Her parents have yet to accept her wife and four children, Mathoda said, and she laments being ostracized from her communities and family events.
“It was blatantly obvious to me at that moment that it was not possible for me to have a high-level job or success in India,” she told CNN. She also worried about how the negative view of the LGBTQ community in India at the time could affect her in other areas of her life, such as her career. The lack of legal rights for their union further sealed her decision not to return to India. Mathoda stayed in the US, because she could not see a life in India with her now-wife Avantika Shahi in the face of family opposition. It is unclear how long the court will take to announce a decision, but if legalized, it would make India the second country in Asia to recognize same-sex marriages. The opposition to same-sex marriage comes from religious groups and the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which says it recognizes many forms of relationships but views legal marriage as an arrangement between a man and a woman. LGBTQ Indians throughout the world hope that the five-judge panel will rule in favor of same-sex marriages to build on the historic 2018 Supreme Court decision to decriminalize consensual gay sex, which was a relic of the country’s colonial past. More than a dozen petitioners are asking the court for the same rights granted to heterosexual couples, such as eligibility to adopt, open joint bank accounts, and cover their spouse as part of their insurance. The court reserved judgment but a ruling could come in the weeks ahead. Now, many look to their motherland with high hopes after the Indian Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case on legalizing same-sex marriage. Mathoda is among many LGBTQ Indians who move or stay abroad where they can embrace their identity, find love, and live with more rights and little stigma. “Until that moment, we both wanted to move back to Delhi and live and build a life in India.” “It made me decide to stay back in the US,” she said. The families rejected the couple and their hostile response scared Mathoda - she did not feel safe going to India. When the couple reconciled, they came out to their families in India over email. She could not go back to India to start what she believed would be a false heterosexual marriage. She needed to live her truth and get back together with her girlfriend whom she had broken up with earlier. Rayman Mathoda was driving down Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles in the year 2000 when she decided that she had made a mistake.
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