For India’s gay community, the joy that greeted this month’s court ruling legalizing gay sex is tempered by the fact that, although the law now accepts them, society still does not.
For all the celebrations and talk of an historic milestone, many believe it will take more than a court decision to change public attitudes toward homosexuality, which is largely taboo in India and considered by many to be a mental illness. Although the Delhi High Court’s verdict has served as a morale booster for men and women who lived in constant fear of being criminalized, they say it is unlikely to encourage those in the closet to come out.
“I don’t think it will make a major impact,” says Maya, 32, who runs a counseling center for lesbians and people with gender identity issues. “I’m sure some people who were afraid of the legal implications are more comfortable now, but there are still so many social issues.”
“The major issues are how you’re going to tell your family — it has nothing to do with the law,” she said.
Abhi’s parents took him to a psychiatrist when he came out to them two years ago. They eventually came to terms with his sexual orientation, but the 22-year-old call center employee believes it will take generations for India to tolerate, let alone embrace homosexuality, on a wider scale. After several narrow escapes with police who raided community parties he attended, Abhi hopes he will be able to meet other men with the comfort of knowing he cannot be arrested.
“I can go to a party every night. For us to express ourselves before in public it was so difficult. Now it shouldn’t be an issue for us,” Abhi said.
Rahul, a 35-year-old who works for an outsourcing firm, says the ruling is a “psychological step forward” for him, but means more to people who suffered regular harassment at the hands of police.
He and other middle-class gays generally meet men through discreet avenues such as the Internet and formal groups, while others are forced to turn to public areas such as parks, where police are eager to nab suspected homosexuals.
“The gay and lesbian community was especially fearful of cops because if you are vulnerable enough they’ll try to extract money from you,” Rahul said. “They wouldn’t actually threaten to put you behind bars but it was implicit.”
The government has the choice to appeal to the Supreme Court, but if the law is repealed nationwide, it means the next step in the rights movement could be a campaign to legalize gay marriage and adoption for same-sex couples.
In staunchly conservative India, where heterosexual marriage is viewed as a cornerstone of family structure, the thought of a same-sex couple raising a child once seemed unthinkable.
“I’m emboldened by the fact that I can look forward to marrying my boyfriend,” Rahul said.
He sees it as a natural progression toward full-fledged equality, and is optimistic — some would say overly so — that gay marriage will become legal within four to five years.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS