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(New Delhi) Some of India's
most well known citizens have issued a public letter to the
government calling for the repeal of the law making
homosexuality a criminal offence.
The law was written in 1861
when India was still a British colony. While Britain
long ago abolished its sodomy law the legislation remained on
the books in India after independence and governments have
refused to remove it.
The open letter released
Saturday in New Delhi calls the law archaic and brutal and
calls for the government to immediately repeal
it.
"It has been used to systematically persecute, blackmail, arrest and
terrorize sexual minorities ... It has spawned public intolerance and abuse, forcing tens of millions
of gay and bisexual men and women to live in fear and secrecy, at tragic cost to
them and their families," the letter said.
It was signed by noted Indian
authors Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy, former U.N. Under-Secretary General Nitin Desai,
a former
attorney-general, academic leaders, human rights lawyers, some of the country's leading journalists,
and a number of film stars.
The letter says that the law is
being used to thwart AIDS prevention efforts in the country,
which now has the world's highest rate of HIV.
"It is especially disgraceful that Section 377 has on several recent
occasions been used by homophobic officials to suppress the legitimate work of
HIV-prevention groups, leaving gay and bisexual men in India even more defenseless against HIV
infection."
Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen issued a separate letter of support,
calling the law a "monstrosity".
A challenge to the sodomy law is being fought in
court.
In 2004 the Delhi High Court
upheld the sodomy law dismissing a petition by the Naz
Foundation, an LGBT rights organization seeking a judicial
review of the law.
The court said that gay
relationships constituted an “unnatural offence” and that
Indian society was not ready for it.
The Foundation appealed the
ruling to the Supreme Court. Earlier this year two justices
sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration. The
hearing will be held next month.
In January LGBT rights
protestors marched through the streets of New Delhi
demanding the repeal of law and the release of four men
arrested at a gay club. (story)
The United Nations has
condemned the treatment of gays in the country. The world
body's agency on HIV/AIDS said that by driving gays
underground the government is fueling the AIDS crisis.
©365Gay.com 2006
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