"My husband and I traveled throughout India where we encountered many homeless children on the streets and witnessed how easily they were abducted and sold into (sexual) slavery," says the celebrated LGBT fiction writer, Hans M. Hirschi.  In his new novel, The Fallen Angels of Karnataka, out now, he tackles the subject of trafficking. Like his previous works, Fallen Angels is a hopeful tale. It depicts the quest for love and the belief that embracing it – in all its colorful forms - will make the world a better place. Hirschi brilliantly sets the story at the start of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, when many gay men were afraid to love.

Where The Fallen Angels of Karnataka separates itself from his previous works is in its boldness.  Hirschi’s decision to write the child predator as a gay man has some up in arms, arguing it perpetuates the myth that pedophiles are gay.  Hirschi, himself a victim of child molestation (at the hands of a female perpetrator), stands by his work.  "I am gay and I write about gay stories," he says. "It wasn’t a conscious or political decision, just as most straight authors do not consciously make their main characters straight.  In my mind, Charles was gay.  It would have been cowardly to run away from the true story in my mind."

We sat down with Hans M. Hirschi to discuss the novel and the controversy behind it.

GC: Why are children in India among the worlds’ most vulnerable?

HH: I think it’s an unfortunate combination of sheer population size combined with a very corrupt system.  As Hindus and Buddhists believe in re-birth, the current life, while important and a necessary learning process, isn’t as valuable as it would be for someone who believes that the present life is the only shot we have. If you die, you’ll come back, you’ll get another shot, therefore it’s not that big a deal.   Combine that with the fact that children are the weakest members of society and it becomes a very dangerous situation, where parents may even be happy to assist in the disappearance of a daughter because it alleviates the cost of a dowry they may not be able to afford.

GC: How did you first come upon child trafficking in India?

HH: My husband and I traveled to India to get to know the country and find a cause we could help with. It was during our research that we learned about the plight of hundreds of thousands of children that were literally disappearing. Girls were being kidnapped and forced into slavery and marriage.  Boys were being forced into child labor. In a country with 1.4 billion people, where hundreds of millions are so poor they cannot pay the bribes it takes to get the police to investigate the disappearance of a child in a village, the numbers of missing children is quickly rising to staggering numbers. It’s an industry, not just in India, but in Africa and other Asian countries as well. We found work at a school for street children.

GC: Did the children in the school know that Alex was your husband?

HH: I’m not sure. We weren’t overly affectionate, but we certainly never made it a secret. Since the children only spoke Hindi, we relied on the translation services of friends and the people on site.

GC: How is homosexuality viewed in India?

HH: A supreme judge recently overturned the 2009 ruling legalizing homosexuality, making it illegal once more.  That was a major set back. Being gay in India is difficult. Several of my best friends are out to their peers and colleagues but remain closeted to their families. One friend is even legally married to his American husband, but his family knows nothing and still hopes to marry him off to a suitable girl.

GC: Is it true laws are more favorable for the trans community?

HH: India has an interesting tradition of looking favorably at transgendered men, hijra, and recently, the supreme court recognized them as a third gender.

GC: Did you set out to expose the vulnerable youth of India through your new book?

HH: The original purpose of the book was to be a travel adventure that showcased my main character’s inner journey to maturation through his trips. Travel has always been a passion of mine and I wanted to write about some of the places I had seen.  I set the story during the eighties at the start of the AIDS pandemic so I could imagine being a young gay man in the eighties.

GC: When did the story turn to one of trafficking?

HH: When an acquaintance was convicted of owning child pornography. It had been four years since my husband and I had last seen him, but he had once been a friend!  I imagined him at home with my son, sitting on our couch, eating at the table. Although a figment of my imagination, the images were so disturbing that I had a breakdown in public. The next day, my story started to change, and Charles started to morph, from an eccentric dandy to something entirely different.

GC: Do you worry that making Charles a pedophile may perpetuate the myth that child molesters are gay men?

HH: I did, and to a degree, I still do. Pedophilia is by definition a sexual orientation in its own right, set apart from the straight and gay. The woman who molested me was happily married and by all terms and definitions "straight".  But yes, of course it worries me. However, I couldn’t shy away from the story.  It needed to be written. I hope to have successfully managed to showcase the difference between being a criminal and being a gay man.

GC: What did you learn from writing Fallen Angels of Karnataka?

HH: The controversy that has come from the book has taught me that, as a community, we are capable of discussing heavier subjects than coming out and marriage equality. LGBT literature is growing and now allows us to delve into many topics, freely and openly.

GC: What do you hope readers learn from the book?

HH: I hope readers think about what they can do to help a fallen angel.  We can all open our hearts to children: as mentors, foster or adoptive parents, or through monetary donations.  There are children in need, right where you are, and we can make a difference, even in the smallest way.