Imagine having a secret. A secret so terrible
that if you were to reveal it, your family
would disown you, your neighbours will say
you are diseased, and people everywhere would
accuse you of being in violation of not only
society’s rules, but also nature itself.
Now imagine there being a way out. What if
you could tell someone this secret? What if
no one judged you when you did this? What
if people heard your great secret and still
accepted you as normal, as an equal, and respected
you for who you were despite this secret.
For millions of homosexual people in India,
the fight over Section 377 of the Indian Penal
Code is about about the difference between
these two worlds. It is about respect.
It is a fight to be recognized as normal as well
as a fight to be allowed to live and love
without the State watching and judging.
In recent times, there has been a lot of discussion
about how the role of Government should be
limited to governing instead of telling
how people live their lives.
Section 377 is a legal provision that allows
authorities to interfere with the way an Indian
citizen lives his or her life. By saying that
people of the LGBT community are somehow against
society and the order of nature, Section 377
makes it legal for them to be treated differently
by the law and by society.
The clause, which is part of the remains of
an archaic British legal code, has been an
endless source of grief for the LGBT community
in India. Because of it, lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transsexual people are effectively labelled
criminals and as a result of it, face many
difficulties when they are in need of legal
assistance or social support.
For the rest of us, no matter who we are,
this fight should matter. When one individual’s
freedoms are violated, everyone’s rights
are threatened. If we allow the state to discriminate
against citizens on the basis of their sexual
orientation, we are basically paving the path
for the state to discriminate on other fronts
too.
LGBT rights are everyone’s rights.
