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.

Golding made the comment during debate on a new sexual offences law primarily aimed at combating rape and child abuse. Jamaican LGBT rights groups and international human rights organizations had urged the government to include a repeal of the sodomy law in the new act.

Gay sex is punishable by up to 7 years in prison under a law which dates back to British colonial rule. Britain has long since abolished the law and has urged its former colonies to do the same.

“We are not going to yield to the pressure, whether that pressure comes from individual organizations, individuals, whether that pressure comes from foreign governments or groups of countries, to liberalize the laws as it relates to buggery,” Golding told Parliament .

“Every society is shaped and defined by certain moral standards and the laws that evolve in that society are informed by a framework that the society recognizes. If we start to yield; if we start to liberalize in the direction that strong organized lobby would insist that we should, then where do you draw the line?” the Prime Minister said.

But Golding also distanced himself from another member of Parliament who called for stiffer sentences.

 MP Ernest Smith last month suggested life sentences for homosexuality. He also called for the prosecution of LGBT rights groups Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, and J-FLAG under the country’s law against conspiring to corrupt public morals. 

“I disagree with the comments he made about the rights of persons who advocate for liberation of laws relating to sexual offences, to facilitate, to allow persons the right of choice in their sexual practices,” Golding said.

Jamaica has been described by human rights groups as having the worst record of any country in the New World in its treatment of gays and lesbians.

In January 2008 a group of men approached a house where four males lived in the central Jamaican town of Mandeville, and demanded that they leave the community because they were gay, according to Jamaican human rights activists who spoke with the victims. 

Later that evening, a mob returned and surrounded the house. The four men inside called the police when they saw the crowd gathering. The mob started to attack the house, shouting and throwing bottles. 

Those in the house called police again and were told that the police were on the way. Approximately half an hour later, 15-20 men broke down the door and began beating and slashing the inhabitants.

Human Rights Watch, quoting local activists said that police did not arrive until a half hour after the mob had broken into the house – 90 minutes after the men first called for help. 

One of the victims managed to flee with the mob pursuing. A Jamaican newspaper reported that blood was found at the mouth of a nearby pit, suggesting he had fallen inside or may have been killed nearby. 

The police escorted the three other victims away from the scene; two of them were taken to the hospital. One of the men had his left ear severed, his arm broken in two places, and his spine reportedly damaged.

There have been no arrests. 

The attack echoes another incident in the same town on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007 when approximately 100 men gathered outside a church where 150 people were attending the funeral of a gay man. 

According to mourners, the crowd broke the windows with bottles and shouted, “We want no battyman [gay] funeral here. Leave or else we’re going to kill you. We don’t want no battyman buried here in Mandeville.” 

Several mourners inside the church called the police to request protection. After half an hour, three police officers arrived. 

Human Rights Watch said that instead of protecting the mourners, police socialized with the mob, laughing along at the situation. 

A highway patrol car subsequently arrived, and one of the highway patrol officers reportedly told the churchgoers, “It’s full time this needs to happen. Enough of you guys.” 

The highway patrol officers then drove off. The remaining officers at the scene refused to intervene when the mob threatened the mourners with sticks, stones, and batons as they tried to leave the service. Only when several gay men among the mourners took knives from their cars for self-defense did police reportedly take action by firing their guns into the air. Officers stopped gay men from leaving and searched their vehicles, but did not restrain or detain members of the mob, Human Rights Watch said.

More than 30 gay men are believed to have been murdered since 1997 , J-FLAG says. In most of the cases the killers have never been brought to trial.

Arrests, however have been made in several cases which received international attention.

In 2004 Brian Williamson, Jamaica’s leading LGBT civil rights advocate, was brutally murdered. He had been stabbed at least 70 times in the neck. A 25-year-old man is currently serving a life sentence for the murder.

In December 2005, Lenford “Steve” Harvey, who ran Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, was killed.

