Darker shades of the rainbow.

There are 50 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in india but acceptance of homosexuality as a way of life is no incipient, in fact, the law desires to make it as insuperable as possible to practice such a way of life against long standing cultural beliefs. The constitution protects the liberties and rights of indian citizens but this is illusory.

It is not for the judge to confer rights or take them away, yet the law is seemingly equivalent to societal and moral reprimand. It is a mental torment for an indian LGBT individual to confirm and fit to everyone else’s way of thinking. It should be said that these findings, these views are equally applicable to those of the LGBT communities within the Global South and particularly Asia.

The real issue in india when it comes to religion, caste, sexuality etc is the battle between the older guardians and the new generation. For society to progress as a whole, grassroots mobilization on each front can help raise awareness amongst the people . However many activists become victims to violence and cannot fall back on the law for protection. It seems like a vicious cycle. Recognition of and a keen interest in the struggle of all the gay people across the globe needs to take place. Perhaps one day Calcutta and Mumbai will mean to South Asia what San Fransisco and New York mean to North America.

However, like everything other thing that is ‘taboo’ in India, there is hardly any discussion about it. Until people start to talk about it more, change will be creeping. In a country that cant even deal with the Aids issue as it should and dispense sex education as it should, homosexuals have long, long way to go. Additionally, hiding behind the wall of “we need to sort out other issues’ will not work.

Its unfortunate that the opposition to givings rights to homosexuals in countries all over the world especially in Asia is so rooted in culture. Homosexuals rights are an incredible pressing humanitarian concern and it is rather due to deeply held cultural beliefs arrogated to the people themselves. It is not right to interfere with someone’s culture, yet it is also not rights to allow such rampant homophobia to exist. Which do you choose?

It is a pity that the indian so called society rules so much on personal lives. As a matter of fact a straight man cannot have a straight girl of choice, the system decides. It’s the pseudo-prudish hypocritical society the system and the rules which are not totally based on history, should be changed. A man has his own right to live, act and perform in his life, and no other man. In any Utopian situation has a right to comment or crticize his behviour. Some readily point out that first there is aneed to understand that india has a centuries old culture and tradition. It is not easy to change the situation quickly and critics would contend that more education is very important at this point.

This may well be true but the road to education is marked with too systematic a level of underlying and explicit violence. It is difficult being gay in India. The pressure to get married comes from everyone around you- starting with your parents through to even work colleagues. Indian society dictates that getting married is the ideal way of life, so being gay is an uphill struggle. No surprise then that it can be such a mental torment trying to fit into everyone’s way of thinking.

If india wants to take strides with the rest of the developing countries, it will need a broader acceptance for different kinds of people. This means gays, lesbians, minorities of all kind of races, languages and philosophies. One moo point might be that when india achieves 100% literacy, things will get better for all of who are being oppressed, unheard or misunderstood- but one interesting factor I found in my research is that the ‘the higher caste’ the ‘educated’ and the ‘well to do’ are just as predicted and loathsome of what LGBT represents in Indian culture as those ‘illiterates’ who stone a person simply for being ‘weak’ enough to conform to homosexuality.