Mumbai can be a tough place to find a home in. If the sky-high prices weren’t bad enough, you could also be discriminated against you based on what you eat, your religion and even your marital status. But if you think you have it bad, spare a thought for members of the LGBT community who have to battle more deep-seated prejudices almost every day.

Take the example of Urmi Jadhav, a transgender person who works as a research associate with the Humsafar Trust. In her case, she managed to find an understanding landlady in Santacruz who allowed Urmi to lease her home. But four months into the lease, Urmi was abruptly asked to leave. “Her husband was not aware that I am a transgender and when he found out, they both started fighting. I got a call at 1 in the night and the landlady told me I had to vacate the house in the next 2 days. I couldn’t reason with her and I had no option but to leave and move into a slum nearby”, says Urmi.

Thousands of members from the LGBT community face such discrimination almost every day, having to deal with hostile neighbours, landowners and brokers when hunting for homes. And if you think this only happens with a certain section of society which is conservative, think again. LGBT activists say that even people who claim to be accepting of the LGBT community act the opposite when faced with a situation where a LGBT person settles into their housing complex. And it is the transgender community which faces the brunt of the problem. “This is a form of marginalization. You want people like these to disappear and not be in your neighbourhood. And obviously, if you are transgender, this discrimination is very obvious because you are visible. The same thing applies to a lesbian or gay person until they come out. If you are quiet and don’t talk about it and you seem normal, then everything is ok until you are found out”, says Pallav Patankar, director of Programs at The Humsafar Trust.

LGBT activists believe that sensitization is crucial in ensuring that these age-old prejudices disappear. Take the case of Joe Paul, a transgender film-maker who faced trouble renting a flat “The owner said he did not want people like me to live there. He said he had trouble in the past from transgender people. I had to explain to him that there was no need to generalize and that there could be bad apples among both the homosexual and the heterosexual community. It took a while, but he finally agreed to let me stay on” says Joe. Her experience has given hope to LGBT groups like The Humsafar Trust, who have taken it upon themselves to organize various programmes such as street plays, movie screenings and talks to educate the public about the community.

The Nalsa judgement which came out last year and recognizes transgenders as the third gender – conferring on them the right to housing and medical services – was a sign of hope; however experts say this is not enough. “The Nalsa judgement says transgenders are equal citizens, but there is still a long gap between a law being in place and actual implementation of the law” says Pallav. Experts are now calling for stronger anti-discrimination laws to be introduced. “I have heard about the same issue with gay friends of mine, with Muslim friends of mine, with an organization called Kranti where daughters of sex workers were not allowed a place to stay. What we need is greater sensitization and anti-discriminatory laws”, says equal-rights activist Harish Iyer.

Until then, the LGBT community faces an uphill struggle and transgender people like Urmi Jadhav have no option but to stand their ground. “People say we have rights and we don’t need to beg or do sex-work. I say to them, you are still seeing people like me lose homes; lose jobs, still being discriminated against because of what we are. You make fun of people like us, but for us, this is our life. To say you accept LGBT people and to actually welcome them into your homes, those are two very different things” she says.

Nikhil Narayan Sivadas, Assistant Editor, NDTV.