Harvey was shot to death on the eve of World AIDS Day. His organization provided support to gay men and sex workers. Four men were arrested almost a year later.

In 2006, the bodies of two women believed to have been in a lesbian relationship were found dumped in a septic pit behind a home they shared. The killers of Candice Williams and Phoebe Myrie have not been caught.

Students at University of the West Indies in Kingston rioted last year as police attempted to protect a gay student and escort him from the campus. The incident began when the student was chased across the campus by another student who claimed the gay man had attempted to proposition him in a washroom.

The same year, a young man plunged to his death off a pier in Kingston after reportedly being chased through the streets by a mob yelling homophobic epithets.

In February 2007, three men in “tight jeans” and wearing what some witnesses described as makeup were cornered by a mob of 2000 in a drugstore. There were yells of “kill them” along with gay slurs and demands the three be sent out “to face justice”. Police had to fire teargas into the crowd to rescue the three. 

Reggae, or Jamaican dancehall music, is blamed for fueling homophobia. Reggae star BujuBanton’s hit song Boom Boom Bye Bye  threatens gay men with a “gunshot in ah head.”

Michael Mineo says he was attacked Oct. 15 in a subway station. Officer Richard Kern was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault; fellow Officers Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales were charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct for allegedly covering up the crime.

All three pleaded not guilty.

Mineo filed a notice of claim in the first step to filing a lawsuit against the city. He seeks $200 million in damages for permanent and severe injuries.

The city’s Law Department is reviewing the papers.

French Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Secretary Rama Yade appeared before the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to present the document calling for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be amended to include the new protections.

The document has been signed by the member states of the European Union.  It was drafted by France which currently holds the rotating EU Presidency. But also has been signed by about 40 other states.

In all 66 of the U.N.’s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration.

In addition to the refusal of the United States to sign the declaration were Islamic countries, Russia and China.

The Vatican also has voiced its opposition.  Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s permanent observer at the UN, said in a statement earlier this month that the declaration would discriminate against states which support traditional marriage.

Appearing with Yade on Thursday at the General Assembly was Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and a panel of political figures, human rights experts and LGBT defenders from all continents.

Yade said it was necessary to call the international community’s attention to violence against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. The text of the document calls specifically for all countries to de-criminalize homosexuality.

It also provides support to all human rights defenders who are working in the field, often in difficult conditions.

According to some of the declaration’s backers, U.S. officials expressed concern in private talks that some parts of the declaration might be problematic in committing the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In numerous states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.

“It’s an appalling stance – to not join with other countries that are standing up and calling for decriminalization of homosexuality,” said Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

She expressed hope that the U.S. position might change after President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January

Meanwhile, a report issued by Human Rights Watch called laws against homosexuality an oppressive legacy of colonialism.

The 66-page report is called “This Alien Legacy: The Origins of Sodomy Laws in British Colonialism”. It details that sodomy laws were imposed on over three dozen countries, from India to Uganda and from Nigeria to Papua New Guinea by the British Empire in the 1800s.

The British colonial rulers imposed the law against sodomy in India in 1860. This year, the High Court in Delhi ended hearings in a years-long case seeking to decriminalize homosexual conduct there. A ruling in the landmark case is expected soon.

“Half the world’s countries that criminalize homosexual conduct do so because they cling to Victorian morality and colonial laws,” said Scott Long, director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch. “Getting rid of these unjust remnants of the British Empire is long overdue.”

Some national leaders have defended sodomy laws as reflections of indigenous cultures. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, for example, has called gays and lesbians “un-African” and “worse than dogs and pigs.”

The Human Rights Watch report shows, however, that British colonial rulers brought in these laws because they saw the conquered cultures as morally lax on sexuality. The British also wanted to defend their own colonists against the “corrupting” effect of the colonies. One British viceroy of India warned that British soldiers could succumb to “replicas of Sodom and Gomorrah” as they acquired the “special Oriental vices.”

Today, international human rights standards have compelled former colonial powers to acknowledge that these laws are wrong. England and Wales decriminalized homosexual conduct in 1967. The European Court of Human Rights found in 1981 that a surviving sodomy law in Northern Ireland violated fundamental rights protections.

In 1994, the UN Human Rights Committee – which authoritatively interprets the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – held that sodomy laws violate the rights to privacy and to non-discrimination.

“From Malaysia to Uganda, governments use these laws to harass civil society, restrict free expression, discredit enemies, and destroy lives,” Long said. “And sodomy laws add to the spread of HIV/AIDS by criminalizing outreach to affected groups.”

The threat was among details to emerge as the Brooklyn district attorney announced an indictment charging Officer Richard Kern and two other patrolmen with felonies.

Kern, 25, was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault after the Oct. 15 confrontation. Fellow Officers Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales were charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct for allegedly covering up the crime.

All three pleaded not guilty Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn. As Cruz and Morales were released without bail and left the courtroom, accuser Michael Mineo glared at them and clapped sarcastically. Kern left minutes later after posting $15,000 bail.

“I relive this every day. I’m still in pain,” Mineo, a 24-year-old body piercer, said outside the courtroom. “No one should go through this.”

The Associated Press does not usually name people alleging sexual abuse, but Mineo has come forward publicly to detail his ordeal, speaking to the news media and allowing himself to be photographed and captured on video.

Kern’s attorney, John Patten, told reporters that civilian witnesses standing only a few feet away from the officers and Mineo never saw a sex assault. He predicted his client would prevail at trial.

“I represent a very decent young man,” he said.

Lawyers for Cruz and Morales denied their clients were part of a cover-up.

“They don’t even have a paper-thin case. They have no case,” said Cruz’s attorney, Stuart London.

At a news conference earlier Tuesday, prosecutors for the first time confirmed reports of perhaps the strongest piece of evidence against Kern: DNA recovered from the baton matched that of the victim, they said. They also said two officers had given grand jury testimony that supported Mineo’s allegations.

But District Attorney Charles Hynes was at a loss to explain why a skinny police officer who could pass for a teenager would commit a sex crime while on duty in the middle of the day in a busy subway station.

“I can’t deal with a motive,” Hynes said. “I just don’t know.”

In the most detailed narrative to date of the incident, prosecutors said Kern and Morales spotted Mineo outside the subway station smoking marijuana. When they sought to stop him, he fled into the station, jumped a turnstile, ran toward the platform and hurdled another turnstile before he was pinned down, handcuffed near a token booth and searched for drugs, they said.

With Mineo in a “helpless position” with his pants down, Kern took out a retractable baton and shoved it into the victim’s buttocks, said Assistant District Attorney Charles Guria. The baton pierced Mineo’s underwear, tore his rectum and drew blood, the prosecutor said.

To cover his tracks and with the other officers’ knowledge, Kern wrote Mineo “a bogus summons” that was purposely backdated so it would be invalid, then warned him to keep quiet or face a felony, prosecutors said.

Police initially questioned Mineo’s account and allowed the officers to stay on duty. But the case gained momentum in late October after Mineo’s lawyers went public with his allegations and the district attorney launched a grand jury investigation.

If convicted, Kern could face up to 25 years in prison; the others could face up to four years.

Officers Richard Kern, Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales were indicted last week by a grand jury investigating allegations by a tattoo parlor worker that police sodomized him with a piece of police equipment during an arrest, according to a law enforcement official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the indictment was sealed, declined to detail the charges.

Lawyers for Kern and Cruz said they were told their clients should surrender Tuesday for arraignment on unspecified charges. Calls to an attorney for Morales went unanswered.

The district attorney’s office refused to comment Monday but was expected to officially announce the charges Tuesday.

Kern, who was implicated by another officer as the main assailant, has denied any wrongdoing.

“We don’t know what the people’s proof is, but as far as I’m concerned my client is not guilty,” said Kern’s attorney, John Patten.

