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After the judges relayed their decision, the news made its appearance in India, people kissing, crying, drinking and shooting confetti explosions. Many were exhausted on Friday – but were still celebrating.
Shayanika Shah, 60, a member of a collective that she called "women-loving women," read passages of the judgment aloud in a bar in Mumbai. Shankar Yadav, 20, and her friends shared a pineapple cake in the central city of Raipur and then "danced in the streets to the contents of our hearts".
"India gained independence decades ago," Yadav said. "We got independence yesterday!"
One thing is certain: the decision boosted the growing coalition of gay rights groups in India. Larger organizations are confined to big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. In rural areas of the country, activists work remotely, in sometimes hostile conditions and without the protection of a parent organization.
But public perception is changing, as is the profile of homosexual groups. Pride parades, once the small business in urban centers where many people have come wearing masks to protect their identities, now attract thousands of people dancing openly on the streets. More recently, parades have sprung up in small state capitals such as Bhubaneswar and Bhopal.
The effort to cancel section 377 has been going on for years. He gained momentum in 2000, when a terrified young man went to the Naz Foundation, one of the few H.I.V. advocacy organizations in India pleading for help because his parents had forced him to undergo electroconvulsive therapy in a government hospital to make him more upright.
Anjali Gopalan, who runs the organization in New Delhi, was so horrified by what the young man told him that she had filed a lawsuit against Article 377, thus calling into question the historical case. It's been years since she received death threats.
One of the clearest public statements on this decision was the front page of The Indian Express, perhaps the most respected English newspaper in the country.
