Army Chief General Bip Rawat has led out cln of gay soldiers ary, sayg Indian Army is not “wternised”, and was “nservative” .
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I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
But as a gay man, I have been fightg my whole life to enjoy the very privileg I am entled to as both a beholr and protector of them. I was one of few soldiers who joed the service before graduatg high school, but the admistratn at the time, which I believe was homophobic, chose to act as if I never existed bee of my queer hate that I experienced growg up on Long Island was my first enunter wh how others would treat me as a queer soldier. Army Chief General Bip Rawat has led out cln of gay soldiers ary, sayg Indian Army is not “wternised”, and was “nservative” Delhi: Indian Army Chief General Bip Rawat created a ntroversy Thursday when he said homosexualy will ntue to be nsired an offence the armed forc.
GAYS THE MILARY
This fli the face of last year’s historic Supreme Court judgment that stck down a part of the ntroversial Sectn 377 and crimalised nsensual sex between homosexuals. Addrsg the army’s annual prs nference, Rawat said that while the Army Act, which erns the force, was not above the law of the land, the Indian Army was not “wternised and mornised”, and was “nservative” when me to matters like adultery or clared that gay sex offenrs would be alt wh unr relevant sectns of the Army Act.
In a landmark judgment livered September 2018, the Supreme Court led that homosexualy was no longer a crime apex urt overled s own 2013 verdict and partially stck down Sectn 377, the Brish-era law that banned sex between nsentg adults of the same genr. Milary l that uld apply to gay sex. Laws erng the three arms of the Indian ary bar homosexualy — although through phemisms and not explicly — and le a punishable offence.
Sectn 46 (a) says any person guilty of any disgraceful nduct of a “cel, cent or unnatural kd” will, on nvictn by urt-martial, face up to seven years read: Army chief l out gay sex, adultery Indian ArmyDo Rawat’s ments ntravene Supreme Court verdict? Milary law expert Major Navep Sgh, an advote the Punjab and Haryana High Court, told ThePrt that while Sectn 377 n no longer be voked for nsentg adults, the ary or any civil setup, “any kd of homosexual or heterosexual behavur that falls unr the tegory of ‘unbeg nduct’, is ‘cent or cel’, or ‘vlatn of good orr and disciple (if impacts ary life)’, n still be punished”.