Cruz’s lawyer said his client also maintains his innocence. “He never observed any misconduct nor engaged in any misconduct,” said the lawyer, Stuart London.

The accused officers approached Michael Mineo on Oct. 15 outside a subway station because they believed he was smoking marijuana, police said.

When he fled into the station, they and two other uniformed officers wrestled him to the ground face down and handcuffed him.

Mineo, 24, a body piercer at a tattoo parlor, claims that during the struggle his pants were pulled down and one of the officers sodomized him as he screamed out in pain. He has said he believed he was violated with the antenna of a hand-held radio, and that the assailant was Cruz.

But a transit officer called as a grand jury witness early last month testified that he saw Kern wield a baton and put it near Mineo’s buttocks, according the law enforcement official. The transit officer was among the four who helped subdue Mineo, but has not been charged.

After Mineo was given a ticket for disorderly conduct and released, he was hospitalized for several days. Hospital discharge papers reviewed by The Associated Press show that upon arrival, he was diagnosed with “anal assault.”

The district attorney’s office launched the grand jury investigation in late October when the allegations came to light. The officers were placed on desk duty pending the outcome of the case.

The New York Police Department has said other eyewitness accounts don’t support Mineo’s claim he was sodomized. They include that of a transit employee who was called before the grand jury.

The incident has drawn considerable attention, with the Rev. Al Sharpton showing up at Mineo’s hospital bed after he suffered complications from his injuries and was readmitted for several more days.

Police critics have compared the case to that of Abner Louima, who was beaten and sodomized with a broomstick in the bathroom of a police precinct by NYPD officers. But there are many differences between the two cases.

The 1997 case stoked racial tensions in the city, with Louima being black and the officers white. Mineo is white, and the officers are black, white and Hispanic.

Meanwhile, in a separate New York City case, authorities say a 16-year-old boy has been charged with sodomizing a 14-year-old boy with a broomstick.

The Staten Island district attorney’s office says it is not ruling out more arrests.

Authorities said 16-year-old Joseph Lavalle was arraigned Saturday on a charge of aggravated sexual abuse and assault. He was released on his own recognizance and is due for another court appearance next month.

His attorney, Richard Kopacz, was not in his office for comment Monday morning.

Police say the incident occurred last week as the victim, the suspect and several other teens were hanging out together in the backyard of a Staten Island home.

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.

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 names of the alleged victims have not been made public.

Forty-four-year-old Jose Luis Vela was fired shortly after the charges were pressed. The rapes were alleged to have occurred during drunken parties at Vela’s home in Mission.

Investigators accused Vela of performing oral sex on a male employee after the man passed out drunk at one of the parties in August 2006. He also was charged with violating another male employee “with an object while that man was passed out” at a party in July.

A jury this week found Vela not guilty in connection with the August incident.

District Judge Letty Lopez dropped the second charge after Vela agreed to surrender his law enforcement license. Jury selection was to begin next week in that case.

As he left court, Vela said that he had no interest in returning to law enforcement.

Vela has not disputed that sex with the two officers occurred but maintained it was consensual.

Alton is located 10 miles north of the Mexican border in the Rio Grande Valley and has about 4,400 residents. The police department has 18 employees.

State District Judge Eugenio Mathis on Monday placed the boys on house arrest, allowing them to leave under supervision only for school, work or to go to a community recreation center for two hours a day.

The former Robertson High School football team members, all 16 or 17, appeared in court Monday and denied the Children’s Court charges of criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping, conspiracy and other crimes.

A state police report included allegations of sodomy with a broomstick.

District Attorney Henry Valdez has filed a notice that he would seek adult punishment against the teens if they are convicted.

Juvenile sentencing could keep them in state custody until they were 21. Adult penalties could subject them to dozens of years in prison.

Head football coach Ray Woods and six assistants resigned in September amid allegations that coaches failed to adequately supervise the players or follow up on initial hazing allegations.