India homophobes fears; read Delhi court full verdict

As I reflect upon the July 2 Delhi High Court verdict decriminalizing sodomy -- and ushering in India in the comity of the free world-- there are tears of joys in my eyes.

The Delhi High Court decision came in the wake of more than seven years of litigation after India's premier human rights body Naz Foundation challenged the constitutional invalidity of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code for criminalizing homosexual links between two consenting adults.

The petition contended that article 377 of the Indian Penal Code promulgated by the British Imperialists in 1865 violated the liberties enshrined in the constitution as it penalized homosexual acts in private between consenting adults.

Public acceptance for homosexual relationship is being equated with pedophilia, atheism, liberalism and feminism, which according to the Hindu, Muslim and Christian fundamentalists alike runs contrary to Eastern Indian culture.

I have lived most of my life in Pakistan, but to this day, whenever someone asks me where I am from I say India. And when they ask me what part, I reply: The broken part, which the British named Pakistan.

Not that India is a paradise on earth. It has poverty and corruption runs high, I am told, even in the spy service named Research and Analysis Wing which has turned the South Asian giant into a delusional duck before the infamous Inter Services Intelligence, from neighboring Pakistan.

Still, India is the world's largest democracy and has entered the space age -- the teeming millions still do not have access to clean drinking water. High class Brahmins do not shake hands with lower Hindus or people from other religions to this day. That is the paradox of Indian society.

Anti-gay bias is quite strong among conservative sections of Indian society, a recent public posting in a yahoo mailing list bared.

"Anti-Homosexuality Must Promote Indian Homogeneity" writes Lucknow resident Dr.M.K.Sherwani reacting to the Delhi High High Court judgment granting equality to gays. He goes to the extent of exposing his homophobia by calling gays and lesbians "stray dogs."

I am reproducing some sections of his highly offensive writing and an earlier letter by another man to the chief justice of the Indian supreme court, to show the poverty of philosophy of the South Asian homophobes.

"Through the most retrograde verdict, July,2,declaring section 377 of Indian Penal Code ( which punishes unnatural sex) as violative of the fundamental freedom of 'gays', the Honourable Judges of Delhi High Court have made a significant contribution in expediting the ongoing phase of the country's ' cultural catastrophe'. If the morally debased and sexually perverted people can be called a 'sexual minority' , and, therefore entitled to the elimination of all legal barriers on their debauchery, time is not far off when they may claim the constitutional right to make the demonstration of their heinous crimes on the cross roads, and the Judges like Mr. A.P. Shah and Mr. S.Muralidhar may not hesitate to concede their request.," Sherwani writes.

"Homosexuality is certainly prohibited amongst all the religions of the world, and even rising from the abstract notions of different faiths, this level of immodesty is a slur on the rich cultural heritage of India , which as a single entity, represents a composite national creed. I am astonished that Muslim clerics have reacted to the Delhi High Court Judgment in a myopic manner as if the legalization of homosexuality is the negation of Quranic mandates only. It is a national offense : it is a crime against humanity. If in the West it has been legalized, it is against their basic cultural ethos, and religious scripts. The Church has always condemned it in a totally unequivocal language," the homophobic man continues.

Hindus, Muslims and Christians are generally at loggerheads, one against the other, but when it comes to gay issues, the conservatives appear to have formed an unholy alliance.

"In India it is not the question of Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh or Parsi culture, but it is the question of the magnificent structure of the grand edifice of our sacred ancient heritage, which we must not allow to be spoiled by these stray dogs-like 'gays' and 'lesbians'. ... With our collective strength, we must show to these happy 'gays' and 'lesbians' that Indian culture is not meant for them, and we cannot allow the Judiciary to make such colossal encroachments on the standards of 'right' and 'wrong' 'moral' and 'immoral' 'modesty' and 'immodesty', harboured by the vast multitudes of the country. ....."

