Archive for June 2009
Gay Indians seek sexual equality
Gay Indians seek sexual equality
By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5f059856-650d-11de-a13f-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Published: June 30 2009 03:00 | Last updated: June 30 2009 03:00
Siddharth Dube, a gay Indian who writes on poverty and public health, sees "an enormous world of difference" in the confidence of India’s young gay community compared with when he came of age in the 1980s. Then, Mr Dube says, he "felt terrified every day".
With rapid economic growth creating middle-class opportunities beyond the civil service, "gay men and women can afford to strike out on their own", he says. "When it was much more difficult to earn an income, people were much more cautious about rocking the boat. Now, they can be who they want to be."
Gay pride marches in cities including New Delhi on Sunday drew thousands of people in a raucous show of defiance against discrimination. For all the progress, however, gay sex remains illegal under an 1860 British colonial-era ban on "carnal intercourse against the order of nature".
Gay activists hope that the Delhi High Court could be poised to change this as it prepares to rule in a landmark civil rights case challenging the ban – article 377 of the Indian Penal Code – on the grounds that it violates India’s liberal, democratic post-independence constitution.
"These laws are what really instil terror in me and other gay people," says Mr Dube. "It you have a law that criminalises someone, that is really the foundation stone for prejudice. It’s where all the seeds of intolerance come from."
In its court challenge, the Naz Foundation, which works to reduce HIV/Aids risks among homosexual men, has argued that the ban on gay sex between consenting adults violates fundamental rights to privacy, dignity and equality. Naz has asked the court to decriminalise gay sex, a ruling that would technically apply only in Delhi but would set a precedent with national repercussions. Gay activists elsewhere in Asia and Africa, especially former British colonies, are watching closely.
"This is a fight for the dignity of 10 per cent of India’s population," said Saleem Kidwai, co-editor of Same Sex Love in India , an anthology of writings dating back 2,000 years. "Now people are driven into the closet and so many women are affected by the fact that people have to hide their sexuality and go into dysfunctional marriages."
Although prosecutions under article 377 are rare, they are not unheard of. In 2006, four men who met through a gay website were arrested, paraded before the media and accused of membership of a gay club and engaging in gay sex. The court case is still pending.
More often, police cite the law to harass gays, extract bribes or ignore crimes against them. Police raided the Lucknow offices of Naz in 2002,, arrested the local director and three others and accused them of "promoting homosexuality". The four were held without bail for 47 days.
Yet Delhi has been bitterly divided on whether the colonial-era law banning sex between males, repealed decades ago in the UK, should go in India too.
The National Aids Control Organisation, which has backed the Naz challenge, says criminalisation of gay sex has hampered efforts to fight HIV/Aids among a high-risk group. Naco estimates that 8 per cent of sexually active gay men are infected with HIV compared with less than 1 per cent in the general population, making gay outreach a priority.
Yet Naco told the court that gay men "are mostly reluctant to reveal same-sex behaviour, because of the fear of law enforcement agencies, keeping a large section invisible and unreachable and pushing the infection underground".
The home ministry, however, has warned the court that decriminalising what it terms "unnatural sex" could "open floodgates of delinquent behaviour and be misconstrued as providing unbridled licence for the same".
Conservative Hindu ideologues have echoed such fears. "In the name of thrill, enjoyment and fun, the young shall walk into the trap of homosexual addiction," B.P. Singhal, a prominent member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, said in a court submission.
Mr Singhal said gay sex was "inherently immoral, grossly unnatural and . . . the very antithesis of the lofty ideals, lofty values and lofty objectives" that sustain Indian civilisation.
However, social activists, gay groups and some liberal officials say such intolerance is a colonial import at odds with the older Indian acceptance of sexual diversity.
Hindu mythology even has stories of deities temporarily changing their gender for amorous encounters.
"The Hindu view was very, very tolerant," Mr Kidwai said. "If you look at punishments, making love to another man got far less punishment than a caste infraction. Certain people who were known to have lovers of the same sex were even venerated."
Intrusion a legacy of empire
Criminal bans on sex between men remain in force not just in India, but across wide swathes of the former British Empire.
Colonial-era legislators prohibited "unnatural carnal knowledge" in the 19th century. While Britain decriminalised consensual gay sex in 1967, most of its Asian and African colonies won independence with bans still on their books.
Many have not repealed them. Of the roughly 80 countries that criminalise homosexual intercourse, more than half are former British colonies, according to Human Rights Watch.
Uganda’s laws – which mandate life in prison for violation – are used to justify excluding gays from national HIV/Aids programmes.
The Indian court challenge is being closely monitored by Asian and African gay activists contemplating their own civil liberties struggles.
"It’s a very shrunk world for gay-rights activists in post-colonial societies – they tend to talk a lot to each other," says Meenakshi Ganguly, of Human Rights Watch. "We are hoping that if this law is struck down by the court, it will set a precedent for other activists."
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
new addition to the family http://www.facebook.com/gaybombay
Hi guys
Check out
http://www.facebook.com/gaybombay
Please feel free to add yourself as friend to the face book group.
