As we know, until July 02, 2009 homosexuality was a crime in India under section 377. Delhi high court decriminalized sexual intercourse between two consenting adults. On one hand this verdict can be considered as a temporary relief for the gay community in India. The main reason to consider this as temporary is because till now the ruling UPA government did not have a strong stand in the issue.
Few years back our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that legalizing homosexuality will not be appreciated in India as we are culturally very different society. Contrastingly the then Health minister under his government, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss advocated to decriminalize homosexuality but he faced stern opposition from the home ministry. Even now after Delhi high court’s verdict no one from the ministry gave direct support to the LGBT community. Today the government is like a cat on a wall on this issue.
Homosexuality is mainly opposed in India in the name of culture and religion. Coming to India’s culture, is it possible to define what exactly Indian culture is? We have different culture, different people, different way of life etc. There is no single pan Indian culture in which every Indian can fall into. And religion, why do religion come into the picture in a secular country while making law?
Legalizing homosexuality is in no way going to affect religion. We have Hindu Marriage Act, Muslim Marriage Act, Christian Marriage Act and Parsee Marriage and Divorce Act. And there is special marriage act, 1954. As per the current marriage acts a person can get married as per the marriage act of their faith they belong to or under special marriage act. How on earth will it affect their religious freedom or religion. There is going to be no change in their marriage law even if a new marriage act is introduced, LGBT marriage act.
Apart from culture, religion, homophobia, ignorance, bigotry there is no other reason as “Why India should not legalize gay marriage”.Indian culture has always celebrated queerness. If you think your religion is going to be affected because of gays, stop preaching to gays, you can preach only to people who fall into your protocol. And human rights records of religious organizations are not always satisfactory. If you are homophobic, you can get treatment for phobia. If you are ignorant about homosexuality visit the LGBT counseling center near your house. If you are bigoted, then ‘off.
There are many instances where we broke the cultural and religious protocol when we realized that they are gross mistake, now its again time to make another mistake disappear. Reasons to legalize gay marriage are not limited and our law makers should be fair to everyone who are reasonable. Baseless, bigotry, homophobic and religious oriented arguments against the LGBT community should not be considered. And those who feel that the LGBT community should not be marginalized should not shy away from talking.
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I really enjoyed this post, especially the “examples in this post” portion which made it really easy for me to SEE what you were talking about without even having to leave the article. Thanks
plz som 1 tell me is it a crime if 1 boy marry a man ………
I could not agree more. Thanks for posting.
Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful to me! I will post a link to this page on my blog. I am sure my visitors will find that very useful.
Great article, i hope can know much information About it.
Marriage is one of the most sacred ceremonies that we humans experience. Being married also gives us happines.;.;
finally discovered somewhere with helpful info. thanks and keep it coming
marriage is great specially if you have found a very special someone that is beautiful both on the inside and outside.~-,
marriage is one of the happiest moments that a person will experience in his/her life”**
Through out history, people who are ‘normal’ have had to define people who are ‘abnormal’ in order to establish themselves as ‘normal’. As Indians, we have a heritage more important than the vedas and what have yous- and that is tolerance and assimilation. That’s how we’ve become this great nation of diversity, and I think a lot of people today have forgotten that, that’s what makes us Indian.
Culture is a moving definition, and I would argue that to not make it legal or accept it is a basic disrespect to the constitution of this country and its cultural heritage. Loved this post, very outspoken and a much needed filler in the vacuum of the blogo-sphere where not much comes from indian writers on homosexuality and rights associated with the same.
Very true Saro. Also it is true that not many Indian bloggers write on LGBT issues, even if they support LGBT rights. One reason why Indian bloggers hesitate to write on this subject is, people might ‘tag’ them one. But if we support LGBT rights, there should be no issues in what others think. It is very important to voice our opinions. Else there is no use in supporting.
so very true….culdnt agree wid you more…..gud job done:)
Its also interesting that we are the country of the Kamasutra and Khajuraho temples and what have you, where homosexuality is clearly depicted. So saying its not part of our culture or religion is a laugh.
& when two people are ready to dedicate their lives to each other, that is what should be respected, instead of forbidden & called a sin. After all, all laws and religious tenets have been created by man, not God. God did not come down to earth and write things down. In fact, neither did the prophets. It was those who remained after the prophets who put things down in writing. & the priests of all religions have been modifying things to change them to their own convenience for fear of losing their congregations.
i m really in favour of legalising homo marriages in india,becoz i really believe that homo peoples hav d full right tolove nd to b married and get respect in society,why only when it comes to gay marriage indian govt. thinks of religion and culture.why are intercast marriages are not crime.in ancient time there was sati pratha also than why are we not following the same in todayz world,becoz we realiaze its wrong similarly we want indian govt. to listen to the heart who love nd want to live respectfully,afterall homosexual people are also human beings…..
I like your blog, you write interesting articles and I literally laughed out loud at the “If you are homophobic… If you are ignorant… If you are bigoted, f**k off.” The US is still mulling over gay marriage, too, of course. I hope India can figure it out. India actually might have a better chance than the US, with all of the different religions/marriage customs already there. It’s really a stupid issue because it has nothing to do with anybody except the two people getting married. I really don’t know why people care. Do people really wake up at night in a cold sweat, knowing that somebody, somewhere is gay and married? Usually people oppose it for “religious, moral” reasons. If the secular state, not a religion, is the entity declaring marriages legal, why does religion make a difference? Which religion? It’s one of those abstract issues. People cite that allowing gay marriage will lead to “the decline of culture.” How on earth do you measure “the decline of culture”? Obviously you can’t. Government should not be making these sorts of decisions based on abstract, ambiguous “problems.” They should be ruling justly on concrete issues. People also argue that if they allow gay marriage, next they’ll be saying murder is OK. Justice and ethics are one thing, morality is another. I’m not sure morality is clearly or fairly defined enough for government to make good decisions with it. Anyway, my sense of morality says that people should be allowed to love, f**k and marry whoever they want, as long as it’s consensual. And my sense of justice says that denying a portion of the population their right to consensual marriage for abstract, illogical reasons is unjust. To me, the simplest way to view “right and wrong” in human society, is to say that as long as you are not hurting anybody, you aren’t doing anything wrong.
@ Ben, Thank you, am glad you like my blog. And I totally agree which whatever you said. I have always believed that India has better chance of legalizing gay marriage due to its chaotic multiculturalism. The same chaos makes delays the process. Too many irrational opinions and unnecessary fear. The vote bank politics too has its part in delaying the process. The government always wants to satisfy the religious sects and very few religious leaders are in favor of gay marriages. I hope there are more rational debates on the topic allover which will give the LGBT community their denied basic constitutional rights at par with their brothers and sisters.
i think everyone is gay