Sherwani styles himself as the chairman of All India Muslim Forum. Just in case someone wants to write to him, his address is Sherwani Nagar, Sitapur Road, Lucknow , U.P. India. His telephones are: 91-9919777909 and 91-522-2733715 and his email is: sherwanimk@yahoo. com.

Another Muslim named Muhammad Mukhtar Alam, a Ph.D. candidate, Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, had written to the chief justice of the Indian Supreme Court on April 15, 2001, not to repeal Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that effectively outlawed homosexuality.

"I would like to strongly oppose the move of Naz Foundation as an anti-children, anti-family and anti-God. Also through my research work, I have proved that environmental factors for the adoption of homosexuality are ignored by all these campaigners of civil liberties while overemphasizing the contribution of genetic determinism.

"Making homosexual act lawful will mean endangering the lives of many children who are being already provided with an overdose of atheistic libertarian values where pre-marital and extramarital affairs do not get denounced, punished and condemned.

Alam said article 377 of the Indian Penal Code deals with the subject of unnatural offences and states that "whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of the nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend upto ten years and shall also be liable to fine".

There is a need to preserve this provision as its deletion even with regard to the homosexuals and lesbians will create problems for the collective social health and individual health, Alam said.

It has been argued, "section 377 creates an arbitrary and unreasonable classification between natural (penile-vaginal) and unnatural (penile-non vaginal) sexual acts that violates article 14's equal protection before and under law".

"Naz foundation is absolutely misguided in mimicking the deviant atheistic intellectual and political currents originating in Europe and US in this regard. Also Naz Foundation is misguiding the court on its understanding of constitutionally recognized minorities.... If there is recognition for sexual minority there can be also a call to recognize the human rights of the thieves and pickpockets to indulge in their smart acts of fooling cheating and looting.

"Instead of calling for help in correcting the deviant behavior an appeal is being made to recognize it as a normal and natural act. All traditional gender roles cannot be denounced.. Atheistic feminist discourse needs to have recognition of the limits that are imposed biologically, ecologically, and morally.

Like theAyatollahs in Iran, Alam was willing to give some relief to male-to-female transgendered people, though he does not seem to have a clear understanding of even the trangender reality. "There is a case for hijras but then there is no case for the homosexuals who have been imitating a deviant and degenerate sexual practice that has been approved in the European and American laws.

"Hijras need a special rehabilitative attention and for them there is no imposition of gender roles, he said in his letter. "Hijra's are sexually challenged with reference to reproductive capacities and there is no imposition of gender roles on them. For homosexuals and lesbians, specific gender roles will continue to be socially desirable as men and women," he wrote.

According to the Naz Foundation petition, the social effects (of article 377) drive gay men underground with a devastating impact upon HIV prevention efforts as "it becomes difficult to identify and target this population for HIV /AIDS prevention efforts through education and provision of medical services".

Alam concedes, "men who have unnatural sex with men cannot be considered to be so ignorant and illiterate. As per journalistic accounts most of the men and women identifying themselves, as gay and lesbian respectively are quite well educated .... It may be noted that there is hardly anything "oriental" about this "orientation". Homosexuality is a product of lack of moral control and absolutely wrong socialization .It is curable. The best cure can be tried by seeking forgiveness for the past sinful deeds."

He deplored homosexuality that is being celebrated and paraded in the dancing halls and bars of the irreverent and atheistic West whereas practice of religion is propagated to be restricted to the privacy of the homes.

Alam's letter betrayed the general misconception propagated against gays that they were pedophiles.

He cited a study conducted by Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association, Shimla, which said working on trucks as cleaners faced sexual abuse at the hands of truckers.. "As per one small study 20% of such children have experienced homosexual atrocities. There are other studies that have shown the involvement of homosexuals in sexual abuse of the children through Internet as well."

Alam argued elimination of the prohibitory provisions of article 377 will further increase the incidence of child sex abuse by male homosexuals.

"IIn UK, there had been a demand by the gays for reducing the age of consent from 18 to 14. Considering the dominance of the atheistic liberal ethos, many children and adults will be become prone to the abuse of homosexuals."