Regards
Moderator
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
After the Euphoria, Reality Bites
Gay law: Govt can’t take decision in a hurry, says Moily
Agencies Posted: Monday , Jun 29, 2009 at 1707 hrs IST
Veerappa Moily said a decision on the gay issue would be taken only after considering concerns of all sections of society.
Hyderabad:
Government will not take a decision in a hurry to repeal the controversial Section 377 of IPC which criminalises homosexuality, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily said on Monday following concerns voiced by some Christian and Muslim religious groups against the step.
The Government cannot take a decision in a hurry. We need to apply our mind," he told reporters here adding "we are examining it."
The Minister had stated in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday that a decision on the issue would be taken only after considering concerns of all sections of society, including religious groups.
A meeting of the Union Home, Health and Law Ministers is expected be held to have a re-look at Section 377 of IPC that prohibits sex between people of the same gender.
Asked whether Government was backtracking after favouring repeal of the law, Moily said his earlier remarks had been "misinterpreted".
| Muslim clerics oppose gays’ demand for scrapping Sec 377 in India |
| By Khabrein.Info Correspondent, New Delhi, June 29, 2009: Muslim clerics have reacted angrily to gays demand for scrapping Sec 377 in India. They say that if this ‘senseless’ action is taken, it will create sexual anarchy in the country and will break family norms. On Sunday when gays and lesbians gathered in significant numbers in metro cities in India demanding scrapping of Sec 377 that bans gay and lesbian union, many Muslim clerics have said that they will not allow it to happen. Several newspapers and gay right NGOs have ran campaigns in the country in recent weeks demanding that the ban on gay and lesbian marriages be lifted. There were even hints from government that the section that bars it may be amended. But Muslim and Christian clergy has opposed the move. Rector of world famous seminary Darul Uloo, Deoband says that the same sex marriage was not just against the Indian traditions but was also against the teachings of all religions. He said that Islam is severely opposed to same sex marriages and added that such things will put even animals to shame. Maulana Salim Qasmi, vice president of All India Muslim Personal law Board (AIMPB) says that giving rise to a western disease will be a big mistake by the Indian government. He said that this act is prohibited by all the religions of the world and it will be simply crazy to allow such things to grow in India. He went on to add that Home Minister P Chidambaram should take similarly tough stand against homosexuality that was taken by his predecessor Shivraj Patil.
India faith leaders: Anti-gay law must stay
June 29, 2009 — Updated 0017 GMT (0817 HKT) By Harmeet Shah Singh
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) — Religious groups in India have warned they will oppose any move to legalize homosexuality as the federal government prepares to hold talks on a law that classifies same-sex acts as crimes.
An Indian gay activist participates in a gay pride march in Bangalore on Sunday.
India’s Hindu nationalist main opposition has in the meantime called for a national debate on the legislation that law minister M. Veerappa Moily last week said would come up for a discussion within the government. "This is a sensitive issue and warrants a debate within the Indian society at large before arriving at any decision," said Sidharth Nath Singh, spokesman for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. An Indian court is due to give its judgment on a petition filed by a nonprofit group that has challenged the anti-gay provision of the penal code. In a news conference last week, Moily refused to spell out his government’s stand on it because it awaits judicial determination. But his comments that the federal home minister was "contemplating" a meeting with his Cabinet colleagues on the law drew widespread coverage in the largely conservative country. "Hope floats at rainbow parades," read a caption on a front-page picture from a gay parade in New Delhi in Monday’s Times of India newspaper. Participants in that march demanded repeal of Section 377 of the penal code, which criminalizes private consensual sex between adults of the same gender in the country. Religious leaders, however, oppose any suggestion to scrap 377, describing homosexuality as "unnatural." "We are against calling homosexuality a criminal activity, but we are certainly in principle against legalizing it, because that would mean the state endorsing same-sex relationships," said Babu Joseph, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. Homosexuality "violates fundamental norms of a family," he said. In his remarks, Kamal Faruqui of India’s Muslim Personal Law Board outlined what he said was Islam’s position on same-sex unions. "Islam is totally against it. Islam does not allow any unnatural act. No Muslim in the world, let alone India, can ever support it," Faruqui said.
India’s top Sikh administration echoed similar opposition. "Homosexuality is unnatural," said Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, general secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, which administers historical Sikh shrines, mainly in Punjab state. "We oppose any proposal to give legitimacy to such acts," Bhaur added. |
|||||||||
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
-
- image00111
-
- image0027
-
- image0034
-
- image0044
-
- image005
-
- image0061
-
- image007
-
- image008
-
- image009
-
- image010
-
- image011
-
- image012
Let’s Not Keep It Straight
Let’s Not Keep It Straight
| By: Kumar Saurav and Swati Kumari | Date: 2009-06-29 | Place:Delhi |
As we stand on the threshhold of legally accepting gayness, straights shore up india’s biggest pro-gay rally in Delhi
They say man must love man, but make a big deal out of it when they do.
But, the noise at this year’s edition of the Queer Pride Parade in the capital was as positive as it was powerful. With about 700 people in attendance, it was one of the biggest gay rallies India has seen till date.
