Indian gay ‘marriage’ follows legal ruling

08/07/2009 - 16:35:12
SOURCE:  Ireland On-Line

Just a week after a New Delhi court decriminalised homosexuality, the first gay “marriage” has taken place in India.

Amrit and Jeeta, both 18, decided to get married following the landmark judgment which changed a 148-year-old British colonial-era ruling that made homosexual sex a punishable offence.

However, the verdict can still be challenged in India’s Supreme Court.

“I was so delighted after the court’s verdict that we both decided to get married,” Jeeta said after the ceremony at the Shiridi temple in the north Indian city of Chandigarh.

“We had been facing discrimination in public, at the work place and at home. But things may look up for people like us now.” The couple fell in love about three months ago, but have been facing opposition from a traditionally conservative society.

Muslim and Hindu groups have united in opposing the court ruling and are now trying to convince other religious associations to join in their resistance.

A Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist today told the Press Association: “This is not our culture and I don’t know why people allowed this to happen.

“After the Delhi High Court verdict, it seems that it has become a fashion to champion gay rights.There should be strong resistance and we will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court” Jeeta’s mother reportedly refuses to accept her son’s sexual orientation. “He is not a homosexual and is employed with a pharmaceutical factory,” she said.

His partner Amrit, however, said he felt “alive” after his decision to get married. “I will be calling a few selected friends [for the reception] who encouraged us in this bold step.

“But it will be open, with no fear of anyone. There are so many like us who secretly love each other,” he told Indian newspaper the Times of India.

“Few have the courage to get married. Maybe this step of ours can motivate the rest of the community to break the fetters of society,” he added.

Indian Court Overturns Gay Sex Ban

Activists embraced outside the high court in New Delhi after the court decriminalized consensual gay sex on Thursday. [Harish Tyagi/European Pressphoto Agency]

By HEATHER TIMMONS and HARI KUMAR
Published: July 2, 2009
Source:  The New York Times

NEW DELHI —In a landmark ruling Thursday that could usher in an era of greater freedom for gay men and lesbians in India, New Delhi’s highest court decriminalized homosexuality.

“The inclusiveness that Indian society traditionally displayed, literally in every aspect of life, is manifest in recognizing a role in society for everyone,” judges of the Delhi High Court wrote in a 105-page decision, India’s first to directly address rights for gay men and lesbians. “Those perceived by the majority as ‘deviants’ or ‘different’ are not on that score excluded or ostracized,” the decision said.

Homosexuality has been illegal in India since 1861, when British rulers codified a law prohibiting “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal.” The law, known as Section 377 of India’s penal code, has long been viewed as an archaic holdover from colonialism by its detractors.

“Clearly, we are all thrilled,” said Anjali Gopalan, the executive director and founder of the Naz Foundation, an AIDS awareness group that sued to have Section 377 changed. “It is a first major step,” she said during a news conference in Delhi, but “there are many more battles.”
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License to Wed?

SOURCE:  Times of India
DATE:  June 1, 2009
AUTHOR:  Tarunya Suresh

Even as a slew of states move to legalise gay marriages in the US, a new poll has found that most Americans still oppose it, though those under 35 are solidly in support of gay marriage legalisation.

The poll finds that just 44 per cent back gay marriage, compared with 58 per cent of those under 35. Is this a case of generation divide? Well, apparently so.
Surveys conducted in the city of Chennai show that a large number of people back gay marriages, but are very sure that the city’s sexagenarians still have problems with the concept in itself, a thought that Aditi Saraf, senior business analyst eschews.

“We still have a long way to go in India when it comes to accepting gay marriages. In a country where people still have difficulty accepting the cause of inter-religious marriages, who are we kidding by talking about same sex marriages? I’m personally all for it, because it promotes equality, but realistically, gay people are still considered ‘queer’ and it will be a long time before such a law comes into force,” she says.

However, the puritanical views of the generation gone by resonate just one sentiment — the act of homosexuality in itself is lewd, unnatural and vulgar. Laments Krishnan Sasiharan, a retired bank official, “ The concept of homosexuality is unnatural. Legalising gay marriages will erode our culture and value system. We should stop trying to ape the west in every way because theirs is, anyway, a society sans morals.”

While portions of India are deeply conservative on sexual matters, gay people are constantly subject to discrimination, ridicule, blackmail and persecution by police and government agencies, human rights campaigners say.
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Gay couples ‘marry’ with parents’ approval, hawan and priests

Swami Bodhananda (far right) conducted Aditya and Michael's 'wedding' .(TOI Photo)

SOURCE:  Times of India

MUMBAI: Last week, Durban-based sales advisor Joe Singh and his partner Wesley Nolan solemnised their relationship at a ceremony where a Hindu priest officiated. In the Singh living room, Wesley tied a necklace with a Ganesha pendant around Joe’s neck. The couple, now honeymooning in Mauritius, chose the Ganesha instead of garlands because both of them are “staunch Hindus” and wanted the Elephant God to “ward off evil and remove obstacles from their path”.

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New York should recognize out-of-state gay marriages, judge says

SOURCE: NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

BY JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, February 3rd 2009, 5:54 PM

Same-sex marriages that are valid elsewhere should be recognized under New York law, a city judge has ruled, clearing the way for a Manhattan man to inherit the multi-million dollar estate of his late husband.

Manhattan Surrogate Judge Kristin Booth Glen ruled that Craig Leiby is the “surviving spouse and sole distributee” of longtime partner Kenneth Ranftle, who died only a few months after the couple’s wedding last year in Montreal, where same-sex marriage is legal.

Glen’s Jan. 26 ruling is the first by a New York judge that recognizes the right of a gay person to inherit a partner’s estate. Read the rest of this entry »