations of businesses are changing and a narrow focus on serving just shareholders is no longer enough. Businesses are increasingly seen as having a responsibility to the societies and communities in which they operate.

Similar to how our 2018 Godrej white paper on transgender inclusion serves as a public resource for other companies to use, this report presents compelling evidence for emerging-market companies to initiate or continue their LGBT+ inclusion journeys.

More importantly, this report sends a strong message to businesses headquartered in emerging markets. Each of them has a role to play in creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce, and this will foster the environment needed for businesses to thrive. Businesses need to take a stand and engage with their stakeholders, especially civil society organizations and policymakers, to work together because LGBT+ inclusion will ultimately benefit everyone, not only the LGBT+ community.

On September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the application of Section 377 to consensual sexual acts between adults was unconstitutional, ‘irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary’. Just like that, I was no longer a criminal. I remember two feelings, both of these far apart on the emotional spectrum, washing over me.

There had been so much back ‘n’ forth first in 2009, then again in 2013, that when the verdict finally came, I was filled with relief. Then came resentment. I was resentful that while my country India got her freedom in 1947, our Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) community needed seven decades after that Independence to earn freedom from a colonial British era law. Why did it take so long to erase that criminal label from us? It was a moment of celebration tempered with bitter introspection.

Having said that, I must acknowledge that the sheer enormity of this verdict meant that words like landmark verdict and milestone were well-deserved to describe it. One year on though, we recognise that so much needs to be done using this ‘victory’ as a torch illumining the path ahead for us.

Although there is a sense of euphoria within the community, queer persons are becoming impatient (and rightly so), for their other rights to be realised. We as a collective have been blindsided in Parliament with the Trans Bill being passed, which is transphobic in its wording. We have been voiceless in the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) guidelines for adoption and surrogacy bill. The LGBTQ community cannot adopt, and is ineligible for surrogacy. We need to be aware of decisions about our lives being made without consultation with us and respond to these strongly.

On the work front, post the decriminalisation, I see increasing number of companies are ‘coming out’ and are interested in working with the community. More companies are aware of this as a lucrative market but also as an inclusion agenda that needs to be urgently tackled. When we, at Godrej Culture Labs, launched our Manifesto for Trans Inclusion, we had over 300 business heads and policy makers in the room, so people are definitely interested. We just need to make sure the conversation doesn’t end at superficialities. Intent has to translate into action. Companies are posting inclusivity and diversity in policy on social media but there is more to this than the ‘Cool Company’ factor. All those ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ on social media are one aspect, but in the end, we have to separate the noise from the real work being done.

Hopefully, more companies will invest in products and services catering to the community. I hope to also see more opportunities for skilling and employment for the community. We need business leaders at big corporates to internalise what the judgment has meant to us all and wish for inclusive futures in love, living and work.

People who were and are against equal rights seemed taken aback when Section 377 was decriminalised, tut-tutting that this will spur the community towards fighting for more rights, such as marriage equality. Why should we not ask for our rights? It is not about asking for more, it is about equality and that is the fundamental truth. So, today, we will take a moment to celebrate, but then hunker down to work. The good fight must go on.

As always with every TED I’ve attended – I may be biased – but the best part for me has always been the TED Fellows. There have been 472 Fellows so far, and it has nurtured 90 new businesses and 46 non profits. Fellows have collectively published about 40 books and have done 600 performances. It is amazing how this community has grown both in size and impact over the last decade and it truly fills my heart with joy that I am a part of the TED Fellows programme. As a Senior Fellow, it is always delightful to see new Fellows come in every year and to learn about the amazing work that they’re doing.

I remain impressed by all the new Fellows, but the most significant part of the programme to me was how people have contributed to art and culture, keeping it richer than ever.

This drew me to Samuel Bazawule, who spends his time between New York and Ghana and tells us stories about the polyphonic African Diaspora through film.

His movie, The Burial Of Kojo dives into illegal mining in Ghana and taut family relations. It is told through the eyes of Esi, a young girl, and it is a visually stunning experience. Kiana Hayeri’s photography, especially her work in Afghanistan, takes an intimate and rare look at the lives of war stricken families – her photographs tell you so much about loss, family and love.

Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin, a scholar and artist from the US, showcased an excerpt from her brilliant new musical theatre piece called At Buffalo which looked at different ways in which race was manifested in the 1901 World Fair in Buffalo, New York. It dealt with the different lenses through which we’ve viewed race over the years – through exoticisation, through labour, and even through scholarly work on race. The piece explored how ‘blackness’ has been talked about – through exhibitions on plantation workers to Du Bois’ academic work, and everything that has happened since then. She mixes anthropology and music to create a masterpiece – I can’t wait to see the finale of it.

Space environmentalist Moriba Jah strives to make a cleaner space – he is working towards getting rid of the astro-junk which has accumulated throughout space such as old satellites, rockets and other man-made junk. His ultimate goal is to create a safer and more sustainable space as he maps all of the junk in orbit right now and creates a crowdsourced citizen platform that helps us make space cleaner.

Arnav Kapoor, our own desi, is from MIT Media Lab and is essentially working on a device that can read your mind – his demonstration of this device was so exciting for all of us present.  Gangadhar Patil, who is from 101Reporters in Bangalore, is working towards providing grassroots reporters with national as well as international platforms.

From the main-stage, what really floored me was how powerful it was when people of colour spoke. TED has often been criticised for being an elite, Silicon Valley boys club. I’m so glad to see how TED has really doubled down on curation over the past few years and focussed on diversity. I felt such desi pride when my two dear friends, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Rahul Mehrotra spoke about how they are changing their worlds, brick by brick, in two back-to-back sessions.

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy is an Oscar award winning filmmaker, but she spoke about how we need to do more with film to make true social change. Right now she is working on a very ambitious project, which is to take films from village to village across rural Pakistan in the spirit of ‘mobile cinema’, engaging with the local audience and starting a conversation in places where these films may not reach. Bit by bit, she is creating a different world.

Rahul Mehrotra, who is an architect and a professor (I’ve been a fan of his for years!), spoke about the Kumbh Mela as a transient space and described its architecture as a porous and temporary city which emerges and eventually submerges. Using this framework, he shed light on the type of architecture that we need – one that requires impermanence, softness and hacking. The type of architecture which is environmentally friendly and does little damage to this earth. It was breathtaking to see how he distilled his whole lifetime of work on the TED stage – I was so proud. 

Julius Maada Bio, the President of Sierra Leone, spoke about the marvellous work he is doing to further innovation in his country – he was first brought to power as a military leader and now as a democratically elected leader. Carole Cadwalladr, who broke the Cambridge Analytica scam, spoke about the need for making technology companies more accountable. If it wasn’t for investigative journalists like Carole, then we wouldn’t be knowing the extent of the damage wrought by groups like Cambridge Analytica that mine data and help influence elections all over the world.

John Gray, who started the Ghetto Gastro in Brooklyn, New York, brings race and food together to start a culinary collective and cultural movement. John works with disadvantaged communities to make food a matter of pride for them – it’s race meets food meets entrepreneurship.  

Britney Packnett was amazing – she spoke about how a lack of confidence is structural – how certain groups are told that they should feel less than. Her talk was a clarion call for reclaiming confidence – it is a political, revolutionary act.

I also loved what both America Ferrera and Daniel Lismore had to say about identity – just seeing people of colour and queer people made a difference this year at TED. The reason why a conference like TED works is that it is an incredible opportunity to really connect and discover your own kind of people.

The Fellows Programme helped all of us find each other and and I’m sure these bonds will survive after that. We should now focus on how we could work together, create change and amplify each others work. TED has done an astounding job at creating these ties – how we further them in our lives is something I’m going to be reflecting upon.