"I am in a homosexual relationship for the past 18 years and I have lived every moment with pride. My boyfriend even poisoned himself when I didn’t accept his proposal.
 |
| Stand Up, Speak Up: With around 700 people showing their support, the Queer Pride Parade in Sthe capital yesterday became one of the biggest gay rallies the country ever witnessed. |
I loved him, but what’s the harm in acting pricey? Girls like it that way, and so do I," said Rahul, an employee with a multinational management firm.
However, not many share Rahul’s ideas. Many bachelors were spotted seeking partners, who wanted to ride high on new bonds.
"My single status hurts me. I am looking for a long-term relationship where we can live a marital life, baby-sit and grow old to meet the end," said Rishi, a fashion stylist.
One platform
This time around, the representation was not only bigger, but also diverse, with people from far-off states and even the straight section of the society joining in.
Adding to the loud declaration of homosexuality, were academicians, housewives, pet owners and parents of homosexual kids.
"When my daughter told me she’s a lesbian. I paused for a while, and said, ‘It’s okay beta. I am fine till it’s love’," said 52-year-old businesswomen Shipra Gupta.
And even the weather seemed to smile for the parade, as clouds gathered for a small shower and brought down the mercury.
"I think it’s a divine sign that Section 377 should be scrapped. That’s when democracy will live to its promise," said Shantanu Moitra, a graduate.
Shouting slogans like ‘Down with 377’ and ‘Proud to be homos,’ and dancing to the tunes of drummers, close to 500 people marched towards Jantar Mantar from Barakhamba Road.
Colour show
Dressed in beautiful coloured attires and masks, the marchers expressed their anger against the violence and forceful marriages of homosexuals.
The community also showed their annoyance against law enforcing agencies even though the deployed forces made sure that the procession was peaceful.
But even as a head constable echoed the question several policemen were seen asking, "Bhaisahab yeh gay kya hota hai, yeh to main janata hoon, par lesbians aur transgenders kyaa hoten hain?" Others were giving a nod in acceptance, probably a sign of times to come.
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
Pictures from Toronto Gay Pride Parade
From: Chin [mailto:aschn00k@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 5:17 PM
To: moderator@gaybombay.in
Subject: Pictures from Toronto Gay Pride Parade
Dear Moderator,
I am attaching 6 photos from the Toronto Gay Pride Parade that took place yesterday. There was a fantastic turnout, as there is every year. Since none of these are ‘obscene’, I am hoping you will put them in a folder under ‘Photos’ on your group. I just hope that your parade in Mumbai is very successful. I will be hoping for that. If you are interested in other pictures from the parade, please let me know. Take care.
Chin
======================
I have saved the pics in the photo section of gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com
Regards
Moderator
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
Indian gay rights march calls to legalize gay sex
Indian gay rights march calls to legalize gay sex
By SAM DOLNICK
The Associated Press
Sunday, June 28, 2009; 9:57 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062800689.html
NEW DELHI — Hundreds of gay rights supporters waved flags and danced past traffic during marches through three Indian cities Sunday to celebrate gay pride and call for the decriminalization of homosexuality in this deeply conservative country.
The New Delhi parade passed near the Delhi High Court, which is reviewing a law that prohibits gay sex – and can punish it with up to 10 years in prison.
Law Minister Veerappa Moily also said he would soon meet with two other important government ministers to discuss changing the country’s anti-homosexuality laws, according to Sunday’s Hindustan Times newspaper.
Gay rights activists said momentum was on their side.
"This piece of legislation makes no sense," said Ponni Arasu, 25, a law student and a march organizer. "You cannot deny people their basic civil rights.
Sex between people of the same gender has been illegal in India since a British colonial era law included it as a forbidden sexual act "against the order of nature."
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.
Supporters of the law, which include leaders of the Hindu right, argue that gay sex should remain illegal and that open homosexuality is out of step with the values of this deeply traditional country.
On Sunday, activists took to the streets of the southern cities of Chennai and Bangalore and the capital, New Delhi. Marching bands blared horns and pounded drums while men wearing saris and women waving rainbow flags chanted for their rights.
The parades came a year after India’s first large gay pride march, a celebration that supporters say would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
"It was the first very overt, celebratory and positive images of the community," said Leslie Esteves, 33, an organizer in New Delhi. "This is a confident community that has survived and thrived despite the shadow of criminalization."
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.
Still, being gay is deeply taboo and many marchers Sunday covered their faces because they hadn’t told their friends and families about their sexuality.
"Give me support, I want to take off my mask," read a sign carried by a woman who gave her name only as Ganga.
Marchers said the parade was meant to send a message to authorities to repeal the law criminalizing gay sex, known as Section 377 of the Indian penal code. But it was also meant to reach Indians still in the closet.
"We’re going to tell them that you’re not alone," said Arasu, the law student. "We are all going to be around to support you so you can live with dignity."
Rajiv Dua, a community health expert handing out rainbow flags and buttons, said the motivation was simple.
"We don’t want to be ignored anymore," he said.
Riot of colours at Delhi’s second gay pride march
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/24882.htm
New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) Some hid their faces behind rainbow coloured masks but others flaunted their sexuality unabashedly. The second edition of Delhi’s gay pride march was a riot of colours, and had the marchers dancing and shouting slogans in unison.
“Free hugs!” screamed the banner of one of the marchers, who smiled and opened his arms to anyone who came to him. The muggy day was no deterrent and he got hugs by a dozen.
