BHOPAL: When medical student Rahul Chouhan had told his parents back home in their little village in Ujjain a few years ago that he was gay , they were stunned but supported him anyway. “After Supreme Court decriminalized Article 377, we now know we did the right thing,” they told TOI.Rahul’s parents Ramkanya and Suresh Chandra Chouhan even came over to Bhopal to join the pride parade to celebrate the SC decision.“It has been a long and difficult journey, full of ups and downs and a lot of tears and depression. But the happiest day of my life was when my parents accepted me for who I was. They came to the pride parade and were relieved to see so many well educated and successful people identifying with the community,” Rahul told TOI.Sharing his journey of self-discovery, the medical student said, “I belong to a small village, Limbaditt, in Tarana tehsil of Ujjain where people are not really aware of homosexuality . Being a backward area, families get their children married before they reach their mid-20s. Even I was engaged to a girl in 2014 as I didn’t know my sexual orientation.”A few months into the relationship, he realized that he did not have any feelings for his fiancée, Rahul recalls. “Back in my teens, I had felt attraction towards boys, but didn’t pay attention to it as I was unaware that homosexual relationships exist. I didn’t even know that I was ‘gay’. When I came to Bhopal I felt guilty for being attracted to boys instead of girls and started hating myself. I planned to commit suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. But then I thought of my parents and gave up the idea. It was then that I decided to go to a psychiatrist and discuss the issue,” he said.Counseling sessions with a psychiatrist at AIIMS-Bhopal helped him realize he was gay and there was nothing wrong with it. “I called my mother to Bhopal to tell her the truth,” he said.His mother, who has now accepted her son’s sexuality, no strings attached, said, “It was not something that I expected. Rahul told me that he was already taking sessions with a psychiatrist and that there was no ‘cure’ for it. I went to speak to the psychiatrist myself. The doctor explained things to me and I went back to the village and spoke to my husband. He then came to Bhopal and the two of us visited the doctor again. After a lot of effort by Rahul and the doctor, we understood that homosexuality was not a disease but a natural biological phenomenon.”“We only wanted our son to be happy,” she said. The couple then allowed Rahul to call off the engagement as they didn’t want to “ruin two lives just for the sake of ego”. His mother added, “It would have been unfair to both Rahul and the girl had we forced the two to marry despite knowing the truth. We love our son and we want to make sure he is happy. We know that his sexuality cannot be changed and we cannot force him to be heterosexual. Though it took us two years to accept the truth, we have now come to terms with it and only want Rahul to be happy. We are happy that he did not take any wrong steps and told us everything from the start.”

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