Last week Supreme Court agreed to hear curative petition on LGBT rights. Curative petition is "where the question was whether an aggrieved person is entitled to any relief against the final judgment/order of the Supreme Court, after dismissal of a review petition". It undoubtedly is ray of hope for LGBT community. I don't like the way we call them as LGBT as if they are from different world. I was furious of Supreme Court's 2013 judgement ruling homosexuality to be a criminal offence setting aside the 2009 judgment given by the Delhi High Court.
Our politicians have no qualms whatsoever about accepting them as general public only at the time of election. They just don't care about them. Ex-Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said "Men having sex with men is not only a 'disease' but also unatural". Yoga Guru Baba Ram Dev said "Homosexuality is a disease and Yoga can cure it"
Ruling party rose to power on Hinduism trump card or rather shall I say people wanted change after being ruled by Congress for 10 long years. Anybody says anything against government, just a word here and there is called anti-national. Opposition party is too busy disrupting parliament procedure. Poor Shashi Tharoor tabled the private members's bill to replace Section 377 in the IPC and the bill was defeated. But he says he is persistent in his fight.
"WHO" scrapped homosexuality from its psychological disorder list. It is not an illness. It is just the way person is born with. It is not a phase which shall pass after sometime. It is the way person is sexually oriented. It is not fashion to be called gays/lesbians. Are you for real? If they paraded in open just to be fashionable, they will be slapped with 377.
A lot of movies were made to take a jibe at them, sneer at them, to make them look like sexually starved morons. But both the movies were set in USA. I vaguely remember what happened to Meera Nair's 'Fire', which depicted Nanditha Das and Shabana Azmi as lovers. I was guilty as charged for being a part in this homophobic bandwagon. But I evolved, thanks to my rational thinking.
We Indians are collectively homophobics and largely hypocrites. We take pride in our heritage. We want tourists to throng the mighty Khajuravo, the site for erotic art, but dismiss its 'homosexuality' vehemently. We boast Kamasutra as our great literature, but detach ourselves from "H" mentioned in that. It would be a blasphemy if I say 'Shabarimale Swami Ayyappa" was the product of sexual union between Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva).
Irony is that Article 377 was introduced during British rule of India dating back 1860. So, how culture is interlinked in this is beyond my understanding. It is amazing to know how we accept western perks without flinch, yet fail to give a fellow human his/her basic rights. If two consulting adults find happiness in being together irrespective of their gender, what right do we have to judge them, shame them, hurt them? Article 377 includes consensual heterosexual acts such as oral sex and anal sex, and it is a punishable offence. Now how well the judiciary is able to curtail oral sex and anal sex in consensual heterosexuals? Is is acceptable because they are of different sex?
It is difficult to convince older generation about this. But our generation, the tech savvy, astute social networker, tweeting away moments to minutes detail, modern with traditional approach (pardon me), can't shy away from discussing this issue. For me it is a non-debatable issue. Just because something has been happening for so many years, doesn't always mean it is right. If it were, we still would have been shackled in Sati system, slavery, untouchability, etc. I support and genuinely hope LGBT community gets their basic right, the right to love and the right to live with dignity without the legal hassle.
I'l leave with you a poem by Akhil Katyal "Girl, when you"
Girl, when you
blow your boy,
or boy, when
you go down
on her, or when
both of you use
a toy, and all the
world’s a blur,
I know it feels
like heaven, you
too violate 377.
PS-According to me Cameron and Michell of "Modern Family" are the cutest and adorable couple on screen.
No comments:
Post a Comment