Demanding repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which makes homosexuality a crime, the marchers – dressed in a whole range of fancy attires – screamed: “We want justice.”
Holding a massive rainbow coloured flag – symbolising the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community – Ranjini, a transgender, said: “It feels so good to be able to walk the streets freely, without having people looking down upon me with a weird look. Yes, I am queer and I am proud of it.”
Holding aloft a rainbow flag, clicking photographs and sometimes breaking into a jig, Rebecca Loo, a tourist from Britain who participated in the march, said: “I am glad I could make it – never mind the heat! I came to know about the pride (march) from an acquaintance through Facebook and decided to come along. It’s really cool.”
Even as people, a number of them tourists from abroad and other foreigners, carried banners saying “Hetero-Homo bhai-bhai”, “Help me take my mask off” and “Yes, I am queer and am proud of it”, a wedding band played along the route of the march from the Tolstoy Marg in Connaught Place in the heart of the capital.
The march, which saw 600-700 people participate, culminated at Jantar Mantar.
Similar pride marches took place in other metros as well.
In what sounded like good news to the gay community, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily had earlier said the government would discuss the controversial Section 377 of the IPC.
Moily told reporters: “The home minister (P. Chidambaram) is planning to convene a meeting of the health and law ministers over this issue.”
However, leaders of other political parties have sounded wary over changing the law.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member M.K. Pandhe said: “Generally we don’t support homosexuality but I cannot say further on the issue because our party has not discussed the matter.”
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi went on to say that the government should not take hasty decisions.
“We are living in India, not in a European country. These issues are very important and sensitive. A thorough discussion is needed on this issue,” Naqvi told IANS.
 |
 |
||||
| March for legal acceptance amid gaiety
28 Jun 2009, 2337 hrs IST, TNN http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-4713448,prtpage-1.cms |
||||
| NEW DELHI: Last year, they came out to protest. This year, they were out on the streets celebrating their sexuality. Thousands of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals partied by dancing, singing, hugging and kissing each other in the heart of the capital on Sunday, with the hope that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises the community, may soon become a thing of the past. Unlike last year, there was no tension in the air and even the Delhi policemen on duty looked relaxed, enjoying the colourful show.
Delhi’s second gay pride parade, which started from Barakhamba Road at 6.00pm and turned into a public meeting-cum-vigil at Jantar Mantar after an-hour-and-a-half, looked like a giant rainbow floating on throbbing drumbeats as more than 2,000 people walked the streets with hundreds of onlookers on both sides of the road watching the procession quietly. "Our moment has arrived. Last year, there was a lot of uncertainty and anxiety, but this year things have been much easier. Even the support from the police has been excellent,” said Gautam Bhan, one of the organizers of the parade. In one year, a lot has changed. People have been asking about this year’s parade for weeks. And, now it seems the government is going to make amends in Section 377. Most of the participants in the parade, both gay and straight, felt the attitude towards the gay community is changing very fast. "We woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise, with newspapers saying that two important ministers home minister P Chidambaram and law minister Veerappa Moily are in favour of repealing the section of the IPC that makes homosexual relation a criminal offence. Our hard work and campaign seems to be paying off and it’s time the government recognized that we are also citizens of this country,” said Bhan, adding that it was important for the community to keep its campaign on till the government accepts their demand. Though the LGBTI community has done two successful pride parades in the capital, the activists know they have a long way to go before they win complete acceptance. "Last year as well as this year, some right-wing groups threatened us against organizing this march. They said it was against the Indian culture. Also, we don’t know what the Delhi High Court is going to say in the case against Section 377. But we are hopeful of a positive result,” said Lesley Esteves, one of the main organizers of the march. There are challenges on other fronts as well. Though many people sang and danced freely, there were many faces hidden behind masks, scarves, kafiyes, caps and shades. "I don’t think my family is ready to accept the fact that I am lesbian. That’s why I can’t show my face to the camera. But, I am sure once Section 377 is dumped into the dustbin, attitudes will change towards people like me and I would be able to live freely like other normal people,” said a 25-year-old student of Delhi University. "I didn’t have the courage to come out last year. But, now, with even the government talking against Section 377, I think, we are close to victory. Activists like Bhan and Esteves agree that the community has come a long way since it marched in the capital for the first time last year. "Today, we had at least three thousand people here,” said Esteves, and most of them came on their own. "We hardly did any campaign this year. I think the news about Section 377 has given a boost to our campaign. I hope Mr Chidambaram and Mr Moily are watching our parade today.” Chidambaram and Moily, who are reportedly in favour of repealing Section 377, are close to becoming heroes of India’s gay community. If the law is dumped, the ministers may become heroes abroad as well. "It’s shocking that a liberal democracy like India still has such archaic laws. I came here to support the Indian gays because I can’t do that in my own country,” says Hannah, a tourist from Belgrade, recalling an incident when a similar parade in her city was stoned by right-wing groups. "It’s good to see India giving its gay community space to celebrate their sexuality. I wish they scrap 377,” she added. India’s LGBTI community hopes the government is listening. Gay parade in Delhi for decriminalisation of homosexualityhttp://www.indianexpress.com/news/Gay-parade-in-Delhi-for-decriminalisation-of-homosexuality/482351
Agencies Posted: Sunday , Jun 28, 2009 at 2112 hrs IST
Hundreds of homosexuals marched on the streets of Delhi demanding decriminalisation of homosexuality.
