On September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the application of Section 377 to consensual sexual acts between adults was unconstitutional, 'irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary'. Just like that, I was no longer a criminal. I remember two feelings, both of these far apart on the emotional spectrum, washing over me.

There had been so much back 'n' forth first in 2009, then again in 2013, that when the verdict finally came, I was filled with relief. Then came resentment. I was resentful that while my country India got her freedom in 1947, our Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) community needed seven decades after that Independence to earn freedom from a colonial British era law. Why did it take so long to erase that criminal label from us? It was a moment of celebration tempered with bitter introspection.