• This post first appeared on the Godrej India Culture Lab blog in May 2019

I AM GRATEFUL that our honourable Supreme Court judges fulfilled their promise to India’s queer citizens, albeit a long 71 years after independence. The euphoria that followed has also been interesting to watch. I am happy to see the spectrum of people who have spoken out in support of our country’s queer citizens through everything from newspapers to television channel shows. However, since I work in the corporate world, I must say that I was quite surprised by the silence of most of India’s business leaders. So many of them have LGBTQIA friends and family. Yet, hardly anyone commented publicly, even though they tweet on random issues. We, in the queer community, will remember all those who stood by us over the difficult past few years, and all those who did not.

In future, many companies will opportunistically seek to benefit from tapping into the queer community as LGBTQIA rights in India continue to advance. The queer community will remember their silence, at that time. Over the past few days, I have been particularly irked by all the brands coming up with cool rainbow Instagram campaigns. I have some questions for them. Can you please look and see if your HR policies are inclusive? Do you have non-discrimination, partnership benefits, and are you creating an internal culture of inclusion? Do you value your LGBTQIA customers? If not, then all the rainbow-themed shareables that you hope will go viral, are inauthentic, and the queer community sees it as that.

My initial reaction to the branded rainbow posts by a whole bunch of companies was that of joy. But, this soon changed to irritation. There is a whole cake to be shared. Our community do not want crumbs any more. We want a large piece of the cake and why should not we?

I feel that this verdict gives corporate India a golden opportunity to truly reflect, and engage meaningfully with the queer population. They should be doing so primarily out of their values of equality and inclusion. But, if values are not enough, then there is data to show that focussing on LGBTQIA issues is good business sense. According to the often quoted 2016 World Bank report on the economic cost of stigma and the exclusion of LBGTQIA people, our country’s loss in GDP due to homophobia was valued at $32 billion, or 1.7 per cent of our GDP. There is a strong correlation between being inclusive towards the LGBTQIA community and being innovative and profitable.

The early adopters of inclusion in our country—Godrej, Tata, IBM, Infosys, Barclays and The Lalit Suri Hospitality group—are reaping wonderful rewards. They started their efforts way before the Supreme Court verdict, by working alongside each other and by following the UN global standards of LGBTQIA inclusion. I urge other Indian companies to join these companies and use this verdict as a springboard towards diversity and inclusion with regard to our country’s sexual minorities. To start, with please hire queer people. Transgender persons need jobs the most, and, I am excited to see how The Lalit Suri Hospitality group has employed 35 transgender employees in the past one year alone. The Kochi Metro story is also well-documented. We need many more efforts like these.

If you want to be an inclusive company, you need to do the hard work and create equal-work environments. Engage with the queer NGOs that exist in our country. Support queer community-building measures. All of this will mean much more than rainbow Insta pictures with your product in them. I can assure you that the benefits will be much more long-lasting.

At the Constitution Club in Delhi on July 7, the weekend before the five-member Supreme Court (SC) bench began its deliberations on Section 377, the mood was sombre. All of us gathered there — lawyers, activists, academics, representatives of NGOs and the corporate world — knew well how precarious our hope was, especially after our elation was snuffed out when, in 2013, the SC reversed the 2009 Delhi High Court judgment, which had read down Section 377.

Three days later, as the Supreme Court hearings began on the petitions — pleas by transgender individuals such as Akkai Padmashali, activists like Arif Jafar and Ashok Row Kavi, businesspeople such as Keshav Suri and Ritu Dalmia, groups of individuals representing alumni of the different Indian Institutes of Technology, collectives like Voices against 377, parents of LGBTI individuals, mental health professionals and more— millions of Indians held their breath. It was a chance to witness history being created. Menaka Guruswamy, an advocate for a clutch of IITians, emphasised that her petitioners were the makers of modern India — scientists, engineers, government servants, all of whom are closeted. She said: “It is not just consensual sex between homosexual partners that this Court should recognise, but their love for each other. How strongly must you love knowing that you are unconvicted felons under Section 377.”

As we now exhale in relief after reading the unanimous verdict, two things come to my mind. First, the language of the verdict, which makes it clear that the idea of India shared by the judges of the Supreme Court, is very much in line with our brilliant Constitution.

The law matters. The law protects. The law empowers. This progressive Supreme Court judgment adds another layer of protection.

