To define the true colours of diversity, the example of our beloved country, India, is always taken into account by various people across the globe. Diversity by colour, caste, gender, religion and in various other categories, all of it is found in India. Still, there is something that stops our country from moving forward and growing. That something is called ‘CHANGE’. It makes me think about Robert Frost’s poem, ”Mending Wall”, where he mentions that there is ‘something’ that does not want the ‘wall of traditional beliefs’ to exist but it is the same people who refuse to accept ‘that something’ and continue to maintain ‘the wall’. This is what exists in our country as well.

This change joined hands with the youth of today, who have a fresh mind and energy, to infuse new ideas and thoughts in people’s minds. The youth does not look back at the past, they live the present to set the future. One of such examples set by the youth was regarding the LGBTQ community, which already prevailed across the globe but was not praised in India. LGBTQ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer. These people already existed years and years back with the evolution of human civilization. Still, the only thing that we saw is “Gender means only male and female”. The claim of gender varieties and equality was never actually accepted by the common people.

History does show us that how Hindu and Vedic texts reveal the fact that LGBT was quite an important and integral part of Ancient India. It is said there are 20 types of genders that exist. The ancient books like ‘Kama sutra’ and various others where sex and gender, other than male and female, were highly promoted and supported as it was a medium of sexual pleasure and self-identification. But now, modern India still has unclear thoughts of these people and keeps them away from society. There had to be a solution for this as their suffering continued increasing and they were devoid of their freedom. After a long time, the LGBTQ community got to see the results of immense struggles that they had to overcome.

It was in the year 2018. All the enthusiastic youth of India had their eyes, filled with trust, on the Supreme Court for its verdict. Those people who almost lost all their hopes of their freedom, even they took some courage to trust the Court for the last time. The Court did not fail anyone’s hopes. It was declared that an individual has the right to express their gender freely and has the right to preserve their privacy. Also, sexual acts including homosexual acts between adults are allowed under this judgement. Thus, it breaks down the rules that pre-existed under Section 377 of IPC.

Now, it is a new India. This community has got back their freedom to speak out and express themselves. Some people who believed in maintaining the ‘wall’ started to break it, to come out of such beliefs and support these people. Yet, there are still some people who fail to see the positive side of it and point their fingers, claiming that they were the negative side i.e. they are the ones harming society. Also, we fail to discuss it openly, maybe because of this conservative society that still exists. It is now time to come out of our old rusted brains and bring up some ideas of living in a society having positive thoughts.

The mistake that was once committed, was rectified by the judges of the Court, giving the best gift to all those individuals whose birth became a question to the society. The people who were barely living, now had gotten the reason to look straight into the eyes of the ‘normal’ people and say, “Yes… I am a part of the LGBTQ community and I am proud of it.” These ‘normal’ people who did not have ‘normal’ thoughts about them, can no longer insult their pride – rather, they should begin to change their minds. Let’s bring out a good ‘CHANGE’ and erase the negative mindset that still prevails in Indian society.