6 september, 2018 is set as the historic date in Indian history because on this date, India joins 125 nations where homosexuality is legal as supreme court decriminalises the sex in same gender in the case named as Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India. The supreme court decriminalised consensual intercourse between persons of the same sex and read down section 377 of the Indian penal code, thus providing a huge boost to the LGBTQ community of India.
India decriminalised this homosexual relationships but till now, 72 countries and territories worldwide still continue to criminalise same sex relationships.
But there are as a whole four different levels of homosexuality followed by different countries which are as follows:
- In some countries, it is totally declared as illegal and directly death penalty is given to such persons. For example – African countries
- In some countries like Pakistan death penalty is not given but the punishment of life time imprisonment is given to such person
- In some countries homosexuality is declared as decriminalised but those person cannot do marriages. Marriage in same gender is still declared as illegal in that countries. Our country india also comes under this category.
- in European countries like Canada, Australia, America, Sweden, Norway etc. homosexuality as well as marriage both are declared as decriminalise.
The supreme court decision to decriminalise the homosexuality is considered as very good decision for LGBTQ community.
LGBTQ
- lesbian- Refers to a homosexual women, or a women who is sexually attracted to other women.
- gay- Refers to homosexual man, or a man who is sexually attracted to other man.
- bisexual- A person who is experiences sexual attraction to both men and women.
- transgender- A person who is assigned into a male sex but identifies as a women may be transgender person. Conversely, a person who has been assigned the female sex at birth and who identifies as a man instead is also be a transgender person.
In india, HIJRA word is also used for transgender and there is somewhat difference between the western interpretation of transgender and Indian interpretation. The Indian hijara community itself is over 4,000 years old. Although many of them have biological and sexual identities same as above mentioned globally recognised LGBT identities, cultural and behavioural differences make it imperative for their recognition as an identity of their own. And also in india there are more strong rights for transgender as compared to other western countries. - queer- queer is a word used for such individual who neither interprets himself as male nor female. So it is in between the male and female, or wholly different from both of them.
Section 377
As per section 377 it was a punishable act to have intercourse with any man, women or animal against the order of nature, meaning homosexuality and bisexuality were both outlawed.
But now, it was declared by the supreme court that, homosexuality is not illegal but the sex with any animal is still considered as a criminal act and against the order of nature.
Reasons to decriminalise homosexuality
Justice khanwilkar held that, the identity of an individual is very mush important irrespective of his sexual orientation, religion or caste etc. should have equal rights and if such person are not treated equal to other people of the society then there will be the violation of their fundamental rights guaranteed by article 14, 15 and 21 of the constitution and also it will be against the dignity of that person. So sexual orientation of each individual in the society must be protected on an even platform because it is totally a biological process and it is not in the hands of anyone to choose the sex of particular order.
References
https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/article-377-of-ipc-decriminalising-homosexuality-a-wrong-is-righted-118122800018_1.html
https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/o5TVfO7DY1vrs75aY94BTP/Life-after-Section-377.html
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/what-is-section-377/articleshow/66067994.cms
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