MUMBAI: Outspoken Indian gay rights activist Harish Iyer is used to fighting for equal rights but over the last month he has turned into a messenger of love. He is the host of “Gaydio”, the first radio show dedicated to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in India, where homosexuality is a taboo and gay sex can be punished with up to 10 years in jail.

“As an activist, it is in my DNA to stand up for a cause,” Iyer, 38, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “You hear heart-warming love stories during your activism, but you are busy being the saviour. But on this show, I look at the softer side.”

India’s penal code bans “sex against the order of nature”, which is widely interpreted as homosexual sex, and transgender people face widespread discrimination even though the Supreme Court has enshrined a person’s right to identify as transgender.

The weekly show on commercial radio channel Ishq was launched in mid-July and is aired every Sunday in Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata.

Iyer’s guests on the two-hour Sunday show included a Sikh-Muslim male couple who spoke about how they met, their coming-out experience and still going strong after 12 years.

There is no official data on the LGBT population in India, but the government estimates there are 2.5 million gay people, reflecting those who have declared their sexuality to the health ministry.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2017