Supporters of India’s first openly gay athlete fear for her safety after her decision to come out prompted a backlash in her home village.
Local reaction was hostile in Chaka Gopalpur, a village of weavers in Odisha, after Dutee Chand, the country’s fastest sprinter, told reporters on 19 May that her gay partner was her soulmate.
Chand’s mother, Akhuji, told the Indian Express: “I had been supporting her all along for her special interest in sports but … we belong to a traditional weaver community, which does not permit such things. How can we face our relatives and society?”
Prashant Behra, a villager, said: “It’s humiliating for all of us. We have supported her all the way in her running but we cannot accept this relationship. Marriage can only be between a man and a woman. She should never have talked about it to the whole world. She should stick to running.”
Chand, 23, was also praised for her courage in coming out. Many called it a watershed moment for Indian society, which has hardly any gay celebrities.
But the backlash is thought to have taken her aback and her partner has now left for another town because of hostile remarks by people in their village.
Chand said: “They have been telling me to marry a man and have children. That’s the only tradition they know.
“But everyone I know in the city where I studied supports me. I don’t know if my family and village will come round. I will have to wait and see.”
Some are worried about her safety in the current climate, in which extremist Hindu mobs can appear from nowhere to assault or lynch Muslims or those of a different sexuality. On 26 May, a 19-year-old woman in Odisha was dragged out of her house, tied to a tree and beaten by villagers for being in a lesbian relationship. Reports say the assault happened after villagers found the two women in bed.
Payoshni Mitra, a former government-appointed adviser to Chand who now works as an athletes’ rights activist, said: “With the return of the rightwing Bharatiya Janata party to power, a series of attacks on minorities, including sexual minorities, are being reported.
“However, while it could be dangerous to be openly gay, one cannot live in fear of the consequences – and Dutee’s coming out gives us that message.”
While attitudes in urban India are gradually changing, in rural India, dating between young people of the opposite sex is still frowned upon and homosexuality is seen as beyond the pale. The supreme court last year overturned a colonial-era ban on gay sex, but the ruling found little backing in villages.
However, rural Indians can often turn a blind eye if same-sex relationships are conducted discreetly.
But Chand remained unbowed. “I am not a child who blindly does what her parents say,” she said. “I am grown up. I will spend my life with who I want, but I will also fulfil my responsibility to my family.”