He said as much 70 percent homosexuals had been the victims of sodomy when they were young.

Alam feared if the 377 is repelaed European and US cultural ethos will dominate Indian society.
"There will be a great intellectual confusion. This will also have significant adverse impact in the families where some boys and girls under the persuasion such neo-liberal atheistic "social workers", academics and homosexuals will be called on to "come out of closet" and announce to the families and relatives that they are gay.

Alam went to imply in his letter homosexuality can be cured, saying a study by Dr.Robert Spitzer proved that highly motivated homosexuals could be converted, repudiating the view of the mental health professionals "who have bought the idea that once you are gay you can not be changed."

Alam blamed Michel Focault, author of the three-volume History of Sexuality, and Richard Falk for gay inclusiveness in the West.

"If the petitioners and their tutors think that they are "progressives" then they must recognize that pious Hindus, practicing Muslims, Christians, Jains and Buddhists will continue denouncing them for their misguided understanding and seek correction in attitudes. Considering the history of dissidence this may be noted that appropriation of homosexuality is an instance of the most extreme and worst development in the anti-Christian discourse in Europe that was championed by Michel Foucault who could have excluded gays and lesbians while advocating for better treatment of women, blacks and prisoners."

"But then in his zeal for unearthing the archeology of knowledge he tried to have "limit experience" in the bars with provisions for sadomasochist experiences and liberated the gays and lesbians from the psychiatric label of sexual deviance.

"Formation of groups of lesbians and homosexuals followed later and they have a vision to change the legislation in all societies. Unfortunately, Richard Falk has also included such a change in the existing legislations as part of "humane governance" (Falk, Richard (1995), "Towards a new global politics ,world order model project report of the global civilization initiative", Polity Press Cambridge, UK )

He urged the Indian Supreme Court to severely reprimand for Naz Foundation. "They can do better prevention of AIDS by faith based counseling than seeking legitimacy for deviant sexual acts."

Notwithstanding, the conservatives the Indian gays are celebrating the annulment of the colonial black law.

See link
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090703/jsp/nation/story_11190980.jsp

Homosexuality is not limited to humans only.

[Against that, we know that homosexual and bisexual behaviour is widespread in the animal kingdom, if also under-reported because of the social stigma we humans attach to it.

http://www.blurtit.com/q156672.html].

My salutes to the honorable judges who refused to give in to the pressures of the rightwing -- be they Muslims, Hindus, or Chrstians -- and taking up a correct stand on one of the most pressing and burning human rights issues of the day: gays are equal humans and their lifestyle must be protected under the law.

As an "Indian gay" when I try to describe myself, I find myself passionate about so many things: independence of Baluchistan, protection of environment and ending of nuclear tests, democracy in Burma, equality for queer folks, lessening the gap between haves and have-nots and ending of homelessness, for examples. Still, to paraphrase Simone de Beauvoir, when I tried to explain to myself who I was the first thing that came to my mind is that I am gay.

Yes since I was eight I always dreamed men in all my dreams, baring one. That single, "weird" dream in which I saw member of an opposite sex, encouraged me to get married to a woman: a sin I have not forgiven myself for to this day.

The homophobes can never understand what it is like to be homosexual. It is for many not a matter of choice: some people are born to be gay.

In the US, some estimates say one out of every 10 American is gay. In Communist China, the rumors go, as many as one in four is gay.

Even if there is a total hush-up and people may never identify themselves as gay, same-sex relationships are widespread in the Middle East and South Asia.

An interesting deabte is raging in India eversince the judgment last week:

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/new/NDTV-Show-Special.aspx?ID=213

See the full judgment:

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=12242bac1d26c1d0&mt=application%2Fpdf&pli=1

Back To Top

	India: Gay Relationships Legal - Los Angeles Times	The L.A. Times	Fri Jul 3	0
	Gays not part of God's plan, say religious leaders in India - Catholic, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu (but not Buddhist) leaders speak out against decriminalization	Times of India	Fri Jul 3	5