the Guardian, May 2011 | Feature
The day the high court in Delhi ruled that being gay was no longer a crime was the day that Krishna Gurram Kouda finally came out to his family.
Despite having set up a state-wide network for gay men in Andhra Pradesh, the 39-year-old had never told his relatives about his sexuality.
“I live with my parents,” he explains as the fan above whirs in an ineffectual attempt to stave off the 40C Hyderabadi heat. “I have a good relationship with my brothers and their children. I thought they would accept me,” he pauses, “but I was a little afraid.”
I first met Kouda in 2008 when I was reporting for the Guardian’s international development journalism competition. At that time, section 377 of the Indian penal code made gay sex illegal, and strong social stigma drove gay men underground. Now the law has changed, I wanted to know whether their lives had also altered course.
Read the feature on the guardian
**Since this was written the court decision has been over-turned and attempts to decriminalise homosexuality in India continue.**
Sylvia Rowley 