India, Oct. 13 -- One evening, citizens dressed purposefully in black gather at Central Delhi's Jantar Mantar. They light candles to protest the Supreme Court decision to reverse a High Court judgment decriminalising same-sex relations. Indeed, here at Jantar Mantar, right next to the centuries-old solar observatory, queer Delhiwale have repeatedly found space among flags and hunger strikes, celebrating and protesting decisions that directly shape their lives.

That was 2013. Following the Delhi Police decision this week to de-notify Jantar Mantar as a protest site and designate three spaces elsewhere, attention turns to the closest. It is Ramlila Maidan, a place this dispatch has visited before, and now obviously calls for an urgent retu...