OUR LATEST ISSUE
India makes first move toward gay rights
Progress
Delhi court decriminalises homosexuality
The Delhi High Court today decriminalised homosexuality - but only in that city, the nation's capital. It is the first ruling of its kind on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a law dating back to 1861 punishing gay sex with up to 10 years imprisonment originally put in place during the days of British colonial rule.
The ruling can be challenged in India's Supreme Court, and the Home Ministry has been firm in its opposition to a change in the law. Some religious leaders criticized the ruling. "This Western culture cannot be permitted in our country," said Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali, a leading Muslim cleric in Lucknow, while Puroshattam Narain Singh of the World Hindu Council stated that "We are totally against such a practise as it is not our tradition or culture."
Last October, the Delhi High Court said that it would refer to scientific evidence rather than religious texts as reasoning for any potential justification for the country's continued criminalization of homosexuality, and today ruled that treating consensual gay sex as a crime is a violation of fundamental rights protected by India's constitution.
India LGBT group Queer Media Collective released a statement: "The Queer Media Collective welcomes the Delhi High Court's decision. Because this law continued to exist in India thousands of people have suffered harassment, discrimination and blackmail simply because they chose to love someone of their same sex. Lesbian couples have been forced to commit suicide, gay men have been blackmailed and forced into marriages and transgendered people have suffered continual violence - for none of which they have had recourse because under Section 377 they all were criminals just for being who they were."
