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.

The Delhi High Court ruled that treating consensual gay sex as a crime is a violation of fundamental rights protected by India’s constitution. The ruling, the first of its kind in India, applies only in New Delhi.

“I’m so excited, and I haven’t been able to process the news yet,” Anjali Gopalan, the executive director of the Naz Foundation (India) Trust, a sexual health organization that had filed the petition, told reporters. “We’ve finally entered the 21st century.”

But some religious leaders quickly criticized the ruling. “This Western culture cannot be permitted in our country,” said Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali, a leading Muslim cleric in the northern city of Lucknow.

The court’s verdict came more than eight years after the New Delhi-based foundation filed its petition – not unusually long in India’s notoriously clogged court system. The verdict can be challenged in India’s Supreme Court.

Sex between people of the same gender has been illegal in India since a British colonial era law that classified it as “against the order of nature.” According to the law, gay sex is punishable by 10 years in prison. While actual criminal prosecutions are few, the law frequently has been used to harass people.

The law itself can only be amended by India’s Parliament and gay rights activists have long campaigned for it to be changed. The government has remained vague about its position on the law, and Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily said he would examine the high court’s order before commenting.

The court’s verdict, however, should protect New Delhi’s gay community from criminal charges and police harassment.

“This legal remnant of British colonialism has been used to deprive people of their basic rights for too long,” Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “This long-awaited decision testifies to the reach of democracy and rights in India.”

While the ruling is not binding on courts in India’s other states, Tripti Tandon, a lawyer for the Naz Foundation, said she hoped the ruling would have a “persuasive” affect.

“This is just the first step in a longer battle,” Gopalan said.

Rights activists say the law, also popularly known as 377, or section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 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.

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.

Still, being gay remains deeply taboo, and a large number of homosexuals hide their sexual orientation from their friends and families.

Religious leaders in the capital and in other parts of India argued that gay sex should remain illegal and that open homosexuality is out of step with India’s deeply held traditions.

“We are totally against such a practice as it is not our tradition or culture,” said Puroshattam Narain Singh, an official of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council.

In New Delhi, Rev. Babu Joseph, a spokesman of the Roman Catholic Church, told New Delhi Television that while homosexuals should not be treated as criminals, “at the same time we cannot afford to endorse homosexual behavior as normal and socially acceptable.”

The New Delhi parade passed near the Delhi High Court, which is reviewing a law that prohibits gay sex – and can punish it with up to 10 years in prison.

Law Minister Veerappa Moily also said he would soon meet with two other important government ministers to discuss changing the country’s anti-homosexuality laws, according to Sunday’s Hindustan Times newspaper.

Gay rights activists said momentum was on their side.

“This piece of legislation makes no sense,” said Ponni Arasu, 25, a law student and a march organizer. “You cannot deny people their basic civil rights.

Sex between people of the same gender has been illegal in India since a British colonial era law included it as a forbidden sexual act “against the order of nature.”

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.

Supporters of the law, which include leaders of the Hindu right, argue that gay sex should remain illegal and that open homosexuality is out of step with the values of this deeply traditional country.

On Sunday, activists took to the streets of the southern cities of Chennai and Bangalore and the capital, New Delhi. Marching bands blared horns and pounded drums while men wearing saris and women waving rainbow flags chanted for their rights.

The parades came a year after India’s first large gay pride march, a celebration that supporters say would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

“It was the first very overt, celebratory and positive images of the community,” said Leslie Esteves, 33, an organizer in New Delhi. “This is a confident community that has survived and thrived despite the shadow of criminalization.”

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.

Still, being gay is deeply taboo and many marchers Sunday covered their faces because they hadn’t told their friends and families about their sexuality.

“Give me support, I want to take off my mask,” read a sign carried by a woman who gave her name only as Ganga.

Marchers said the parade was meant to send a message to authorities to repeal the law criminalizing gay sex, known as Section 377 of the Indian penal code. But it was also meant to reach Indians still in the closet.

“We’re going to tell them that you’re not alone,” said Arasu, the law student. “We are all going to be around to support you so you can live with dignity.”

