Until 2003, same-sex “sodomy” could still be a criminal offence. Now, in 2015, same-sex couples have a constitutionally protected right to marry across the nation. What explains this rapid shift, which is strongly supported by public opinion? Hollywood certainly played a large part, as both film and TV gradually introduced the reality of gay and lesbian lives to a wide range of Americans, with grace and charm. Perhaps more than any other single creation, the sitcom Will and Grace showed audiences that gay men were not monsters, but complex human beings capable of friendship, some longing for love and a settled lifestyle, some more focused on fun — rather like straights, in fact. (The two gay men in Will are sometimes hard to distinguish from the two straight bachelors of Two and a Half Men, except that the former are funnier and kinder.) But the bigger story was people coming out to their families, friends and even classmates. People change when they learn that someone whom they love already is gay or lesbian; or, through friendship and talk, come to see the world through the eyes of such a person. The stories told at the opening of the case reminded us that this transformation has, at its root, been a tale of the stories we tell and permit ourselves to hear.

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India has a long way to go on the journey to equal dignity. The repeal of Section 377 is an urgently necessary first step, so that people will come out without fear of the law. But since stories are where the action is, Bollywood needs to take a more active role; bold in matters of communalism, it has been quiescent, virtually Victorian, in matters of sex.

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