Bengaluru: Vishal Mehta was living in with his boyfriend before he decided to marry him. The first hurdle was to break the news of his sexuality to his parents, who till that time weren’t aware.

And that bit, according to him, was the toughest. The revelation caused much grief and turmoil in the family. But counselling from a friend calmed them down and they accepted him and his choice.

And what more, they are actively arranging for his marriage. Amongst many other forces that gay men/lesbian women fight on a day-to-day basis, the one that they fight the hardest is to get accepted in their own family.

“It is difficult to break out of the closet and reveal your sexuality to your family. If you don’t have them on your side, then it will be a lonely tough battle to fight,” says Kartik Narayanan, illustrator from Chennai. “It is only last year, that I mustered enough courage to write a letter to my parents, while away from home, to tell them all. I was economically independent, and was prepared for the worse. They obviously didn’t take it well initially – they tried to marry me off, saying it will be alright after marriage, but I broke free of it,” he adds.

His mother Sowmya Narayanan, a Government school teacher says, “I was blissfully ignorant, till he told us about it. I was heart-broken, because I dreamt of a family for him, but now I support him. The government is not by their side. But as parents, we need to. There is nothing wrong with them, they can flourish and find love too. Normal is boring and over-rated.”

Echoing similar sentiments, P Sandhya, a painter from Puducherry, says, “My daughter Sushrutha told me that she is a lesbian. Initially, it took time for me to accept it. She is economically independent, with positive zest for life, why should her sexuality be the only talking point?.”