Rajiv Dua, a community health expert handing out rainbow flags and buttons, said the motivation was simple.

“We don’t want to be ignored anymore,” he said.

“Sources said that Kamla and Vimla (names changed), the girls from village Arvat and Padoli respectively, came close to each other some four years back while studying in Chandrapur. The friendship between Kamla (19), an intermediate student, and Vimla, a graduate, reportedly turned into a lesbian relationship a couple of years back even as both the families considered them just close friends, sources said.

Reports said that since childhood Vimla used to behave and dress up like boys, and even took on the name ‘Rohit’. Both the girls spent hours together at each others’ homes, however family members did not have any clue about their lesbian relationship, sources said.

Some days back the two girls shocked their families by expressing their desire to tie the nuptial knot. The families initially resisted the decision but surrendered to the will of their children. Vimla’s brother Amar told scribes that the two were married at a religious place in Bhadrawati a few days back. Presently, Kamla is living at Vimla’s home in Padoli.

“Such relationship and marriage is against the ethos and traditions of Hindu religion, and we will steadfastly oppose it. The brother of one of the two girl has confessed to tying their nuptial knot,” said Ramesh Tiwari, head of the local Sena unit.

A group of Shiv Sainiks led by Tiwari, Rajendra Allewar and district women’s president Kusum Udar staged a protest in front of the Padoli police outpost on Monday demanding immediate action against the two families.”

Homosexuality is illegal in India, though it is no longer aggressively prosecuted. There is no legal recognition of same-sex couples under Indian law.  However, since 1987, there have been sporadic reports of women marrying each other. Marriages in India require no license from the state – most are performed through religious rites alone.

From Wikipedia:

“Family reactions [of gay marriages] range from support to disapproval to violent persecution. While police generally harass such couples, Indian courts have uniformly upheld their right, as adults, to live with whomever they wish. In recent years, some of these couples have appeared on television as well. There have also been numerous joint suicides by same-sex couples, mostly female (male-female couples also resort to suicide or to elopement and religious marriage when their families oppose their unions).”

What all of this means is still murky and no one from the Pakistani government is speaking publicly. Any foreign policy wonks out there who want to add any light?

PS: RIP Eartha Kitt.

In a brief filed this week with the court, the government said that if the country’s sodomy law is overturned it could have a profoundly adverse impact on Indian culture.

LGBT rights groups and AIDS outreach organizations told the court last month that the law is anachronistic, impedes civil rights and blocks AIDS groups’ abilities to reach out to gays.

The law against homosexual sex that dates to the British colonial era. The law, which forbids sexual acts “against the order of nature,” carries punishment of up to 10 years in prison.

In its submission to the court, the government said that the court should not interpret India’s Constitution in a way that would force foreign culture on the country.

The government also challenged the court’s right to question the constitutionality of the law.

“The court is not the authority to decide what should be the law or what should not be the law. These are the functions of the Parliament and the will of the Parliament is represented by its members,” the government argued.

“What are the laws and what could be the law should be left to the wisdom of the Parliament. Neither are the courts equipped nor is it the function of the court to decide what the law should be. The courts have only to interpret the law as it is,” the brief said.

Last month during oral arguments before the court the government said the law should be maintained because homosexuality was a disease which was responsible for the spread of AIDS in the country.

“AIDS is already spreading in the country and if gay sex is legalized then people on the streets would start indulging in such practices saying that the High Court has approved of it,” he told the court.

The remark brought a swift reply from the bench.

“Show us one report which says that it is a disease. A [World Health Organization] paper says that it is not a disease but you are describing it as a disease. It is an accepted fact that it is a main vehicle that causes [the AIDS] disease but it is not a disease itself,” demanded Chief Justice AP Shah.

India has an estimated 2.5 million people living with HIV. Even though the country recently has seen a modest drop in new infections the number of infections among men who have sex with men continues to grow.

Still, there are signs that homosexuality is becoming more accepted in India, at least in big cities. In New Delhi, gay and lesbian groups hold biweekly movie screenings and parties, and organizers say attendance is rising. Newspaper editorials have called for revisions to the law, and prominent writers and human rights activists have signed petitions expressing their support.

