‘There are few gay people India’: stigma lgers spe legal victory | Human rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• ‘THERE ARE FEW GAY PEOPLE INDIA’: STIGMA LGERS SPE LEGAL VICTORY
• INDIA’S FIRST GAY FILM BADNAM BASTI RURFAC AFTER NEARLY HALF A CENTURY'S HIBERNATN BERL ARCHIVE
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

‘THERE ARE FEW GAY PEOPLE INDIA’: STIGMA LGERS SPE LEGAL VICTORY

Unlike Sourav, who nfintly asserts himself as a gay man spe the phback om his loved on, back the 1980s and 1990s, I had no termology to scribe what I was. There was emotnal blackmail, cludg beg blamed for his mother’s illns; beg taken by his parents to nsult a homophobic nropsychiatrist who diagnosed him wh a “sexual disorr”, prcribed meditn for and remend unsellg to rrect his ways; and opprsive parental surveillance, aid by the lack of privacy their two-room home. To his horror, she told him that he was “not normal”, followed by advice monly given to young gay men: bee more “mascule”.

The transphobic and homophobic people peddlg illegal, unscpulo treatments are not likely to disappear overnight. In November, she helped anize New Delhi’s first reer fair meant for the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, or LGBTQ muny. “We are talented enough to get a job but we are lookg for a safe and clive place, ” she is part of a growg number of activists advotg for India’s lbian and gay muny, which has grown bolr the past year.

”“In the first six months after the Supreme Court lg, we handled about 64 crisis suatns, ” says Vivek Anand, 58-year-old chief executive officer of The Humsafar Tst, a non-prof that has been advotg for gay rights for 25 ced an cint om earlier this year when a gay man om Nagpur, a small town central India, was acsted by a group of men one eveng on the street, and asked to perform sexual acts for them. Still, most participants, like Arp Mehrotra, a 35-year-old gay profsnal Noida, said the event was a big step forward for India. Supporters of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny hold plards durg a prott agast passg of Transgenr Persons (Protectn of Rights) Bill, 2019, Bangalore, India, Wednday, Nov.

INDIA’S FIRST GAY FILM BADNAM BASTI RURFAC AFTER NEARLY HALF A CENTURY'S HIBERNATN BERL ARCHIVE

The acronym self stands for ‘Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr’, a spectm of personal and sexual preferenc that are, pendg on your perspective, a natural and enrichg part of our social fabric or a blight on Indian culture. The Kamasutra vers homosexual sex as well as heterosexual, ditg that there was no stigma attached to the act at the time. Dpe repeated efforts by the Lok Sabha member for Thivananthipuram, Dr Shashi Tharoor, to troduce a bill to -crimalise homosexualy, the overwhelmg majory the Indian Parliament has always voted to reta the out-dated, existg law.

It also provis a support for younger homosexuals who are unaware or unable to prehend what they are gog through.

On the ground, there have been Gay Pri march many of the major ci of India, pecially the perd om 2008 to 2014, when, after the Supreme Court reversed the progrs ma by the lower urt, there has aga been an air of apprehensn among the muny. Not much is known about early views on homosexualy and the LGBTQ+ muny the civilizatns, but wh the emergence of the Vedic age me ancient Hdu texts which ntaed referenc to homosexualy and the “third genr. Another example of the exploratn of homosexualy Indian culture n be seen the Kamasutra, an ancient text which talks pth about same-sex terurse.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

It is clear that India still has a very long way to go terms of stigmatizg homosexualy and beg a part of the LGBTQ+ muny, both a cultural and legislative sense. When Parliament bated love, sex, ct the way mt / May 04, 2023, 19:43 (IST) Parliament rerds om some 70 years ago show that the bat precedg the enactment of the Special Marriage Act 1954 – which is currently domatg headl – parliamentarians discsed much more than jt homosexualy How different is India’s view om world on same-sex marriage?