New Delhi: Joining voice with their community across the globe, hundreds of homosexuals and transgenders marched on the streets of the national capital demanding decriminalisation of homosexuality. Shouting slogans like ‘Down with 377’ and ‘Proud to be homos,’ and dancing to the tunes of drummers, the marchers demanded scrapping of the controversial Section 377 of Indian Penal Code that declares as a criminal offence ‘sex against the order of nature’. Dressed in colourful attires, the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, many of them donning masks, started from the Barakhamba road and culminated their march at the Jantar Mantar. The activists for gay rights also welcomed the "positive signals" coming from the government over their demand for the repealing of the law. "That the government is positively thinking to repeal the outdated law is definitely a positive sign, at a time when we are also waiting for a judgement in a related case at the High Court," said Ponni, a gay rights activist working for a Bangalore-based organisation, and one of the organisers of the event. |
||||
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
-
- image0017
-
- image0026
-
- image0033
-
- image0043
-
- image005
-
- image006
Religious leaders oppose repeal of Section 377
New Delhi:
Even as gay communities rejoice over the news that the Government is considering the repealing of the IPC section that criminalises homosexuality, religious leaders have expressed their reservations over the move.
"It (homosexuality) is not at all acceptable and agreeable. It is against the tenets of bible. Man and Woman were created in God’s own image. Homosexuality is against the society," Rt Rev Abraham Mar Paulos Episcopa, Head of Marthoma Syrian Church of Malabar diocesan here told PTI.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad is also opposed to any dilution in the Section 377 of IPC.
"It is against the culture and family system in India. It will result in spread of number of diseases. But we will see what changes, if at all, are introduced in the section," said Vinod Bansal, spokesperson of Delhi unit of the Parishad.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a prominent body of Muslim community too has hit out at the government’s proposed move, saying the repeal of the section would create "sexual anarchy" in the societ
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
apologies.. ht coverage–June 28, 2009
Hi
In my earlier email.. which compiled ht coverage of lgbt issues in today’s addition, the subject line said june 29 please read it as as june 28,2009
Regards
Ketan
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
India media goes gay- Hindustan Times LGBT Coverage on Juen 29, 2009
HI All
I am amazed at the coverage almost all major papers have given to LGBT issues. Happy and gay times ahead. Have compiled most of it for you according to the papers they were published in. Here goes Hindustan Times coverage
Regards
Ketan
Out of the closet, on to the streets
June 27, 2009
First Published: 22:25 IST(27/6/2009)
Last Updated: 22:33 IST(27/6/2009)
On July 2, exactly a decade ago, 15 men met in Kolkata’s badly maintained Park Circus Park. It started drizzling the moment we assembled and all of us ran to seek shelter in a dilapidated gazebo standing forlornly in a corner. But those were exciting times and the ‘fabulous 15’ set off for what was then called the ‘Rainbow Walk’. The plan was to follow a leisurely trail visiting officials, NGOs, judges and all those who matter and tell them what we were all about. ‘We’ here being faggots, gay men, g*ndus, naan-khatais, gud — whatever you want to call us homosexuals.
It was a pretty rag-tag bunch, wearing similar yellow t-shirts with the legend ‘Walk on the Rainbow’ printed in pink letters (what else) saying it all. The t-shirts had been printed and packed lovingly by a giant gay man called Owais Khan who worked for a corporate in Bangalore. Nearly all of us had made it to Kolkata on our own steam and had been picked up by the quiet Kolkatan called Pawan Dhall from Howrah terminus, a whirlpool of perpetual chaos.
But the most memorable part of that ‘Walk on the Rainbow’ was being stopped by a grand old Bengali Maashi Maa (auntie) and asked: “What on earth are you guys walking around for?” to which I replied, “Oh, we are homosexuals and we are asking the government to get rid of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.”
After seeing the rather puzzled look on her face, I explained what the whole enterprise was all about. “You see,” I said patiently, “there is this really awful law that says that anal or oral sex is against the law of nature and must be punished with 10 years in jail even if both parties consent to it.” Before I could explain further, I had an outraged Bengali lady on my hands: “You mean to say that this useless government has nothing to do but peep into everybody’s sex life? You mean even your bottom is not your own?” She seemed to be getting really mad as she pronounced the Bengali street word for buttocks in well-rounded contempt.
It’s then that I realised that India’s heart is good and gracious. The kind of homophobia I would see in New York or London was just missing even in a hide-bound great city like Kolkata. But was it really that easy? I wasn’t sure.
As a street counselor in my organisation, Humsafar Trust and my experience manning the Trust’s helpline in Mumbai, I had talked to scores of young men and women who were puzzled first and then traumatised when they learnt about their sexual orientation and tried willy-nilly to adjust to mainstream society. It wasn’t that easy specially because there was no homophobia of the Western type here. Nobody in India really took homosexuality seriously till you refused to get married and insisted on making everybody’s life miserable by defying social norms of dress or composure.
