The Slow Evolutn of Gay Culture India | The MIT Prs Rear

Contents:

• 'I N MAKE YOU STRAIGHT THREE MONTHS': INSI INDIA'S GAY NVERSN DTRY
• INDIAN GAY UPL BEG LEGAL BATTLE FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
• INDIA'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRCE ENDURED YEARS OF TORTURO NVERSN THERAPY. NOW, HE'S FIGHTG TO MAKE THE PRACTICE ILLEGAL.
• WHAT MEANS TO BE GAY RAL INDIA
• INDIA GAY SEX BAN IS STCK DOWN. ‘INFENSIBLE,’ COURT SAYS.
• IN INDIA, GAY, LBIAN AND TRANS PEOPLE N FACE WCHDOCTORS, EXORCISTS AND 'RRECTIVE RAPE'
• THE SLOW EVOLUTN OF GAY CULTURE INDIA
• GAY INDIA, WHERE PROGRS HAS COME ONLY WH RISK

'I N MAKE YOU STRAIGHT THREE MONTHS': INSI INDIA'S GAY NVERSN DTRY

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. I'm gog unrver to vtigate claims he offers gay and lbian people a cure for their is traed morn medice (MBBS qualified) but also practis ayurvedic medice (a tradnal type of Indian medil system). The atmosphere is more relaxed here, and the doctor is sually drsed a whe and yellow striped polo the nsultatn, he claims to have cured more than 500 lbian and gay people.

They both seem nvced of their own theori and NMC vers morn medice and those breachg the l are potentially crossg a wi range of legal and ethil issu while tryg to cure homosexualy. LGBTQIA+ mpaigners the UK say Bra has been too slow to brg a is also that chance that India, where homosexualy was only legalised five years ago, uld be about to bee only the send untry Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. Over the years, as Indian society beme more acceptg of homosexualy and much of the untry’s LGBTQ muny began celebratg their sexualy openly, the uple cid to make their relatnship known to their iends and fay.

INDIAN GAY UPL BEG LEGAL BATTLE FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

If legalized, India would bee the send enomy Asia after Taiwan to regnize same-sex marriage, a signifint right for the untry’s LGBTQ muny more than four years after the top urt crimalized gay sex. ”India’s Supreme Court has, however, signaled uld challenge the ernment’s January, s llegium — prisg the Chief Jtice of India and two Jtic — said the ernment was opposg a gay judge’s nomatn part bee of his sexual orientatn.

Gay upl and LGBTQ activists argue that by refg to regnize same-sex marriage, the ernment is privg homosexual upl of their right to equaly enshred the nstutn and opportuni enjoyed by married heterosexual upl.

Many such upl believe that legal regnn of same-sex marriage would not jt be a val step toward equaly but also rult more people g out as homosexuals and strengtheng their relatnship wh the state. Acrdg to a Pew survey, acceptance of homosexualy India creased by 22 percentage pots to 37% between 2013 and many same-sex upl ntue to face harassment many Indian muni, whether Hdu, Mlim or December, India’s LGBTQ muny found support om an unexpected quarter. Mohan Bhagwat’s ments, which uld force the ernment to reasss s posn, were a parture om the group’s long-held views on homosexualy, which has a tangled history India, even though some of Hduism’s most ancient texts are acceptg of same-sex upl.

INDIA'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRCE ENDURED YEARS OF TORTURO NVERSN THERAPY. NOW, HE'S FIGHTG TO MAKE THE PRACTICE ILLEGAL.

He was 41 at the 2018, homosexualy was illegal India, punishable unr Sectn 377, a lonial-era dranian law that mand up to life imprisonment for anyone mtg sexual acts "agast the orr of nature. In 2018, the year that the Supreme Court crimalized homosexualy a landmark lg, Gohil opened up a 15-acre palace grounds to build a shelter for vulnerable members of the 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.

WHAT MEANS TO BE GAY RAL INDIA

”“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.

INDIA GAY SEX BAN IS STCK DOWN. ‘INFENSIBLE,’ COURT SAYS.

