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.

A ‘Common Front’ for The Marginalized in India

Gay Activist Works to Build Broad-Based Political Party

By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 6, 2009

BANGALORE, India — Popping out of an auto rickshaw, Manohar Elavarthi unloaded a backpack stuffed with protest posters. Soon he would be rushing to a street demonstration, one that would bring together low-caste Dalit activists, Gandhians, cross-dressers and members of domestic workers unions.

Elavarthi aspires to be the first openly gay man elected to a major political office in India, like Harvey Milk in the United States. Elavarthi is credited with being the first gay figure in India to build a mainstream political coalition across a wide spectrum of historically marginalized groups.

“Our dream for Indian politics is to build a common front of lesbians, untouchables, eunuchs and low-paid workers — people who really need a voice in this country,” said Elavarthi, who has received death threats for his views, largely from right-wing religious groups and police. “India — the new India — is really changing. We need to build a party around social justice for minorities. It would be a sign that India is a true secular democracy.”

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CNN-IBN debate: Homosexuality vs Indian morality

SOURCE:  CNN-IBN

The Delhi High Court has reinterpreted a 149-year old colonial law and held that a homosexual in India is no longer a criminal. In a historic judgement the court held that “Section 377 of the Indian penal Code insofar as it criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private violates personal freedom and liberty.
So does the attaining of legal sexual freedom by homosexuals mark progress and social reform in India, or is the court upholding values that the majority of Indians simply do not identify with?
CNN-IBN debates on issue on a special show Gay and Indian with renowned Indo-Canadian photographer, HIV positive and gay, Sunil Gupta, gay rights activist and lawyer Aditya Bandhopadhyay, actor Samir Soni, Editor, Manushi Madhu Kishwar, Delhi Catholic Archdiocese spokesperson Dominic Emmanuel and All India Muslim Personal Law Board member Kamal Farooqui.

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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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Anti-gay protesters pitch to Pope, Imam and Shankaracharya

SOURCE: MiD-Day

AUTHOR: Anshuman G Dutta

The gays in the country are preparing for the year’s biggest event for the community and those opposed to their way of life are planning to pitch in religion, law and politics together to stop them from doing so.

In an open letter to the Pope, the Shahi Imam of New Delhi’s Jama Masjid and the Shankaracharya, the Youth Unity for Vibrant Action (YUVA) has called for their support to “send a message to the practitioners of homosexuality that they won’t be allowed to destroy the social capital”.

The gay pride parade held in Delhi last year

The gay community is getting ready for the annual Gay Pride Parade in the capital on June 28. Such parades are organised by the queer community to commemorate the Stonewall riots in the USA back in 1969, when there was a spontaneous riot against persecution of homosexuals at the Stonewall Inn in New York City.

YUVA’s national convener Binay Kumar Singh told MiD DAY that they will invite gay rights activist for a debate. “Gays are the most vulnerable group for contracting infections like STDs and HIV. Moreover this parade is anti-social and illegal by nature,” he said.

The youth organisation, which gained notoriety for throwing a slipper at author-activist Arundhati Roy and later auctioning it off, has threatened the Delhi Police commissioner too. The organisation has said it will complain against him in the High Court for allowing an “illegal activity.”

In a letter to the police commissioner, YUVA said: “If permission is granted for the parade, a case will be filed against you for contempt of court before the Hon’ble Delhi High Court, as the decision on the Section 377 IPC is still pending.”

YUVA is also planning to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court to “appraise the legal fraternity about how this entire issue is against the provisions of the IPC,” said Singh.

Apart from inviting youth from all over the country for the protest, YUVA is planning to rope in doctors, lawyers and teachers too. “We will wait till June 26 for the Delhi police to reply and if they don’t, we will assure the parade doesn’t begin,” said Singh.

We are against activists too
In the letter to the police commissioner, YUVA has asked the police to initiate action against gay
right activists Celina Jaitely and Ashok Row Kavi. The organisation complained that while promoting homosexuality,  these people were condemning the institution of marriage.