Celebrations in Jantar Mantar.

[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]

This is the new Delhi. It happened in public. Men kissed men. Women hugged women. And cops just watched. On the evening of July 2, 2010, a year after the Delhi High Court’s landmark verdict that legalized gay sex, hundreds of people gathered in Jantar Mantar to celebrate the anniversary. The High Court had overturned the Section 377 of the Indian penal code, a relic from the colonial-era.

It was party mood in Jantar Mantar. People were cheering, singing and dancing. A few men were dressed in sarees. Some were wearing t-shirts bearing provocative images (two London bobbies kissing), or words (“Unfuck the world”). The curious bystanders watched these happy people as if they were seeing pandas for the first time in their lives.

“The gay community has celebrated 365 days without Section 377. Now it has to show whether it can behave responsibly,” says Ashok Row Kavi, India’s leading gay rights activist. “We have to go a very long way to convince the mainstream society that we are equal citizens with equal rights. We have to understand that there are so special privileges for gay and lesbian people. Like other oppressed people, we must learn how to use our rights sensibly.”

The number game

Masked identities

Get the rainbow straight, at least

I’m discreet

It’s a tough life?

Happy hugging

In a gay mood

Gaydar at work

It’s legal since a year

Happy means gay

Cops are on our side

‘Queer’ activist Lesley A. Esteves

Hello, where are you?

It’s a new Delhi

When will I be ‘normal’?

Still a long way to freedom?

We shall live our life

Just celebrate

As a memento

Gathering for the cause

Simple and straight

The straight perspective

Look, my Tee is gay

Just married?

Shy yet naughty

The first anniversary

Hear, hear

Hip hip hurray

The way ahead

Chill, man