Will it be a gay moment for India’s gay-rights movement?
A new ray of hope in the prolonged, dramatic, teeter-totter debate over the decriminalization of homosexuality in India was inaugurated this week when India’s Supreme Court agreed – most remarkably – to reconsider its own stand on the matter. On 2nd February 2016, the final hearing of the curative petition submitted by the Naz Foundation and others came for hearing in the Supreme Court. The Three member bench headed by the Chief Justice of India T. S. Thakur said that all the eight curative petitions submitted will be reviewed afresh by a five member constitutional bench.
In December 2013, the Supreme Court had crushed the hopes of India’s sprouting gay-rights movement and ruled homosexuality to be a criminal offence setting aside the 2009 judgment given by the Delhi High Court.
By agreeing to refer a “curative petition” contesting the 2013 judgment to a five-judge constitution bench, the court has unquestioningly accepted that even the highest judicial institution of the land is ajar to productive confrontation, and revived the expectation that India will soon join those liberal countries of the world where it is not a crime to be homosexual. The decision is the latest add-on in the unceasing legal battle between India’s social and religious conservatives and the gay community over the law passed by British colonial rulers in the 1860s.
In about 80 countries of the world, homosexuality is illegal. Off and on, debates to decriminalize homosexuality and accord gay rights keep on showing up. In the western world, many countries have the gay rights and gay marriages are being accepted socially. People in these countries with different sexual preferences have got united in the form of social movements for special rights as a sexual minority. Netherlands was the first country to allow same-sex marriage in 2001. As of 2015, same-sex marriages are also recognized in Sweden, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Uruguay, Brazil, France, New Zealand, Mexico and the United States.
Homosexuality has long been a forbidden subject in conservative India. It is still regarded as a mental illness that would eventually get diminished when married to a straight person. Cases have been heard about parents trying to take their children to a psychiatrist for counselling. Most homosexual people are not bold enough to confront their parents about their sexual orientation and even if they do, they are faced with endless tragic consequences. Most of the homosexuals end up marrying the opposite sex just to avoid social stigma. A lot of men and women continue to be in the fake relationship living a bitter life. Hiding their originality and living a virtual life for the sake of satisfying the society must be nothing less than a never ending trauma. So, a change is needed.
Will this new prospect be the change for the long legal battle fought to legalise gay sex when the five judges of India’s apex Court discuss once again the merits of the case against Article 377? Will they proceed on the basis of the nature of law and not “the law of nature”? Time will unfold the new mark – legalization or no legalization! Awaiting the much awaited…
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