This person has had quite a tumultuous experience in discovering his identity and some of you might already know this lad, Vishwadeep Mane, who is out socially to his friends and colleagues.

Year 2019: "I was absolutely in tears when I saw an emotional scene in 'Love, Victor', a webseries wherein a teenager comes out to folks whom he can relate to," says he. Nostalgia overtook him as he ruminated about how his life until that point had been a 'drag show' of adhering to heteronormativity, filled with homophobia, misogyny, and patriarchy. He can still feel the reverberations of the constant hammering of what a 'man' should be in his juvenile years. He alludes to Cass' homosexual identity formation when he was unable to confront his confusion regarding his sexuality.

April, 2019: After an unsuccessful stint in a heterosexual relationship, he ventured into Grindr (unsurprisingly)(for the uninitiated, you can think of Grindr as gay Tinder.) Talk about being lucky; he found his current partner on Grindr one month into his PhD at IISc. He has since helped him understand his orientation and gender identity and helped him grow as a person.

June, 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown culminated with him coming out with a post on his FB feed finally putting an end to an identity crisis which had long haunted him. As he puts it, "The happiness of coming out and the acceptance from my batchmates, friends and people all over my social media was overwhelming." He attributes his partner as being his pillar of support throughout the tumultuous period.

The next big step of coming out to his family will be a gradual process, he says. He wants to work towards inclusivity for all identities as he believes fostering relationships to tackle problems collectively has never been more imperative.

Vishwadeep Mane has published an article about being an LGBT person in STEM in the British Ecological Society.