Some days ago, Arjun, a friend in Delhi, wrote of how a policeman had found him arm-in-arm with another man in a public park one evening. He was subsequently threatened that if he did not pay up he would be taken to the police station and his parents informed that he was a homosexual or, worse, a hustler. Arjun gave in to the policeman's demand for money. When he reached home, he found, to his shock, the same policeman waiting on the steps of his house. Now that the policeman knew where Arjun lived, he was told that he had better comply with the demands if he did not want his parents to know of his secret life. From that day onwards, Arjun would ply the policeman with money and beer to buy his silence. Life had become a veritable hell. Arjun's is not an isolated case. Other gay men have been through similar experiences. Hatred of gays is deeply entrenched in heterosexual, patriarchal society, and as the Indian gay movement grows increasingly assertive there are growing reports of gay bashing, blackmailing and the like. Few Indian gays are open about their sexual orientation for fear of rebuke and persecution, which is why their sexual preference remains a secret that they closely guard from what they perceive to be the hostile hetero-patriarchal society around them. Challenge stereotypes What accounts for this hatred of homosexuals? Homosexuality is supposed to be just as 'natural' as being left-handed. Why then do heterosexuals, particularly men, react with undisguised hostility whenever the issue of homosexuality is raised? Much of the hatred of homosexuals, buttressed by appeals to religion and morality, is principally rooted in two factors: ignorance and fear. Not many heterosexuals know gay men or women personally, and even if they do, few would know that they are indeed gay. Ignorance breeds the worst sort of prejudice and promotes negative stereotypes of homosexuals - of gay men being perverts and child-molesters, sex-starved maniacs with insatiable sexual appetites and so on. These stereotypical images, which have no basis in actual fact, then serve to strengthen an already deep-rooted homophobia. Equally crippling is the fundamental fear which many heterosexual men have of gay men. Any digression from the conventional forms of heterosexuality is perceived as a challenge to the structures of patriarchy and male privilege. If males begin to behave, as many gay men do, like 'females' are seen to, not just in purely sexual terms but also in lifestyle and attire, the carefully cultivated, yet fragile, edifice of male superiority structured on male difference begins to crumble. For, if men behave no different from women the rationale behind male superiority is forcefully challenged. Goal ahead In this way, homophobia can be seen to be, in a very real sense, a reflection of a hatred and, worse still, a fear of the feminine that lies behind the structure and ideology of patriarchy and male supremacy. The feeling against gays is, in that sense, propelled by a subliminal realization of how flimsy the structures of male domination actually are. And that is why any deviation from the rigid norms of heterosexuality is punished so severely, why gays are associated with criminality and sin, and why people like Arjun and countless others continue to be made mute victims at the altar of patriarchal 'morality' and 'normality'. Male liberation is as important as female emancipation for the emergence of a truly human society. In this quest for humanization, gay men have a key role to play by stripping off layers of imposed and carefully cultivated normative rules for male behaviour that are based on both control of women and the denial of the finer, feminine side to every man, for androgyny is a universal condition. In other words, the gay liberation movement has a dual task ahead of it: freedom for the Arjuns of the world who continue to lead haunted, maimed lives for no fault of their own. And rescuing heterosexual men from the chains of patriarchy that dull their sensitivities and restrict their ability to express emotions. In the process, the gay movement could also challenge the strictures patriarchy constantly imposes on women.