The organisers of LGBT Pride March say that over 14,500 members came to the event to lend their support. (Source: Queer Azadi Mumbai/Facebook)
If you go to the streets and ask any Indian person on their opinion on homosexuality, you are likely to hear one of the below responses:
1: Supportive people who actually talk positive things about homosexuality
2: The classic “No Comments”
And last but not least my favourite
3: “Homosexuality is a “Western” concept” followed by some homophobic BS.
Now, to all those people who say homosexuality is a western concept when was the last time you read about Indian LGBTQ history? I’m guessing never. In the Vedas and older books, there is not only a mentioning but even depiction of homosexuality.
Now when the westerners (British) invaded our country, they left behind a lot of changes. One of these changes included the infamous section 377. This section of law outlawed all forms of homosexuality terming it “irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary“. So you could call oppression and nonsensical lawmaking a western concept.
This was about the West. Now coming to the eastern side of things. In the past, our society was based on oppression and segregation. And how much ever we try to disregard this fact, things like Sati and the Caste System are there to remind us. The repercussions of which are still seen today. So, our society wasn’t perfect and neither was British society, 150 years ago.
Leaving The Past And Moving To The Present
Let’s have a look at our present times. The British have outlawed their version of section 377 and have started to accept homosexuality as it is. Similarly, our society has also seen changes but our changes are more in the lawbooks than in the mindset. A year ago, the Indian judiciary took a historical step and erased section 377 of the Indian Constitution which was a huge step towards acceptance in the Indian society.
Now, what we require is a change in mindset. We followed what the British left 150 years ago until last year. So it would make sense to accept homosexuality because that’s what they are doing. Yet, we see incidents such as suicide, corrective rape and assault when we read LGBT+ news. From the past few years, we have been witnessing changes but these are far more minuscule than those required because if change keeps taking place at this rate, we are going to lose many more lives in the LGBTQ+ community.