Desi gay cruising

My journey of self-exploration began in 2012, when I was 14 years elderly. It was a time just after I’d experienced utmost discrimination in academy for being male lover. I was start to understand and dive deeper into my queerness in India, a region where LGBTQ people do not own the same rights as straight people. As I looked for safe spaces to explore my identity, I stumbled upon one I found surprising support then: a neighbourhood public park.

A confidant who I’d met through PlanetRomeo – one of the earliest queer online dating platforms – told me about a park in my city in the central Indian mention of Madhya Pradesh, which doubled up as a same-sex attracted hotspot. Out of curiosity, I launch my way to the said park, which was just an enclosed patch of unkempt grass next to a noisy road. I first watched from a distance how around sundown, a group of a dozen or so men I’d later call “queens,” would gather. As I gathered confidence to approach them over the next not many days, I realised that this is where they’d connect to offload their daily stress, discuss about their lives, or just get together up.

For a teenager who’d recently consideration that no one would ever get him, this is where I first sought solace. I made friends