"I have found someone who is my soul mate. I believe everyone should have the freedom to be with whoever they decide they want to be with." These innocuous words in an interview to an Indian newspaper not only revealed the speaker's current relationship status of being in love but also kicked the hornet's nest in India. 

Indian sprinter Dutee Chand has crossed many hurdles in life and overcome many battles both on and off the track but her recent disclosure of being in a same-sex relationship resulted in her being caught in the eye of the storm. The 23-year-old Asian Games silver-medalist shattered the glass ceiling to become India's first openly gay sportsperson.

Chand's path-breaking disclosure may not have raised too many eyebrows in a conservative country that saw its apex judiciary, the Supreme Court, striking down the age-old ban on gay sex only a few months ago, but now she is facing a massive backlash from her own family.

Her elder sister, Saraswati, lambasted the sprinter saying that her partner "pressurized and blackmailed" her for wealth and property. Chand, however, remains unfazed and told India's leading daily, Times of India, "My older sister has threatened to throw me out of the house... She can do what she wants but I wanted to make this public for two reasons. It is nothing wrong and I am not ashamed of it. I proudly say I am in a same-sex relationship."

Chand has already found significant support from many quarters and leading athletes' rights activist and scholar Dr. Payoshni Mitra told CGTN, "I believe her decision to come out has been welcomed by the queer community in India."

Dr. Mitra, who is also a government-appointed adviser to Chand, added, "Dutee already had a lot of fan following her for being a champion on and off the field. She challenged the highest body of athletics at the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the age of eighteen and got a favorable decision. She is a role model to many, in India as well as around the world."

Indian journalist-turned-author Suprita Das, who has seen Chand from a close quarter, echoed the same sentiment as she mentioned, "I think it's huge for India, not just Indian sport in which it's a massive, massive first. It's of course not going to get any easier – we're already reading reports of tension in Dutee's family and of them threatening her to leave their village. But Dutee Chand knows a thing or two about fighting for her right, so she's going to fight through this like she always has."

Chand is known to be a fighter. The sprinter, who was born in a poor weaver family in a rural district in the backward eastern Indian state of Odisha, toiled hard to catapult herself to the international athletics arena at an early age. She also successfully fought a massive legal battle against her country's ruling body, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) & the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in 2015 for a ban on her due to her hyperandrogenism, a condition that naturally produces high testosterone levels.

She was just at 18 at that time but her victory at the world's top sports court effectively removed the suspension and cleared her to race again.

Chand's indomitable spirit and the inextinguishable fire in her belly saw her scorching the track once again as she went on to win a slew of international laurels, including two silver medals in 100m and 200m in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.

In fact, the CAS ruling on the Chand's case forced the IAAF to leave out her pet events – 100m and 200m – from their latest tweak in the regulations that saw another prominent athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya being barred from running middle distance events between 400m to 1 mile. 

Chand, who met Semenya during the 2016 Rio Olympics, offered legal help to the South African middle-distance runner's legal battle at the CAS. Dr. Mitra, who played a key role in Chand's case at the CAS, also testified as an expert at the Lausanne-based international quasi-judicial body on behalf of Semenya, who is married to her same-sex partner Violet Raseboya.

She told CGTN from London, "Both Dutee and Semenya are great role models to young people all over the world. Their ability to not back down under pressure, to fight for their rights in spite of severe opposition have inspired many within and outside sports. I am sure their incredible stories have inspired many in the LGBTIQ community as well."

The Indian Supreme Court's last year's decision to overturn the draconian century-old British era law on gay sex has already bolstered the LGBT movement and awareness drive in the ever-conservative Indian society. 

Das opined, "Look, I think like Dutee and her partner, the Supreme Court's ruling less than a year back, came as a breath of fresh air for so many. And that lets individuals go about their sexuality a bit more confidently, at least some of them because they know they've got the backing of the law now."

In fact, a recent mainstream Bollywood movie, titled Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (How I felt when I saw that girl), portrayed a lesbian relationship as its main theme. The coming-of-age-romantic comedy, featuring some of the leading actors of Hindi cinema, did quite well at the box office.

“I found it quite refreshing for a Bollywood film, in fact, it's educative to a certain extent. But I think the general awareness about LGBT relationships is restricted to some pockets of urban India only at the moment. Overall, I would say we as a society are very very far from accepting homosexuality and acknowledging it as something natural and normal, and it's not a change that will happen overnight. The level of jokes that go around on social media, or on our countless WhatsApp groups and even in general public circles, is frankly quite crass and sickening," Das rued.

However, amidst the heat of Indian parliamentary elections, Chand's revelation has garnered a massive social media traction and the young sprinter, who is gearing up for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has found tremendous support from different quarters, including her federation.

Das opined, "With Dutee coming out in the open, I hope things shake up for the better and many more like her get to stop fighting for being who they are and for loving who they want to love."