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Loading ...India Supreme Court steps into gay sex law dispute
07.09.2009 9:02am EDT
(New Delhi) India’s Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a petition from a Hindu astrologer who is seeking to annul a recent landmark ruling that decriminalized gay sex.
In his petition, Sushil Kumar Kaushal said “even animals don’t indulge in such activities,” adding that allowing gay sex would help spread HIV/AIDS.The latest development indicated that despite a recent Delhi High Court ruling, gays in India still face a long battle to gain acceptance – social and legal – in this deeply conservative country where even heterosexual sex is talked about in hushed tones.
“If such abnormality is permitted, then tomorrow people might seek permission for having sex with animals,” Kaushal said.
Gays in India are shackled by a law known as Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which makes sex between people of the same gender punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The British colonial era law classifies gay sex as “against the order of nature.”
Gays achieved a small victory when the Delhi High Court struck down the law on July 2.
While there was no major outcry against the ruling, some conservative religious groups made it clear they would fight it. Among those was Kaushal, a Hindu astrologer, who filed the first petition with the Supreme Court. Leaders of religious groups are also contemplating filing petitions.
The Supreme Court said it will hear Kaushal’s petition on July 20 to decide whether it has merit, said Anand Grover, the lawyer for Naz Foundation, a gay rights group that filed the original petition against Section 377 eight years ago.
The Supreme Court also asked the Indian government and the Naz Foundation to appear before it to hear their views.
After listening to all parties, the court will decide whether to temporarily suspend the Delhi High Court order while Kaushal’s petition is heard. The Supreme Court ruling will be binding nationally.
While actual criminal prosecutions are rare, the law frequently has been used to harass people.
Muslim and Christian groups have also criticized the ruling with some equating homosexuality with Western culture. But rights activists say the law sanctions discrimination and marginalizes the gay community. Health experts say the law discourages safe sex and has been a hurdle in fighting HIV and AIDS. Roughly 2.5 million Indians have HIV.
The U.N. agency UNAIDS has welcomed the court ruling and said it would make it easier to reach homosexual men with programs to combat the spread of HIV.
Homosexuality is slowly gaining acceptance in some parts of India, especially in its big cities. Many bars have gay nights, and some high-profile Bollywood films have dealt with gay issues. The last two years have also seen large gay pride parades in New Delhi and other big cities such as Mumbai and Calcutta.
Still, being gay remains deeply taboo in most of the country, and many homosexuals hide their sexual orientation from friends and families.
100 million gays are now free in India!!!!!! (10 percent of 1 billion people)
Wow the parallels to the United States are striking. Religious groups against gay equality on the basis it is unnatural and will lead to bestiality. What a surprise.
In his petition, Sushil Kumar Kaushal said “even animals don’t indulge in such activities,”
well i suppose someone is not well read.
http://www.livescience.com/animals/090616-same-sex-animals.html
Ain’t religion great?
Anybody bother to send e-mails to these brain trusts regarding the plentiful accounts of same-sex relationships in the animal kingdom?
And we already know that straight people have sex with animals. That’s where syphillis (I can’t spell) came from.
So, to follow that bit of logic, than hetero sex shouldn’t be allowed either as there is PROOF that it led to sex with animals.
I think if anything should be made illegal, it’s organized religion.
The world would be such a saner and more wonderful place.
No more middle east problems. No more laws based on fairy tales. So much less hatred in the world.
Religious mundane breeders are just the lowest form of life…they really are.
It never ceases to amaze me how homophobes continue to use the same old tired arguments expressing the same fears they have had for years. I quote one from the article, “’If such abnormality is permitted, then tomorrow people might seek permission for having sex with animals,’ Kaushal said. ”
Haven’t they noticed yet that these old fears have not come true and that the sky is not falling?
Let me get this straight, they are letting some Charlatan with absolutely no credibility or scientific proof make a stand in court against their legal ruling? Astrology? Really?
Let me guess, he’ll bring a sow and pictures of naked men to make his point by first looking at the pictures, then ‘pork the pig’.
What an idiot. Even if there weren’t scientific studies showing that homosexual behavior is common in almost every species, anyone who has been around animals could have observed this for themselves. And saying that legalizing homosexuality will help spread aids is directly opposite of the facts. I think it is pretty well proven that laws against homosexuality only help the spread of aids. Hopefully this nut gets laughed out of court.
Ah, another religious nutcase trying to use his ignorant opinion to punish persons he dislikes.
Well now, you know there is a disease destroying humans that is worse than AIDS, worse than various types of cancer, worse than any other maladys that have beset humanity. And that disease is hate, also known as intolerance. This disease is brought on by ignorance, a lack of education, and often more than not by archaic religious teachings that may have been okay thousands of years ago, but not now. We as the human species of this planet have evolved over the centuries to the point where we have developed a pretty good understanding of not only ourselves but other creatures we share our home with. For this so called astrologer, who must pride himself as being a scientist, a man of education to turn around and deny that “animals don’t indulge in such activities” is a heresy and a insult to nature besides a blasphemy to our Creator. Despite his credentials, this man, as with many others have been infected with this awful disease, a disease that can only be cured by an awakening to education, understanding and tolerance to the human condition and all of the diversity it enshrines!
Hopefully, India’s Supreme Court will not give much credence to this widow-torching- homophobe.
“If such abnormality is permitted, then tomorrow people might seek permission for having sex with animals.”
Wow, didn’t Anita Bryant pose the same question?
All of these religious types think alike! I’m not even going to begin to contemplate how paranoid they are.
“Even animals don’t indulge in such activities.” Wow. I mean, the ignorance. Sorry, but being an “astrologer” is high up on the “fool” scale for me…up there with “creationist.” So it fits.
I believe that the world is evolving – intelligence, tolerance, etc, but religion has always been the big stumbling block against that evolution. Therefore we can’t sit around and hope for relgious people to come out of their stifling superstitious paradigms. Gays have got to maintain an offensive against all this hogwash, whether it is in America or India, or dare I say, the Middle East.
As an Indian, I have great faith in my country’s constitution, that is founded on the principles of freedom and equality and so I’m absolutely sure that these frivolous petitions by religious groups will be thrown out. And once they are defeated in the Supreme Court, decriminalization of homosexuality will become a national law. So this development is actually a blessing in disguise for Indian gays.
As many commenters have pointed out, almost all animals DO indulge in “such activities”. In fact, there’s a book about it: “Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity”, by Bruce Bagemihl. This petitioner (and really, an astrologer? Sheesh!) has no idea what the hell he’s talking about.