January 24, 2017 | Arts / Entertainment

Bollywood actor refuses to say he's gay, even though he is

Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar has just released his autobiography, An Unstable Boy. In it he reveals why he refuses to openly discuss his sexuality, even though most people know what it is.
 
"Everybody knows what my sexual orientation is, I don't need to scream it out," he wrote in the book. "If I need to spell it out, I won't only because I live in a country where I could possibly be jailed for saying this. Which is why I, Karan Johar, will not say the three words that possibly everybody knows about me.”
 
He continued: "The reason I don't say it out aloud is simply that I don't want to be dealing with the [police complaints]. ... "I'm not going to sit in the courts because of ridiculous, completely bigoted individuals who have no education, no intelligence, who go into some kind of rapture for publicity."
 
Johar, who lives and works in India, is the host of a long-running popular TV talk show, Koffee With Karan, which airs on 21st Century Fox's Star India network. He is also a director, and has produced several hit Bollywood films. But it isn't his fear of losing fans that is keeping him from officially coming out; it's his fear of jail.
 
Since 1862, homosexuality has been considered "against the order of nature" and a guilty verdict for gayness can result in a maximum sentence of life in prison. In 2009, the Delhi High Court decriminalized consensual homosexual intercourse, but in 2013 the verdict was reversed by the Supreme Court.
 
India's parliament was asked to revisit the law, and decided to keep it on the books.
 
Apurva Asrani, a screenwriter who is openly gay, criticized Johar's decision.
 
"Do you realize that your statement will push so many people who struggle with their identity back into stuffy closets?” wrote Asrani in an essay. He added that "you cannot get arrested for saying you are gay. You cannot even get arrested for being gay. The law (Section 377) can only be invoked against you if you are first caught in the act."
 
So as long as you don't have a sex tape, Johar, you'll be okay.

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