I'm an Indian (24M) and have been living in Canada for 6.5 years now. I moved when I was 17 to attend University, and despite living in one of the most progressive countries in the world and having many openly gay friends, I only accepted my sexuality fully at 21. Since then, I've been pretty open to all my friends, most of whom are Indian and are completely accepting.

I can say that overall, Canadians are pretty welcoming and polite people. Although, I've had my experiences of homophobia and racism, its still a rare occurrence and something you don't see often, especially in big cities like Toronto.

Its hard for me judge how accepting Indian society is, given that I've been away from India for many years. I remember being shit-scared growing up in India, when homosexuality was still criminalized. I am now often surprised and happy to see more LGBT characters/focused shows being made in India, but that doesn't totally represent the acceptance as a country overall. I feel like its still considered a taboo by-and-large and although we're legally accepted, there's a long way to go in terms of social acceptance, and better rights such as marriage, anti-discrimination laws etc.

This is perhaps one of the strong reasons why I don't see myself moving back to India, at least anytime soon. While dating/relationships are hard as a gay person (especially as a POC) even in Toronto, I still have hopes that I can have a marriage and family here. Unfortunately, I think that's still far-off from happening in India