Sharif Rangnekar, now 55, is a New Delhi-based singer-songwriter, author, a consultant on workplace inclusion, and a gay man. In a conversation with me, he recounted how spaces for expressing and exploring queer intimacies have changed since the 2000s.
In his observation, one would earlier often live with a compromised sense of safety, especially if they were “being gay on the streets, or a cafe, or at a workplace”, which in turn restricted how and where people found and explored love.
Since then, however, he believes there are a lot more “safe spaces” where public expressions of queer love are not seen with disdain, contempt, or voyeuristic curiosity. “Even for myself, I walk with my boyfriend in Gulmohar Park, which I wouldn’t have done a few years ago also,” he told me during our conversation.
“I hold his hand and he holds mine,” he said.