eac to erance

The gay rights debate continues in India after a devastating reversal by the Supreme Court

Gay rights parades have become annual events in India's major cities

you to cal.I these people criminals?"

Itwas a Facebook spat between t\vo young people I know, living in different parts of the world, that set me thinking. Do we have a riglu to judge what we don't understand and what is beyond our sense of normalcy? D o we bave to be intolerant? D o we have to voice our opinions and prejudices in social media? This wbole business of likes and dislikes? Are we so i.mo ourselves that we have stopped caring about things that real!)' matter?

The topic was homose:,,.,ialit:y. ·'Hats off to The f-lono mable Supreme CoLrrt of India. Hom osexuali ty is illegal and a crime i.n India. I mean homosexuality is observed in 400 animal species but stilJ it is not a namral way of sexualJy exploring yourself. Our ancient \Ted Puraoas also don't alJow this. \X!e are proud o f our own rules and cultme," said a friend in India

''Are you seriously pro ud of this? was the reply from Australia. " ls it a personal injury oi: insult to you if a man and a man or a woman a nd a woman \Vant to be together? As citizens of India, these people have the same rights as you. \Vho are

12 JANUARY 2014

The argument continued, ''Thanks for your opinion it is not my verdict but the verdict of Honourable Supreme Court Of India those are far more inte lligent people than you and me who lay the rules for the whole country. 1,000 years ago irwas we who taught the world to be civilised and laid our own cu lnue. Indian culmre does not allow us to be homosexual. It is now vice versa we are now forgetting mu· own tradition and quickly adopting these westet:n Aaws."

De friending ended this argument but it set me chinking. How many of os th.ink a.long these lines?

U nder section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 1860, it is an offence for a person to vo luntarily have "carnal intercourse against rhe order of nature". It wasn't Ullti.l 2009, in the Naz Foundation case that Delhi High Court found Section 377 and other legal prohib itions against private, adult, consensual, and non-com1nercial same-sex conduct to be i.n direct violation of fundamental eights provided by the Indian Constitution Thi s decision was welcomed by people a11 over t he world.

Though hardly 200 people have been convicted unde r this law in over 150 years, homosexuals in India, and there are an estimated 50 million, are often ha.rassed on this basis. On 11 December 2013, the

High Court decision was set aside by the Sup reme Come of India.

\Xlhile many in India welcomed this, like t he first young person in my story, on the basis that it upheld "Indian cuJrme," man y have been saddened by this retrograde seep Gay right activists believe chat this will lead to further alienation of LGBT pet:Sons (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) and cause a setback to AIDS prevention efforts. Naz Foundation who started the case d1at led tO the De.ll1i ruling, will be filing a petition for review of the SC decision.

Seeing one of my favourite authors, Vikram Seth, so incensed with the judgement that he consented to appear on the cove r of Tndio Tod,!)' looking dishevel.led and angry and ho lding a chalkboard that reads,"• OT A CRIMINAL. To n ot be able ro love d1e one you love is tO have your life wrenched away" is sad. Seth is a master of words a nd the heart-wrenching words in hi s essay on g ay rights move.

"Of al1 the cruel ties d1at we a s human beings can v isit on one another, o ne o f d1e most cruel is to say: You may say you love each othet, but I do n or care," says Vikram Seth "No, you have nor harmed me, b u t I will harm you l will disown you, I will treat you with contempt, 1 will make you an o u teas re or a criminal, I \viii lock you up. l will break your legs, l will Ai.ng acid in your face, I wiU hang you from a crane, I will srone you to death. If the mob helps me, so much the better. If the law helps me, so much the better. If I can wrap myself in a Aag, so much the better. If I can drape religion aroun d m yse lf, so much die better. \X'.1hac makes li.fe bearable is love - to love, to be loved, and even after death o r parting - co know that you have loved and been loved To not be able co love the one you love is co have your life wrenched away. To do d1is to someone else is to murder thei.r soul "

Can anyone who has loved and bee n loved, be so cruel as ro deny another human being their basic right co love? What harm does chis cause you, other than a perceived sense of damage to your so calJed morals ? \Xlhe.n will society wake up w cbe bigger prob lems of li fe?

It is abso lutely wrong for a person co sexualJy abuse a child, domestic v iolence is w rong, the rape of our environment to enrich private coffers is wrong, mistreating d10se who wot:k for you is wrong. Lee us make some noise about these wrongs. There can be n o way tO justify these kind of wrongs but ho mose}.,1ality is no one's business. If you are born inclined in this way, who am l to chalJenge yorrr fee.lings ?

Wake up people, open your mind and your hearts. r o one deserves co be trea red this way