Fun Fast Facts:
Updated: 9 Sep 2014 (Gay one day, in the closet the next)
- First openly gay Royal (2005) – Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil.
- In 2009, the Delhi High Court ruled Section 377 (the colonial era sodomy laws) and other legal prohibitions to be in direct violation of fundamental rights provided by the Indian Constitution. However, the Supreme Court of India overturned the decision of the lower court in December 2013 and upheld the primacy of section 377.
- Same sex marriage is not legal but a court in Gurgaon in 2011 recognised a lesbian marriage.
- Koovagam is India’s large transgender festival.
- India hosted the Sex Workers Freedom Festival in Calcutta in 2012 – because of a travel ban for sex workers entering the USA.
- In 1994, India recognised transgender people (Hidras) as a third gender. In 2014, the Supreme Court of India declared transgender people as a socially and economically backward class entitled to support in education, employment and welfare.
- Shabnam Mausi was the first transgender Indian or hidra to be elected to public office, serving in the Madhya Pradesh State Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2003.
- No legal adoption rights for same-sex couples.
Gay one day, in the closet the next
Broadcast: 9 Sep 2014
LGBTIQ-friendly organisation: The Humsafar Trust
- The Humsafar Trust is a community based organisation of self-identified gay men, MSM (men who have sex with men), transgender, hijras and LBT people.
- Advocating the rights and health of LGBT people in India since 1994.
W3JOY interviewed: Vivek and Shruta of The Humsafar Trust
“Believe me, the 2013 verdict, it just felt like someone had taken my heart out and crushed it.”
“I can’t imagine what must have happened to people who haven’t begun their journeys. Ones who haven’t had a chance to (start their journey) are possibly never going to come out of the closet and the ones who already came out of the closet are contemplating whether they should go back.”
“The situation right now is that the youth are scared; they feel more vulnerable. They don’t know who to approach or whether they will be on the wrong side of the law if they approach someone. And that’s instantly made them a lot more vulnerable to blackmail, a lot more vulnerable to sexual coercion. We’ve even had parents calling us up asking us ‘Is my child a criminal in this country?'”
“In some instances, families do know that their children are gay. And they’re fine with it… as long as a child subscribes to a heterosexual model of a marriage to someone of the opposite sex, produces a baby – so you have a beautiful, happy straight family out there and you can do whatever you want in the background.”
“They called us a ‘minuscule minority’ and I’m not going to let that go. I’m gonna give it back to them the best way I can. We’re going to fight back and we’re going to fight hard.”
Listen to the podcast
Celebrating a High Court decision
Broadcast: 2 Sep 2013
LGBTIQ-friendly organisation: Udaan Trust
- Founded in 1992.
- Udaan is seen as an organization by and for People Living with HIV/AIDS [PLHA].
- Each of the ten board members is a person living with HIV/AIDS and self identified as persons from marginalized communities.
W3JOY interviewed: Arvind Narrain of Alternative Law Forum and Voices Against 377
“The Delhi High Court came out with a marvelous decision which affirmed the fact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons are full citizens of India and entitled to equal rights under the constitution.”
“We cannot subject the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons to arbitrary notions of morality. The moral position of the majority cannot hold hostage the rights of the minority.”
“Before the Delhi High Court decision, you could almost think that the word homosexuality was the same as the word perversity. But suddenly after the Delhi High Court decision, the word sexual orientation was associated with the right to dignity and the right to privacy. It has almost magically transformed the discourse on homosexual rights from a conversation about perverse and dirty sex to a conversation of equal rights under the constitution of India.”
Listen to the podcast
Changing laws in an unsafe environment
Broadcast: 21 Jan 2013
W3JOY interviewed: Rashmi
“Even though you come into a Western society and you want your children to grow up that way….It’s almost like you want to be more Indian when you are outside of India.”
“I remember coming out to my Aunty, and she was saying ‘It’s OK, Rashmi, you know its legal to be gay in India.'”
“As a women, it is unsafe enough as it is…to think about holding hands or being public in India, I think that would be really painting a target on myself. I would never think about doing that.”
“With my own family, I am out and I would continue to be out when I was over there.”
“The decriminalisation is a huge step…but in terms of how safe you feel, that’s a long journey. Maybe I don’t even know an end to that journey….It used to be that the bride had to jump into the funeral pyre with her husband. That was decriminalised a long time ago; that still happens.”
“The reality of the situation, that’s another story in and of itself.”
What would happen if you were caught in public kissing your partner:
“Forget the police, we would be stoned to death.”
W3JOY interviewed: Sam
“I still find it’s going to be difficult if I have to come out to my family. For one thing, it’s difficult to make them understand what homosexuality actually means. Not many people know what it means.”
“With gay men, there’s lots of stigma attached because we have a huge population attached of transgender, the Eunuchs… If you say you are gay to any common Indian man or family, they would directly relate us to a Eunuch. They would say you are a cross-dresser or an impotent who doesn’t reproduce. It’s hard to break that stigma.”
“There was a huge media discussion over the law changing …and that’s when more families came out and supported their children.”
“Times have changed recently, especially after the law has decriminalised it.”
“There is still lots of work to be done in rural areas and small towns.”
“People are changing… bigger metropolitan cities are seeing that more people are open about themselves… you have gay parades now.”
What would happen if you were caught in public kissing your partner:
“We would be beaten up.”
Hope for the future?
If I go back to India, and I have a partner by then, then I just want to hold his hand freely on an Indian Street and no one bothers me. I know it will take a longer time, but, yes, that’s what I want.”