In June hundreds of people chanted for gay rights marched in three Indian cities – Calcutta, Bangalore and New Delhi – in the largest display of gay pride ever held in India.

An unknown group called Deccan Mujahideen is claiming responsibility but security officials have not confirmed the veracity of that statement.

The law against homosexual sex dates to the British colonial era. The law, which forbids sexual acts “against the order of nature,” carries punishment of up to 10 years in prison. It is rarely enforced, but activists say it sanctions discrimination.

A case filed by LGBT rights groups and AIDS outreach organizations wrapped up last week with the court reserving judgment.

Solicitor General PP Malhotra, representing the government, told the High Court that the law should not be overturned because homosexuality was a disease which was responsible for the spread of AIDS .

“AIDS is already spreading in the country and if gay sex is legalized then people on the streets would start indulging in such practices saying that the High Court has approved of it,” he told the court.

The remark brought a swift reply from the bench.

“Show us one report which says that it is a disease. A [World Health Organization] paper says that it is not a disease but you are describing it as a disease. It is an accepted fact that it is a main vehicle that causes [the AIDS] disease but it is not a disease itself,” said Chief Justice AP Shah.

An exasperated Malhotra sat down.

The government has refused to consider repealing the law, calling homosexuality an evil exported from western countries.

As the high court began its deliberations, the head of the United Nations HIV/AIDS program issued a statement urging the court to strike down the law.

Jeffrey O’Malley said that that countries that decriminalized homosexuality have far better records of protecting gay from contracting HIV/AIDS.

“Until we acknowledge these behaviors and work with people involved with these behaviors, we are not going to halt and reverse the HIV epidemic,” O’Malley said. “Countries which protect men who have sex with men… have double the rate of coverage of HIV prevention services – as much as 60 percent.”

Even India’s own Health Minister has broken with the government position on sodomy.

Anbumani Ramadoss said that decriminalizing homosexuality would bring India’s largely closeted gay community into the open.

India has an estimated 2.5 million people living with HIV. Even though the country recently has seen a modest drop in new infections, the number of infections among men who have sex with men continues to grow.

Still, there are signs that homosexuality is becoming more accepted in India, at least in big cities. In New Delhi, gay and lesbian groups hold biweekly movie screenings and parties, and organizers say attendance is rising. Newspaper editorials have called for revisions to the law, and prominent writers and human rights activists have signed petitions expressing their support.

In June, hundreds of people chanting for gay rights marched in three Indian cities – Calcutta, Bangalore and New Delhi – in the largest display of gay pride ever held in India.

The government assertion came during a court case challenging India’s sodomy law. The case was filed by LGBT rights groups and AIDS outreach organizations.

The law against homosexual sex that dates to the British colonial era. The law, which forbids sexual acts "against the order of nature," carries punishment of up to 10 years in prison.

It is rarely enforced, but activists say it sanctions discrimination.

Solicitor General, PP Malhotra, representing the government, told the High Court that the law should not be overturned, because homosexuality was a disease which was responsible for the spread of AIDS in the country. 

"AIDS is already spreading in the country and if gay sex is legalized then people on the streets would start indulging in such practices saying that the High Court has approved of it," he told the court.

The remark brought a swift reply from the bench.

"Show us one report which says that it is a disease. A [World Health Organization] paper says that it is not a disease but you are describing it as a disease. It is an accepted fact that it is a main vehicle that causes [the AIDS] disease but it is not a disease itself," demanded Chief Justice AP Shah.

An exasperated Malhotra sat down.

The government has refused to consider repealing the law, calling homosexuality an evil exported from western countries.

Still, there are signs that homosexuality is becoming more accepted in India, at least in big cities. In New Delhi, gay and lesbian groups hold biweekly movie screenings and parties, and organizers say attendance is rising. Newspaper editorials have called for revisions to the law, and prominent writers and human rights activists have signed petitions expressing their support.

In June hundreds of people chanted for gay rights marched in three Indian cities — Calcutta, Bangalore and New Delhi — in the largest display of gay pride ever held in India.