That was the issue as the Indian middle class faced a new phenomenon — whole segments of population whose only common trait was that they loved the same sex. It was exactly like a teacher or parent seeing that a child was writing using its left hand. And just as nobody now sees that as a problem, one wondered why this business of sexual orientation had become such an issue. But obviously it was an issue. As the days passed, not only were there horror stories of young men and women being forcibly married, sent for psychotherapy and aversion therapy, but they were also being beaten, caned, injected with hormones, sent to ashrams to be changed through ‘lessons in morality’, called scum of the earth by priests — and sometimes even driven out of homes. What was the issue?
It was obvious that sexual orientation and gender identity were not easy subjects to handle. Neither schools nor colleges had any inkling on how to do that through sex education. Even most parents didn’t have the skills to explain to a child why he or she shouldn’t be attracted to somebody of his or her own sex.
In that respect, I was a lucky guy — my father not only didn’t bat an eyelid when I said I was attracted to other boys, but he even went and got whatever literature on the subject he could get for a nerdish kid; I still have the two volumes of Havelock Ellis with me as a gift on my 12th birthday.
At the Humsafar Trust, the stories tumbled out along with the men carrying them like a huge burden — rejection by family and friends, violence in public spaces for being ‘different’ and being blackmailed by goons and the police using an archaic law that was rarely used. What seemed to be used were a set of nebulous laws that supposedly maintained “social order and threats to public order”. As the net widened, I heard of cross-dressers being beaten and raped by the police and goons, and young men being raped by stronger male relatives. It looked like the law was a beautiful carpet under which crawled a whole lot of worms.
What one concluded was that homosexuals (the term includes lesbians) and cross dressers were persecuted because they were ‘not natural’, which, of course, was an oxymoron. The point was — was this new? Every homosexual thinks he’s the only one alive but as the years go by and you seek out others like you, things get a lot easier.
So then I started digging into history and all sorts of texts surprised me; from Socrates and Plato to Alexander the Great, there definitely seemed a whole lot of “us” way back in time. In India, personal histories came in with Islam and all the way from Mehmud Ghazni to Allauddin Khilji and Babar, homosexuals were very much present. This historical perspective gave an idea that homosexuality or homosexuals were not foreign but desi to boot. The nearer one got, the more complicated it became. One couldn’t name, say, any Khan in Bollywood because that practically amounted to dragging them out of their closets which was unethical.
The British in India brought in their own laws and prejudices. Section 377 originated in 17th century Britain and was introduced into the secular criminal codes from ecclesiastical statutes existing in the St James Bible. Before that, we never had such a law even under a bigot like Aurangzeb. The personal in India had remained personal till the British invented both the closet and the law to keep you in it. And the irony is that even though they have rid themselves of this law in 1969, it still lingers in all their former colonies.
Unlike other minorities, sexual minorities will remain minorities by their very nature. They are a reminder that society is a pluralistic multitude and that each of us are different yet equal.
Pride Marches throughout the world are the key to a society where each person is valued for who he or she is, without asking for anything in return. India’s LGBT community is slowly coming of age and will not go back into the closet. That’s for sure.
Ashok Row Kavi is founder-chairman of the Humsafar Trust and a gay rights activist.
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, June 27, 2009
First Published: 20:59 IST(27/6/2009)
Last Updated: 21:00 IST(27/6/2009)
Gay community welcomes possibility of repeal of IPC section 377
The news that government is considering repealing a law which criminalises homosexuality has brought cheers among the Gay community which is busy preparing for the second edition of Queer parade on Sunday.
"This is the best thing that can happen at this moment. It will reflect in the Gay Pride march which will take place tomorrow," Lok Prakash, managing trustee of National MSM and Human Rights Task Force here.
Gay rights activists are excited about the news that government is considering repealing section 377 of the IPC, paving the way for decriminalisation of homosexuality in the country. However, they are waiting for a response of the Delhi High Court where a case is still going on.
"We think it’s fantastic. Instead of repealing why not change it completely. This section came into existence during British rule. It should have been done earlier," said a gay journalist who did not wish to reveal his identity.
"Atrocities of police on the gay community will stop if this section is repealed. HIV AIDS problem in the community can also be tackled as people will be more open to discussing their sexuality. If taken, it will a fantastic decision," said Arvind Narain, a lawyer and gay rights activist based in Bangalore.
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times
After 150 years, consensus nears on making homosexuality legal
Nagendar Sharma, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, June 28, 2009
First Published: 01:04 IST(28/6/2009)
Last Updated: 02:08 IST(28/6/2009
Ahead of annual marches by gays and lesbians in many Indian cities on Sunday, there is good news for them — having sex may no longer be a crime.
Signalling a major shift in its once-unyielding stand, the government has for the first time indicated it is willing to review a controversial 150- year-old law that makes homosexuality a criminal offence.
A meeting between the Home, Health and Law ministers is likely to be convened soon to discuss the issue of either completely repealing or amending section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which provides for 10 years imprisonment for “unnatural sex”. That includes homosexuality.
“The issue was being discussed in Ministry of Home Affairs and Health Ministry and it will come before the Law Ministry also,” said union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily. “The Home minister will convene a meeting of the three ministers soon.”
