Time for India to Legalize Gay Marriage
Many progressives and liberals in America were stunned when on July 21st the President of Argentina Christina Fernandez de Kirchner signed into law a bill legalizing gay marriage. Argentina became the first South American country and the tenth country overall to legalize gay marriage. Many Americans could not believe that a developing nation like Argentina would legalize gay marriage before the so-called liberal democracies like the United States, Great Britain and France.
As a citizen of the United States it surprises me that this great country that was home to visionaries, leaders and humanitarians like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King is now on the outside looking in when it comes to one of the most important civil rights issues of our times.
The issue of marriage is a state issue in the United States unlike in India. Many progressive states including New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont have legalized gay marriage. Some other states like New Jersey allow for “civil unions” for gay couples but not marriage. But when it comes to the attitude towards the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenders) community Indians and Americans are very similar.
Most polls on this issue indicate that about 60% of Indians oppose gay marriage. But this is not bad as it looks. Only a year has passed since the Delhi High Court passed a truly historic verdict declaring that parts of British era Article 377 that criminalizes gay sex is unconstitutional. Many gay couples got married assuming that this verdict meant that gay marriage was legal in India (it is not). Initially the government of India informed the courts that it will appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court of India. Today it looks very likely that the government will let the court ruling stand.
The Delhi High Court verdict is more symbolic than anything else. In independent India not a single person has been charged under Article 377 of the IPC for participating in gay sexual activity. In addition Indian society has a very complicated relationship with the gay community. There is very little in Indian culture or traditions to indicate an antagonistic attitude towards the LGBT community existed.
On the contrary there is a lot of evidence in scripture, architecture and art to indicate that the India of the past was far more accepting of people of different sexual orientation than Indians of today. The prudish Indian attitude today towards sexuality in general is more of a reflection of conservative Victorian and Catholic values imposed on the people by the British and the Portuguese than anything else. Remember it is India that wrote the definitive book on human sexual behavior called the Kamasutra over 2000 years ago.
There are many reasons provided by conservative and ill-informed Indians about gay marriage. Some of the common reasons are: 1) Marriage is between a man and a woman (a concept that was tattooed into Indian brains by our European colonizers. But promiscuity and having multiple spouses is fairly common among Indians of all backgrounds). 2) Marriage is for procreation (gay people can procreate and what about older couples or straight couples who do not want to have kids. Should we create a law that states that married couples should have kids or that woman outside childbearing age or infertile individuals cannot marry?).
Other reasons are: 3) Gay couples cannot be appropriate parents (Indian law allows murders, rapists and corrupt politicians to have kids. The government even allows child marriage to take place although it is against the law. So in this environment why shouldn’t law abiding gay couples adopt or raise children?). 4) If we allow gay marriage what about polygamy and bestiality? Polygamy is already legal for members of certain community in India. Marrying animals is also in our tradition (recently a bride married a dog before marrying her groom because the family astrologer felt that her first husband is likely to die!!).
Throwing bestiality and other forms of relationships into the picture is an example of reductio ad absurdum. This is a strategy to create fear. Why didn’t society think about this issue before straight people were given the right to get married? When a straight person uses this argument it shows an anti-gay attitude and not a pro-marriage attitude.
India probably has anywhere between 50 million to 75 million people who belong to the LGBT community (this number is almost half the population of Muslims in India and more than the population of Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains combined). There is no reason for us not to give these people the same rights and privileges that we take for granted. Let us not end up on the wrong side of history along with the United States, France and Britain.
“Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?” – Ernest Gaines
Related posts:
- Indian Police Act as Marriage Counselors
- Arranged Marriage is Not Fashionable Anymore!
- Immorality & Live-In Relationship
- Muslim Board to Dissuade Divorces Among Indian Muslims
- India and America Have Similar Attitudes towards Nudity
Category: Culture & Religion