The Constitution bench has established jurisprudence that will protect our country’s LGBT citizens and also opens the doors to further legal victories. Globally, LGBT equality has led to the legalisation of marriage, rights for same sex couples to adopt children, and inherit their partner’s property, and I see no reason why India should not embark on a similar journey too.

In his comments about the Union government’s stand on Section 377, our law minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, stated: “Maybe sexual preference is also a personal choice…other issues like same sex marriage are a separate matter.” Additional solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, openly remarked in court that he was “worried” that scrapping Section 377 would open the door to the granting of further rights to India’s LGBT citizens. Why shouldn’t these doors b, e opened? We are no longer criminals. Why should we be anything less than equal to other citizens of this country?

The bigoted views expressed by those opposing decriminalisation in the SC may have been dismissed by the judges present, but so many people continue to think like this. We will have to work collectively on transforming this into tolerance, acceptance and inclusion, across the political spectrum. Queer activism across the country has been doing this. We are successfully creating safe spaces for our own selves. It is now time to extend these efforts outwards.

One of the places where we can achieve results is the Indian workplace. A 2016 MINGLE report stated that two-thirds of Indian employees hear homophobic remarks. Transpersons are routinely harassed and denied jobs. Despite these challenges of persistent homophobia, transphobia and harassment, I see a new India forming itself each day in offices across our country.

In Godrej, I am part of the recruitment team for bringing in new talent. Almost every college campus I go to, I speak about LGBTQ inclusion. Most of them now have LGBT initiatives, like IIM Ahmedabad’s Ally, or conduct their own Pride Marches on campus, like the Indian School of Business did recently on its Mohali campus. It is pretty clear that for young India, the future generation of this nation, acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ individuals is the norm.

I am also a part of conferences like the Out & Equal LGBTQ India Forum which was held last month, and was attended by 100 executives from Indian and multinational corporations. When we launched the United Nations Global Standards of Business Conduct for LGBTQ inclusion at Godrej some months ago, 40 companies showed up. More and more companies are putting up their hand in corporate India to bat for inclusion.

There is enough data now showing that focusing on LGBTQ issues for corporations is good business sense. According to the venture capital firm LGBT Capital in 2015, globally the spending power of the LGBTQ community was between $3.7 trillion to $4.6 trillion. In India, according to a 2016 World Bank report, our country’s loss in GDP due to homophobia was valued at $32 Billion, or 1.7% of our GDP. I believe that corporate India — out of enlightened self interest — will push for change more and more over the coming years.

The SC judgment has enabled queer India to have our own tryst with destiny, and now the time is here for all of us — LGBTQIA, straight, allies, however we choose to identify — to roll up our sleeves, and get to work to redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. I for one, couldn’t be happier to be part of this new India.

The end of section 377 is the culmination of a long struggle that activists, lawyers, academics, non-government organizations (NGOs), and the corporate world have been engaged in since the 1990s. After the initial relief of seeing the five concurring opinions of the bench, the language of the verdict is what struck me. It is a monumental text of our times.

The Supreme Court invokes the idea of a free India enshrined in our brilliant Constitution—as Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said: “Morality cannot be martyred at the altar of social morality. Only Constitutional morality exists in our country.” It is heartening to see section 377 being pronounced “irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary” by the Chief Justice of India.

The Indian LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer) community will remember 6 September as the day their faith in the power of the law to protect and empower was re-instilled.

Today’s judgement is a well-deserved victory for a community, which has suffered false hope, disappointments, and life as illegitimate citizens. However, the repealing of section 377 is not the end of the fight for equal rights—it will go down in history as a watershed moment for LGBTQ-inclusivity.

Given that we live in the age of neo-liberal capitalism, corporate India can be the instigators of change that make sure working LGBTQ Indians know they are respected and accepted. If most Indian companies become LGBT-friendly, can the rest of the society lag behind?

I juggle multiple roles at Godrej, so I’m uniquely positioned to see both a cultural, as well as a policy shift, in corporate India. We have had same-sex partner benefits, gender neutral adoption leave and an equal opportunity policy at Godrej for a few years now. But over the last two, I have seen an increase in the number of companies willing to adopt these policies.

