But this is only one part of our lives, a small part," says Krishna. "Earlier we talked 99% about condoms and HIV. Sitting in Krishna's office as the stiflingly hot afternoon draws to a close, phones ring and legal documents are swished back and forth, and I sense that the men of Suraksha have become louder and prouder. But, in some ways, things are moving fast. The legal change has brought no revolution in Hyderabad, and stubborn economic and social blocks stand in the way of greater freedom for many. The media is becoming more sensitive, and when one channel, TV9 Telugu, exposed local gay men on the dating site, there were protests and the channel was forced to apologise. Hyderabad also had its first gay pride march, a 3,000-strong rally in November 2009 called Melukolupu (awakening). They said, really, we didn't know this kind of thing, we thought you were bad people only." The Suraksha men now have such a good rapport with the police that they distribute condoms to the cops and run HIV testing clinics for them at police stations. "When we told them about our struggles, most were very impressed. "One day we asked – why are we blaming the police? How many times have we tried to explain our sexuality to them?" says Krishna. This is because Suraksha members now make weekly visits to every police station in Hyderabad, and run monthly sex and sexuality workshops with the police.
Krishna's organisation, Suraksha Society, reports that beatings, rapes and thefts by the police have reduced dramatically in the areas where it works. The legal change may have had limited direct impact, but life is by no means the same as it was three years ago. Although data collection is problematic, one study indicates that one-fifth of men who have sex with men in Andhra Pradesh were HIV positive in 2009/10, compared with one-sixth in 2007. They can't say, 'I am gay, I don't want to marry.' They have nowhere to go." "They depend on their family financially, emotionally. Nor is it enough to counter social and economic pressures facing poor men: "The really bad situation is facing the low-income people," says Krishna. A distant legal change is not enough to stop rank-and-file officers beating gay and transgender people who they call "bad people" and robbers. Only a week earlier, a 30-year-old transgender sex worker nick-named Charmi was badly beaten by the police at a cruising point in Secunderabad. Not the medium-class people, not the lower class." "Section 377" – he kisses his teeth and flicks his hand dismissively "only high level people who are going on websites and reading the paper know about that. "Same harassment by police, same harassment by society, same harassment by goondas. "There is no change," says Satish, an outreach worker at a drop-in centre for men who have sex with men in Secunderabad, Hyderabad's twin city. Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, is 1,500km and a cultural leap away from middle-class activism in Delhi, where the case was won. īut for most of the gay men I met, decriminalisation had made little obvious difference. Since then, Krishna and Avinash, his partner of seven years, have received joint invitations to family parties and an annual couples-only Puja. "You speak about your community's problems so well," they said, recognising for the first time that they knew he was gay.
When he got home at 10 o'clock that night, his mother and brother congratulated him.
#Indian gay videos site tv#
On the day of decriminalisation – 2 July 2009 – Krishna went public, spending hours on local TV and radio, talking about gay issues and rebutting religious leaders. Now the law has changed, I wanted to know whether their lives had also altered course.įor Krishna, the answer is yes.
#Indian gay videos site code#
At that time, section 377 of the Indian penal code made gay sex illegal, and strong social stigma drove gay men underground. I first met Kouda in 2008 when I was reporting on how discrimination puts gay men at greater risk of HIV in Andhra Pradesh (which has one of India's highest rates of the virus) for the Guardian's international development journalism competition.