Earlier this month, Moily said “some sections of the IPC are outdated and may require a fresh look.”
Home Minister P. Chidambaram will chair the meeting, which is likely to evolve a fresh stand acceptable to all three ministries.
The flexibility in the government stand follows the change of guard in all the three key ministries.
While Chidambaram and Moily are understood to be in favour of a fresh look on the issue, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad hasn’t yet revealed what he thinks.
Previous Home and Law ministers Shivraj Patil and H. R. Bhardwaj strongly opposed any change in the controversial IPC section.
“The purpose of section 377 IPC was to provide a healthy environment in the society by criminalising unnatural sexual activities against the order of nature. The Health ministry is welcome to take all steps for ensuring better health of the people, but no tampering with well laid down legal procedure can be allowed without a firm reasoning,” Bhardwaj had told HT in October last year.
Continued from Page 1
This was why the UPA government in its first term refused a proposal from former Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss to make gay sex legal.
The Health ministry had argued that the provisions of the existing law “push HIV people underground, which makes such risky sexual practices go unnoticed”.
The Home and Health ministries had taken opposite stands last year, in their replies to the Delhi high court, on a petition filed by an NGO called the Naaz Foundation.
The Home ministry had strongly opposed any change in the IPC, while the Health ministry was in favour of scrapping the controversial section.
The scales were finally tilted in favour of the Home ministry when the law ministry supported its stand and made it clear that the government was not in favour of any change in the existing law.
The arguments in the Delhi high court are complete and the verdict is expected soon.
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
India media goes gay— Times Of India LGBT stories on June 28.2009
HI All
I am amazed at the coverage almost all major papers have given to LGBT issues. Happy and gay times ahead. Have compiled most of it for you according to the papers they were published in. Here goes the Times Of India coverage
Regards
Ketan
From Times of India
Anti-gay law may be changed soon
Two Key Ministers In Favour, Rigid Home Ministry Alters Stand On Repealing Sec 377
Vishwa Mohan | TNN
New Delhi: The government is planning to repeal the law that criminalises homosexuality. The home ministry, which has consistently opposed any change in Section 377 of the IPC that treats private consensual sex between same-sex adults as a crime, appears to have changed its stand.
Home minister P Chidambaram is learnt to have expressed his views favouring the repeal of Section 377 to his officials. This is in contrast to his predecessor Shivraj Patil, who doggedly refused to make any change in a 150-year-old law that was introduced in India by the British, but junked in Britain 40 years ago.
Chidambaram’s approach is significant as the home ministry has been a stumbling block so far in any attempt to change the law. Law minister Veerappa Moily has said he favours a “review’’. The health ministry—whose assent is a must to amend Section 377—has historically favoured a repeal.
Sources in the home ministry said Chidambaram, in order to speed up the matter, will soon take it up with Moily and health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at a joint meeting and seek their “formal’’ views. The opinion of state governments will also be sought, the sources added.
Officials in the ministry believe that since the law minister too seems to be in favour of changing the law, the government’s stand before the Delhi high court, which is considering a petition challenging arrests under Section 377, may now change. Although the court has finished hearing arguments on the 2001 petition by the non-profit group, Naz Foundation, the matter can be taken up afresh.
“If there is consensus over repealing the law or bringing in some suitable changes to decriminalize homosexual relationships, the ministry can submit before the court that it has changed its position and ask for
hearings to be reopened,’’ said a senior officer.
Earlier, the home ministry’s position was that homosexuality is not accepted by Indian society and repealing the law would open the floodgates for delinquent behaviour. It also argued that this was the only law that could be applied in cases of child abuse and male rape.
The health ministry, on the other hand, had argued that homosexuals are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, hence the discrimination against them should end.
The home ministry is now waiting to see whether new health minister Azad favours his ministry’s earlier stand. A final decision is likely after the proposed ministerial meeting, which will also consider bringing in new provisions to deal with cases related to child abuse and male rape in case Section 377 is repealed. The meeting is being called following PM Manmohan Singh’s intervention. He had directed the ministers to resolve their differences so that the government gets a uniform view on homosexuality. The high court, too, had told the government to sort out its differences. OPENING UP
A poll of avowedly heterosexual people in eight major cities on how they view homosexuality showed that prejudices aren’t quite as firmly entrenched as many might expect. The results indicate a more liberal attitude towards gayness than in the past. The times, it appears, are changing.
A MATTER OF PRIDE
Swinging sixties
On the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York, a look at the gay scene in India in the ’60s
Vikram Doctor | TNN
Sunil Gupta probably shouldn’t have been there when he first saw other gay people. He was 14 or 15 years old and in the most notorious place in Delhi in the late 1960s. This was The Cellar, the first nightclub started outside a hotel, and Gupta was there as his sister’s chaperone. “I’d be given a Coke and told to sit in a corner seat,” he recalls.
It was while sitting there that he heard people talking. “They said, did you know that guy there is gay,’’ says Gupta. He had heard about gays from magazines brought by Berkeley students who were paying guests with his family. “They had gay personals ads, and while the students weren’t gay, I could talk with them about it.’’ And now, at The Cellar, he could put faces (some still well known in Delhi, though still not out) to that term and realise there were gays living in Delhi, just as he could be too.
