June-Pride Month and This is What India Needs to Know

Every year global pride day is celebrated on 28^th June, it is celebrated annually in the month of June to honour the 1969 Stonewall riots, and works to achieve equal justice and equal opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ). Although social equality for LGBT people is a shared aim throughout these movements, full LGBT rights are still denied. Some have also campaigned to create LGBT communities or to liberate the general public from biphobia, homophobia, and transphobia. Today, there is a fight for LGBT rights. Today’s LGBT movement is made up of a diverse range of political activism, cultural activity, including lobbying, street marches, social groups, media, art, and research.

HOW DID IT START?

Patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City launched an uprising on June 28, 1969, to protest the widespread police harassment and persecution of LGBT Americans. This rebellion represents the start of a movement to make discriminatory laws and behaviors against LGBT people illegal.

The rebellion sparked the formation of organizations like the Homosexual Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance, which helped to launch an emergent gay rights movement. The first Gay Pride marches were held a year after the Stonewall riots. The Stonewall Inn, which is still a popular nightclub, was named a national monument in 2016.

WHY THE RAINBOW FLAG?

Harvey Milk, one of the first openly homosexual politicians in the United States, commissioned artist and designer Gilbert Baker to create a flag for the city’s planned Pride celebrations in 1978. Baker was inspired by the rainbow to represent the diverse groups that make up the LGBTQ community. Other sexualities on the spectrum, such as bisexuality and pansexuality, and asexuality are represented by a subset of flags.

BRIEF TIMELINE OF LGBTQ MOMENT IN INDIA:

In 1860, when India was under British administration, homosexual intercourse was deemed unnatural and made a criminal offense under Chapter 16, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

After independence, on Nov. 26, 1949, the right to equality was established under Article 14 but homosexuality remained a criminal offense. Decades later, on Aug. 11, 1992, the first known protest for gay rights was conducted. Late in 1999, Kolkata hosted India’s first Gay Pride Parade. The parade, with only 15 attendees, was named Calcutta Rainbow Pride. In 2009, a landmark Delhi High Court decision in the Naz Foundation v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi case held that treating consensual homosexual sex between adults as a crime is a violation of fundamental rights protected by India’s Constitution.

In 2013 the Suresh Kumar Koushal and another v. NAZ Foundation the Supreme Court overturned the Delhi High Court Naz Foundation v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi case and reinstated Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. In 2014 inNational Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, The Supreme Court of India’s landmark ruling declaring transgender people to be the “third gender” affirmed that the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution apply equally to them, and provided them the right to self-identify as male, female, or third gender. In 2015, MP Shashi Tharoor introduced a bill to decriminalize homosexuality but it was rejected by the Lok Sabha. In August 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution in the landmark Puttuswamy judgment. The Court also called for equality and condemned discrimination, stating that the protection of sexual orientation is at the heart of fundamental rights and that LGBT people’s rights are legitimate and based on constitutional principles. This decision was interpreted as implying that section 377 was invalid.

On 6 September 2018,Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India Section 377 was declared illegal by the court “insofar as it criminalizes consensual sexual contact between adults of the same sex.” The five-judge panel included then-Chairman of the Supreme Court of India Dipak Misra, as well as Justices R. F. Nariman, D. Y. Chandrachud, A. M.Khanwilkar, and Indu Malhotra.

In Arun kumar v. The Inspector, the Madras HC held “A marriage solemnized between a male and a transwoman, both professing Hindu religion, is a valid marriage in terms of Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.” Though the court has recognized the marriage, still the centre rejected the plea of granting civil rights to the community as it is against the morals and ethos of the country.

CIVIL RIGHTS TO LGBTQ COMMUNITY STILL A DISTANT DREAM?

The decriminalization of homosexuality is just the tip of the iceberg of the rights that are well deserved by the LGBTQ community. As the LQBTQ community are just ordinary citizens, not granting them civil rights amounts to a deprivation of the right to life and equality under the constitution. Homosexual couples are denied an opportunity to enjoy similar rights and privileges. Being married carries along with it the right to maintenance, right of inheritance, a right to own joint bank accounts and lockers, nominate each other as a nominee in insurance, pension, and gratuity papers, etc. Among other things, in a country where rules are prone to change, registering the wedding also makes things smoother. Further, for a couple to fly abroad on their spouses’ visa and to apply for citizenship in a foreign country, a marriage certificate is mandatory. By not granting the community well-deserved civil rights, is fuelling the already existing discrimination, stigma, and shame in the country. These are speaking proofs of the discrimination, stigma, and shame which plague our nation.

Athlete Santhi Soundarajan earned a medal at the 2006 Asian Games, however, her medal was torn away from her when her identity was uncovered. She eventually succumbed to the heat and committed suicide. The marriage of Leela Namdeo and Urmila Srivastava is a significant event in the LGBTQ community’s history. In 1988, the two policewomen married in a Hindu ceremony that included all of the traditional Hindu rituals. As a result, they were suspended from their jobs but fortunate enough to be supported by their family.

“I Am What I Am, So Take Me as I Am”- CJI Dipak Misra, while pronouncing the verdict partially striking down Section 377 of the IPC, quoted German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe saying

The only way how we as a society can destigmatize the community is by accepting them as who they are and supporting them unanimously so that the legislature acknowledges our progress as a society and grants the community well deserved civil rights and promise of equality.