“I’m legally a homosexual,” smiled Abhijit Aher, a gay rights activist and a member of Humsafar Trust. He has been out of the closet for seven years. “Every individual should live how they want to,” he said . Today, he can.

For those celebrating, this victory not only brings same-sex couples into the open but also means the protection of their civil liberties. “Now, if someone is discriminated against, that person can take recourse to the law,” Vivek Raj Anand, CEO of the Trust, told a packed press conference. For Anand, a change in the law does not equate to a change in mentality, but at least now homosexuality will be part of a public dialogue.

For Sridhar Rangayan,the Trust’s founder, this is just the first step. “What we want next is a change in the constitution,” said Rangayan, also a filmmaker. To all those opposed to homosexuals, he added that “society needs to understand that we are not hurting anyone — we just want the right to love.”