Edited by – Aashwin Shanker.

“Rather than suffocating in black and white, accept your rainbows!” – Manpreet Kaur (author)

They are homosexual people of our society.

I want to share one incident which happened to me long back.

I was in the 10th standard and a newcomer had joined our class. She had got her admission a bit late. I was given responsibility by the class-teacher to brief her about everything.

During recess we used to complete our lunch and play in the huge corridors of our school. But that day I sat with the newcomer and started talking about academics. There were very few children spread across the classroom. Slowly that girl held my hand and said that she is a lesbian and had feelings for me than she brought her face close to me and suddenly kissed me on the cheek! It took me a moment to realise what had just happened? I was not shocked, I was just not ready for it.

That day we didn’t talk and I tried not to make eye contact with her because I thought she might feel bad or awkward.

Finally one day I gathered enough courage and love and finally told her during the recess when children were playing in the corridor that “I support your decision and I will support you anywhere you need me but I can’t be something you expect me to be, because I accept you as a friend and not as a lover”!

I remember her smiling, then getting a little sad then smiling again as I completed my 20 second speech. After hearing what I just said, she smiled and said “we can’t get everything in life, not because we don’t try but because that thing is not for us”!

We didn’t talk much after that and she left the school the next year. We haven’t heard or met each other since. 

Now when I think about it I tell myself that I shouldn’t have stopped talking to her. But I did not know about the LGBTQ community back then,because even in the 21st century the society is not ready to accept them, and so many of them don’t even want to reveal their sex to anyone in fear of humiliation .

The point which I want to make is we being straight men/women never understand that there could be people having different sexual appeal. They might experience love in a very different way than way we do. It is not a disorder! Moreover, it isn’t about being straight or gay, rather it is about being yourself!

Humans are beautiful creatures. Everybody longs for love and deserves love unconditionally.