India's first openly gay politician joins the oldest party in the country

• Harish Iyer is the first openly gay person to become a politician.
• Iyer on Tuesday announced that he is joining the Indian National Congress.
• India's Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in 2018 allowing Iyer's move to politics today

Harish Iyer, who grabbed headlines after becoming the first gay person in the country to seek proposals for same-sex marriage in 2015 announced that he is joining the Indian National Congress.

"I have officially joined the Congress and look forward to working with the Mumbai Congress team in weeding out homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia and the politics of hate," Harish Iyer announced on Twitter.

@milinddeora was the first to write a piece against section 377 and thought it was archaic.

And today, he encouraged me to do this.

So today, the doors or the closet have yet again set themselves free. I don't merely support the Congress. I am Congress. pic.twitter.com/UjdAp9HC7z

— harish iyer (@hiyer) April 9, 2019

Iyer has become the first openly gay politician in India. He has been working proactively as an Indian Equal Rights Activists and has presented his opinion on number of issues including promoting rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer (LGBTQ+) community, children, women, animals and survivors of child sexual abuse. He is also organising the gay pride parade in India to fight the rights of LGBTQ community.

Iyer tweeted "So, sometimes we cannot afford sitting on the fence. Sometimes, you need to take a plunge into things with people who are working against the intent of equality and stand against the very fabric of secularism that our nation is blessed with. We need to strive to protect it.”

Last year, India’s the Supreme Court struck down section 377, a landmark decision that decriminalized gay sex and turned a leaf for the country's LGBTQ community.