India Taking a Step Forward

Today was a monumental day in the lives of many Indian men and women.  The Supreme Court has overruled it's previous decision from 2013, and has now decriminalised gay sex in India.  This is possibly the largest decriminalisation verdict ever, with an estimated LGBT population of 78 million in India, who have been living in fear of being imprisoned for far too long.

Section 377 of the law stated that a same-sex relationship was an unnatural offence and was punishable with up to 10 years in prison. Which means that many millions of Indians have been living in fear, living in a culture of closeted lives with many relatives believing that being gay was a mental illness.  Many of the hard right supporters in India have been vocal in saying that it is a product of the western influence in India and have rallied hard for the this law change to stopped.  However, the current government has stayed out of this recent debate and have said that they would let the court do it's job.  And so it has !

The result of having such a law was that most people were scared of reporting harassment or injuries in case they were procsicuated under Section 377.  Part of the court documents provided was a summary from a LGBT charity that found that less than 20% of surveyed people had actually openly spoken to friends and family about their sexuality.  They were worried about being shamed, injured or even worse.  Those numbers are terrifying.

Neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka, Bangaldesh and Pakistan still have similar laws in place and will be looking to this change in India to assist with progress there too.  With India being the largest democracy in the world it needed to have this ruling.  It should be noted that this change to Section 377 only makes being gay legal, not to the legalisation of gay marriage.  Support for further change is strong and will hopefully gather momentum with this latest victory.