When Kamalika Dasgupta was 23 years old, she was forced to watch her girlfriend marry a man.
"I had to watch it to prove we were not gay," she said.
The experience not only contributed to her debilitating mental health problems, but gave her another push towards leaving India.
"I lied to my parents and said I wanted to come to Australia to study, but it was so I could leave my life," Ms Dasgupta told the ABC.
"It was quite frightening when I was growing up there. I used to always hide my sexuality."
While there has been progress in LGBT rights in the nine years since Ms Dasgupta left her home in Kolkata for Canberra, same-sex marriage is still not legally recognised in India.
Marriage is highly revered in the largely conservative and deeply religious country of 1.4 billion people.
For many Indians it can be a validation of identity itself so, without that right, LGBT people feel like "second-class citizens", Ms Dasgupta says.
"Marriage is important to me because it's part of my culture," she said.
Ms Dasgupta said under India's Hindu nationalist government and the eyes of the "religious police" it was difficult to imagine a large progressive shift, but there was hope.
A historic case to legalise same-sex marriage is currently playing out in the Supreme Court.
The same court decriminalised homosexuality in 2018 by scrapping a colonial-era ban on gay sex.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, who is heading a five-judge panel, has said the issue is of "seminal importance" to India.
The hearings, which are expected to continue today, are even being "live streamed in public interest".
If the push is successful, India will become only the second Asian jurisdiction — after Taiwan — to recognise same-sex unions.
'The Supreme Court has to take a stand'
The Supreme Court has "come to our rescue" before, said Abhijit Ghosh, a 43-year-old gay man from Ahmedabad in western India.
"I feel that the Supreme Court has to take a stand because the parliament will resist and not take action," he told the ABC.
"The current government says that they work for everybody — it's their motto — but they are not here for LGBT people at all."
The outcome of the hearing could change Mr Ghosh's life significantly.
He has been keeping his relationship secret for five years because his 32-year-old partner is "still in the closet" to protect his family.
"Like any parents, they will say we have no rights and [certainty] about the future … there is that fear and uncertainty," Mr Ghosh said.
"My partner wants to come out and he will when the laws are with us ... If the law recognises us, then society will definitely have a kind of acceptance."
In 2014, transgender people were given official recognition in India as a "third gender".
And when homosexuality was decriminalised in 2018, unmarried partners or same-sex couples were entitled to welfare benefits.
However, LGBT couples argue they are still denied "basic rights" such as those linked to medical consent, pensions, adoption or even simpler things like club memberships for couples.
Last week, the Supreme Court began hearing those arguments, with dozens of petitions seeking recognition of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act of 1954.
The court will consider whether the act — which allows marriages between people of different castes and religions — can be adapted to include LGBT people.
The collective lawsuit is a consolidation of cases brought before lower courts in recent months where no decision has been reached, setting the stage for this legal face-off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
"With the constitution in our hearts, we go back to our court, for complete equality, full dignity and freedom worthy of our citizenship," Menaka Guruswamy, a lawyer representing six same-sex union cases, tweeted when the hearings kicked off.
Ms Guruswamy — who was among the lawyers at the forefront of the decriminalisation of homosexuality case in 2018 — has said she has "complete faith in the court".
LGBT rights labelled 'elitist views'
The government has already firmly stated its opposition to same-sex marriage, and it argues the parliament, rather than the Supreme Court, should be making decisions about the issue.
In a 102-page court filing, it said same-sex marriage was not "comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children" and the petitions "merely reflect urban elitist views".
The Bar Council of India also urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case, releasing a statement over the weekend saying it "would be catastrophic to overhaul something as fundamental as the conception of marriage by any Law Court", according to local media reports.
The government estimates there are 2.5 million LGBT people in India.
But LGBT rights activists say the figure could be as high as 135 million, which is about 10 per cent of the population.
Ms Dasgupta, who runs SheQu — an organisation that supports LGBT women in Australia from culturally diverse backgrounds — said the government was hindering acceptance.
"We have a culture that is becoming more progressive, and Indian youth are really well educated, but the leaders of the parties are misleading them," she said.
"They are saying that we don't have LGBTQI people in India, that it is elitist views … but there are like 135 million people. They didn't just pop out of the toaster."
Any discussion about LGBT rights 'a win'
Mr Ghosh has witnessed the impact law changes can have on people's mindsets.
He has always been "out" to his family, but they became much more supportive when homosexuality was decriminalised five years ago.
Discussions on LGBT rights also became more common across parts of society.
"We used to be on page six inside the newspaper. Now we are coming in the headlines," he said.
"So laws have to be made so that society can also evolve with that."
Deepthi Kavati works as a counsellor mainly for people in India who are lesbian, were assigned female at birth or identify as transgender.
She does not believe legalising same-sex marriage will make a huge difference to mindsets immediately, but is thankful the case is creating more visibility of LGBT people.
She said this was particularly important for LGBT people in smaller towns who might not have an awareness or understanding of how to validate their own identity and say: "Oh, I'm gay, or I'm lesbian."
"I've spoken to parents, and sometimes parents are quite helpless as well," she told the ABC.
"There's absolutely no visibility [for LGBT people] in smaller towns, and it's kind of looked at as, 'Oh, it's a Western thing. It's not an Indian thing.'"
Often parents were "pushing them into marriages" with heterosexual partners, Ms Kavati said.
"I have known instances of gay men who have given in to pressure and gotten married [to a woman but] just get around with other men."
The 38-year-old lives openly gay in the city of Hyderabad, but it took her about 15 years to find "safe spaces".
She cannot imagine there will be significant changes for another 10 years. But she said there was definitely positive momentum.
"This hearing, whichever way it goes … it's not going to be an easy thing," she said.
"But seeing headlines in the newspapers every day about LGBT rights, even if they are negative, that's a win for me."
ABC/wires
