Arati Warrier is 8348 miles away from her people, and is totally gripped with the thought that her people in her country find her identity a criminal act.
On 11 December 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed a 2009 judgement by a Delhi High Court which de-criminalised ‘unnatural sex‘, and reinstated the colonial law that upholds Section 377. The law not just brought a change to those law court files but also in the lives of the people like Arati Warrrier.
“It is overwhelming to remember that I’m still a mistake, a tired secret. I can’t tell my parents about this girl I know, and how beautiful her lips are. So instead, I whisper into my pillow over and over. I can’t explain to my mother that how her casual homophobia is ripping holes in all of my sweaters, and I am always shivering.”
Watch Arati narrate her powerful yet emotional poem about how it is to be gay in her country in this video shared by Button Poetry.
