Persecution of India's sexual minorities surges after court ruling - activists

Participants take part in a gay pride parade in New Delhi November 28, 2010. Thousands of people danced, sang and cheered through the streets of Delhi on Sunday in a colourful and vibrant celebration for the first gay pride parade since gay sex was made legal in India. To match Reuters Life! INDIA-GAYS/ REUTERS/B Mathur

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - There has been a surge in crimes against India's sexual minorities, including rape, assault, blackmail and harassment, since the country's top court reinstated a ban on gay sex a year ago, activists said on Thursday.

The Supreme Court, ending four years of decriminalisation that had helped bring homosexuality into the open in this deeply conservative country, ruled in December last year that only parliament could change a colonial-era law banning homosexual sex.