Validation, vindication, exhilaration... are all among the panoply of feelings that the community feels today, but the one that dominates is simple, humble, and silent – relief. The Supreme Court has affirmed what millions of people have always known but millions others doubted – that they are equal; that they are normal; that their love is natural. Constitutional morality has trumped social morality today in India, at least in the eyes of the law. “The love that dare not speak its name” may finally have a crack in the closet to come out and announce itself out and proud.

A five-judge bench comprising of CJI Dipak Misra, Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, has ruled that consensual adult gay sex is no longer a crime, saying sexual orientation – homo or hetero – is normal and people have no control over it.