The term “homosexualy, ” while sometim nsired anachronistic the current era, is the most applible and easily translatable term to e when askg this qutn across societi and languag and has been ed other cross-natnal studi, cludg the World Valu Survey. Dpe major chang laws and norms surroundg the issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBT people around the world, public opn on the acceptance of homosexualy society remas sharply divid by untry, regn and enomic velopment. For example, some untri, those who are affiliated wh a relig group tend to be ls acceptg of homosexualy than those who are unaffiliated (a group sometim referred to as relig “non”).

For example, Swen, the Netherlands and Germany, all of which have a per-pa gross domtic product over $50, 000, acceptance of homosexualy is among the hight measured across the 34 untri surveyed. The study is a follow-up to a 2013 report that found many of the same patterns as seen today, although there has been an crease acceptance of homosexualy across many of the untri surveyed both years.

But sub-Saharan Ai, the Middle East, Rsia and Ukrae, few say that society should accept homosexualy; only South Ai (54%) and Israel (47%) do more than a quarter hold this view. However, while took nearly 15 years for acceptance to rise 13 pots om 2000 to jt before the feral legalizatn of gay marriage June 2015, there was a near equal rise acceptance jt the four years sce legalizatn. This staggerg 56-pot difference exceeds the next largt difference Japan by 20 pots, where 92% and 56% of those ag 18 to 29 and 50 and olr, rpectively, say homosexualy should be accepted by society.

IN INDIA, GAY, LBIAN AND TRANS PEOPLE N FACE WCHDOCTORS, EXORCISTS AND 'RRECTIVE RAPE'

In South Korea, for example, those who classify themselv on the iologil left are more than twice as likely to say homosexualy is acceptable than those on the iologil right (a 39-percentage-pot difference). In a siar ve, those who support right-wg populist parti Europe, many of which are seen by LGBT groups as a threat to their rights, are ls supportive of homosexualy society.

In Spa, people wh a favorable opn of the Vox party, which recently has begun to oppose some gay rights, are much ls likely to say that homosexualy is acceptable than those who do not support the party.

And Poland, supporters of the erng PiS (Law and Jtice), which has explicly targeted gay rights as anathema to tradnal Polish valu, are 23 percentage pots ls likely to say that homosexualy should be accepted by society than those who do not support the erng party. But even untri like France and Germany where acceptance of homosexualy is high, there are differenc between supporters and non-supporters of key right-wg populist parti such as Natnal Rally France and Alternative for Germany (AfD). Relign, both as relat to relative importance people’s liv and actual relig affiliatn, also plays a large role perceptns of the acceptabily of homosexualy many societi across the globe.

THE SLOW EVOLUTN OF GAY CULTURE INDIA

In 25 of the 34 untri surveyed, those who say relign is “somewhat, ” “not too” or “not at all” important their liv are more likely to say that homosexualy should be accepted than those who say relign is “very” important. Among Israelis, those who say relign is not very important their liv are almost three tim more likely than those who say relign is very important to say that society should accept homosexualy.

For example, those who are religly unaffiliated, sometim lled relig “non, ” (that is, those who intify as atheist, agnostic or “nothg particular”) tend to be more acceptg of homosexualy. Though the opns of religly unaffiliated people n vary wily, virtually every untry surveyed wh a sufficient number of unaffiliated rponnts, “non” are more acceptg of homosexualy than the affiliated. Koreans who are religly unaffiliated are about twice as likely to say that homosexualy should be accepted by society (60%) as those who are Christian (24%) or Buddhist (31%).

They believe will take a long time to change regrsive attus towards three gay people om ral India tell their Kumar, 28, northern state of Uttar PrashI am really happy wh the urt's cisn. When clil psychologist Lata Hemchand, PhD, began her private practice Bangalore, India, almost four s ago, she viewed her homosexual patients the way she was tght to at one of India’s top trag stutns—as sexual viants. ) While the judg foced their arguments primarily on the importance of dividual tonomy, nondiscrimatn and privacy, they poted repeatedly to the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s 1973 cisn to remove homosexualy om s list of mental disorrs.

GAY INDIA, WHERE PROGRS HAS COME ONLY WH RISK

Dpe the longtime ban, some ways acceptance of homosexual behavr is eply rooted Indian culture, says Ahuja, cg as exampl the posive pictns of same-sex activy the 2, 000-year-old Kama Sutra and the 1, 000-year-old erotic sculptur at the Khajuraho templ.