Decriminalization of Homosexuality : R.I.

P Article 377 The central government has opposed decriminalization on adult consensual homosexual intercourse in India. The basis: homosexual intercourse is against the order of nature and against Indian morals and values. What comes to my mind at this very juncture is who is Nature. Is the central government or the home ministry nature? Who is the sorcerer in the Indian government in who`s ears nature whispers its wishes? This reminds me of the lyrics of the movie Rockstar O nature ke rakshak mai bhi hu nature. All of us, each one of us, this is a part of nature! Nothing more nothing less. If an adult consents to homosexual intercourse, that is nature. A homosexual person is not a freak of nature. If we treat him like one it is the fear of the different that is speaking. His urge of a homosexual encounter to me is as natural as the urges of a heterosexual. The issue would have come up when a homosexual would have forced a heterosexual to have a sexual intercourse against his will. The so called, rape. But that is not the bone of contention here. This is just a consensual sexual intercourse between two mature adults, both of whom happen to be of the same gender! People do things against the so called order of nature mentioned in the Article 377 on a daily basis and probably more frequently than that! The order of nature clause in the article 377 by definition also criminalizes anal and oral intercourse. These forms of sex although were a big hush hush a decade ago have now completely come of the closet these days. Readers of cosmo would vouch for that. Most youngsters in fact start off with this forms of sexual encounters under the pretext of preserving their virginity! How many penalizations does one see in the Indian courts of husbands who have engaged into anal intercourses with their spouses. One may argue, that both parties have consented. And exactly this idea of mutual consent is at the crux of the homosexual debate. Both parties have consented. They feel the need to get relieved of their sexual urges with a person of the same sex; that is perfectly natural. In the yester years in Psychiatry there were treatments described for curing homosexuality. Such treatments are now completely abandoned. Homosexuality is accepted as a state along the varied spectrum of human sexuality and is physiological. It cannot and should not be even attempted to be treated, let alone cured. To put this in context for the heterosexuals, in case the reader is a male, imagine you being forced to have sex with another man. (Females may imagine the same with another female) Unless you happen to be a bisexual, how do you feel? Did you just say eeks, horrible? If yes, this is the very same feeling our society wants the homosexuals to embrace on a daily basis. Forcing them to choose a sexual partner they have no inclination for. The morals, cultures and values of different countries are diverse and what happens in foreign lands cannot be copied in the Indian context is an argument which I accept. But the society has

to change its customs and values with changing times. The practice of Sati was also an Indian custom. After you die, do you still expect your wife to jump on your pyre or your parents pushing her into one under the pretext of custom? We all agree that abolition of Sati in India was a progressive move. This is a similar progressive move. The Indian judiciary has to be congratulated and be proud of as it has emerged the only sane voice amidst the cacophony of the different right and left voices. In a free-for-all scenario, the judiciary has demonstrated its capability to deliver on dangerous and highly debatable issues, on which the central and state governments have gracefully ignored as a potential landmine! Another logic which was put forward by the home ministry is that homosexuality spreads AIDS. And I would not differ, yes it does! It is a more potent mode of spread of AIDS than is heterosexual intercourse, if it is between two males. (Least potent if between two females) But epidemiologically an overwhelming majority of the transmissions of HIV are because of heterosexual intercourse and not homosexual. In case we want to argue on the basis of potency, the first thing that should be criminalized in India is blood transfusion, which happens to be the mode of highest potency for the transmission of HIV. Would we do that? Of course not. Even when the blood banks screen for HIV, in India we use ELISA and not RNA based tests so there is a possibility when the blood is positive for HIV but reported negative due to the absence of antibodies against the HIV virus the so called Window period. A meta analysis of the blood banks in India showed that up to 5% of the HIV positive samples could miss detection as a result of this. The consistent use of a condom would reduce the risk of the HIV spread in homosexuals the very same way it does in heterosexuals. Based upon these, this argument of HIV spread tumbles as a castle of cards. The self proclaimed upholders of Indian morality have preached perverted things to the people since a long time. We wear a cloak of modesty which has repeatedly been torn by facts in the last decade. The advent of internet has exposed this hypocrisy as none other. Sex regularly features in the top searches in google.com from India. Pornography is one of the biggest traffic generators from the Indian subcontinent. This, from the land which eats and breaths morals and values. In the 1980s when AIDS was discovered, Indians were very sure that the followers of Lord Ram were strictly monogamous and hence this (then dirty) disease stood no chance of spread in India. And then lo and behold, AIDS did not just touch our holy land it exploded! Hmmm, something should have gone wrong. Given the moral and the social values of us pious people, surely HIV would have mutated to gain airborne spread! This is a perennial state of denial of us which hampers many progressive ventures that come our way. Decriminalization of the homosexual community is one such progressive step again been held back by the moral pundits. It is time we shed this cloak of hypocrisy and stand up for what is just and natural. Another reason that the home ministry puts forth is that decriminalization of homosexuality in India would provoke child abuse. I think over it and there is nothing that I can say against it.

Why, you would ask? And thats because I fail to decipher the logic used to arrive at such a conclusion. This is something beyond my comprehension. I wish and hope that the righteous decision of the High courted is upheld in the Respected Supreme court and once again the sane voice prevails over the deafening noise of the moral hooligans.