The Pride marches taking place across the world this weekend commemorate the 40th anniversary of New York’s Stonewall riots which started on June 28, 1969. That night, the police raided a gay bar, a routine harassment, but this time instead of submitting, people fought back, kicking off the public struggle for queer rights. Today, it’s easy to forget that the struggle existed here too back in 1969. And impossible as Pride marches in India would have seemed then,
it was the community’s sheer existence at that time that would provide the soil from which today’s movement would spring.
Men and men, women and women, have always been sleeping together in India, as evidenced in sources like the Khajuraho carvings, Urdu love poetry and literary references like Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaaf. The criminalisation of such practices, as brought in by the British, stifled any open growth of the community, yet it continued to exist. Police reports hint at the persecutions the community faced, yet it survived, as is shown by literary references, in sources as diverse as the sensational stories of Ugra (Pandey Bechan Sharma), Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet, and a wonderfully badly written, yet campily fun novel called The Dew Drop Inn by Leslie de Noronha, who was for years the theatre critic of Mumbai’s Catholic newsletter The Examiner. That novel paints a picture of a freewheeling gay scene in Bombay and Delhi in the ’60s, but always in private and mostly at parties.
“It was vital to have a place of your own,’’ says S., a writer who came to Delhi in his teens. He remembers a maharajah who had a huge house in Delhi from where he made full use of his position as the Indian representative of an international sporting association. “It was really quite an exploitative scene, that was the unpleasant side to it,’’ says S.
Foreigners were a large part of it. Many had stayed on after the Raj, usually as agents of foreign firms, enjoying the freedom their status gave them to lead a gay life they couldn’t back home. They also enjoyed the many Indian men
who preferred sleeping with foreigners, because they saw it as safer than sleeping with other Indians. By the late ’60s though, another younger type of foreigner was being seen—Peace Corps workers or the first hippies.
Another change of the ’60s was the chance it allowed a few young people to experience gay culture in the West. This was courtesy Air India which, hard as it is to imagine now, was one of the leading, most stylish airlines in the world then. Run by worldly bosses like Bobby Kooka, it attracted many gay and bisexual men (and a few lesbians as well) to work as aircrew. Going abroad was still hard for Indians, so for the aircrew it was a great chance to experience gay life abroad. N., one of them, remembers how, on one of his first trips to the US, soon after they checked into a Manhattan hotel, two other gay crew members, who had figured him out, took him to a bathhouse where gay men met. “They went off to have fun and left me alone. I was so embarrassed it took me about three to four visits before I picked up the courage to approach someone!’’
In the years after Stonewall, N. did notice a greater openness in New York: “Before you’d take the cab to the head of the road the bathhouse was in, but later on they had no problem dropping you to the door!’’ But no change seemed forthcoming in India. Many of his gay colleagues got married, arguing that an open gay life in India was impossible, while others, like a lesbian couple he knew, emigrated. In Delhi too, S. saw gay IAS officers he knew getting married; there seemed no other option, and the sex they could always get on the side. And yet even then there were a few who resisted. B., an academic in Bangalore, cites the example of two older friends—a historian and a businessman—who never came out about their sexuality but never concealed it either and always remained friendly and supportive, but not exploitative, of younger gay men. “They really played a mentoring role to me,’’ says B. In 1990 journalist Ashok Row Kavi started Bombay Dost, India’s first gay magazine. In Delhi, a group of gays and lesbians started meeting to discuss how to start fighting for gay rights; they called themselves the Red Rose group because a flower was always kept on the table to identify it for newcomers.
In time more people would come out, more gay and lesbian books would be published, Fire would be made, attacked and defended, HIV would force government to tacitly acknowledge groups representing sexual minorities. And ultimately, in however unlikely a way, one has reached a time when both Dostana and Pride marches are possible. It is a huge change, yet it would not have been possible, here as in New York 40 years ago, without the gays and lesbians who lived their lives then.
| Homophobic India in dubious league
Rubs Shoulders With Hardline Islamic Nations; Even China Lifted Ban On Gay Sex In ’97 Manoj Mitta | TNN New Delhi: If the government musters courage to decriminalise homosexuality, or if the Delhi high court effects such a change on the petition challenging Section 377 IPC, India will shed the dubious honour of being among the 10 countries that can impose life sentence for gay sex.
|
| So what if you’re gay? For mum, son still shines
Shreya Roy Chowdhury | TNN New Delhi: When Harvard graduate Nishit Saran “came out”, he recorded the moment for the world to see. In his short film, Summer in My Veins (1999), he falteringly admits to his mother he’s gay and has ‘been with men’. His mother looks a little taken aback; she lights a cigarette, calms herself and assures her son that nothing has changed. In those few minutes, Nishit caught on film a response that every homosexual probably wishes for when he or she comes out to a parent: acceptance and a spontaneous offering of love and support. |
Email: moderator@gaybombay.in
Web Sites:
E Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay
GB Internet Radio
http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio
Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements
http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay
Emergency Helpline number 9820565885
Orkut:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955
Blogs:
https://gaybombay.wordpress.com
-
- image0019
-
- image004
-
- image005
Gaybombay's Weblog 