I also run the Godrej India Culture Lab, which has been promoting LGBTQ events and ideas of equality, since its inception. We have seen the power of stories and their ability to change minds and hearts. From the play Ek Madhav Baug to our explorations of LGBTQ fashion, aesthetics and performing arts, we have had several people come up to us and tell us how they have felt, seen and heard. We have had multiple stakeholders from the LGBTQ movement talk and perform at the Vikhroli campus, and the attendance of our LGBTQ events has risen exponentially over the years.

As a Culture Lab initiative, I am also writing a paper on transgender inclusion at the workplace with my team. With this landmark judgement, companies cannot cite section 377 as a reason to not work toward inclusivity in their offices any more. We’re hoping that this translates into employment for the trans community in the country. Using this momentum, corporate India should make a conscious move toward health insurance for gender affirmation surgery, gender-neutral restrooms and gender transition policies. Indians spend most of their time at the workplace and our creation of safe spaces should begin there.

Despite daily ignorance, harassment, homophobia and transphobia, today will mark the day that LGBTQ India celebrates the realisation of our basic freedoms. We have a lot to do. But for now, let’s celebrate.

The thing is everything was so personal. It really felt like we were staying at the home of the hotel owner, Thai pop star Krissada Sukosol Clapp. His own collection of rare, first-edition books on historical Thailand and pieces from his mother Kamala’s Han-dynasty pottery archive were on display all over the hotel. We had our private birthday celebration inside an original Thai teak-wood house that was more than a 100 years old, and sipped tea and ate Thai-spiced teacake in a très elegant Thai-British tearoom, and while we didn’t kickbox in the hotel’s private Muay Thai boxing ring, we did make use of their boat to do some sightseeing upriver, as recommended by our super-knowledgable personal butler, James.

I was remembering just how pleasurable this trip was, while sinking into a succulent bharwan gucchi at Jamun, Delhi’s current restaurant du jour. What a name, to start with! Instantly evocative. Childhood. Tartness. Spills. Memories. Everything at Jamun too was perfectly hyphenated, and that too in the perfect proportion. The exquisite Kashmiri morels that I was biting into, for instance, were flavoured with a mix of truffle oil and dahi and the jamun kulfi — the highlight of their dessert menu — was actually a sorbet in a kulfi mould that came to the table and had rock salt grated over it.

Eeshaan Kashyap

Jamun is just one of the succesful ventures that the dapper Eeshaan Kashyap runs along with his team mates at Pass Code Hospitality — Ping’s Cafe Orient, also in Lodhi Colony, A Ta Maison in Sunder Nagar Market and PCO in Vasant Vihar being the others. He told me how they went through almost a year of food tasting, and making sure each and every little detail was ironed out before opening Jamun, and the effort shows.

The menu is a carefully curated mix of home recipes from across India — think Assamese parwal meets Goan pork chorizo fry meets Maharashtrian thecha bhindi. The cocktails are decidedly modern with a twist — alcohol lassi and kokum daiquiri, both yum. The decor is 50 shades of jamun, the soundscape is old Bollywood music, and just like the small food retail section at the capital’s Andaz, which I also love, Jamun stocks organic artisanal small-batch products like honey from Under The Mango Tree, sourced directly from beekeepers. It’s the kind of hipster homely restaurant whose time is just now, now, now.

I was visiting Jamun with my friend Varun Rana whose own take on glo-cal has caused quite a flutter in the capital. Varun is a fashionista who writes, styles, and teaches at NIFT. He knows everyone in Delhi, and everyone in Delhi knows and loves Varun. Based on the global idea of food pop-ups, Varun now does super-secret ‘Rana ka Khana’ dinners, at which he cooks up a storm for only 10 people in his living room. Focusing on obscure Indian recipes and following a head-to-tail zero-waste philosophy, he is riding high on his successful venture. Figure out how to get in the know about his next event. I’m going to be flying back to Delhi for it, for sure.

*This blog post is a modified version of my column Parmesh’s Viewfinder that appears in Verve magazine each month.