Same-gender sex no longer a crime in India's capital city
The Times of India is calling it "India's Gay Day." A ruling on Thursday overturned a colonial law nearly 150 years old that describes sex acts between two persons of the same gender in India's capital city as an "unnatural offense."
Homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence. Many people in India regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. Rights groups have long argued that the law contravened human rights.A clarification from an earlier iteration of this blog post: The ruling only applies to India's capital city of Delhi. Sex acts between two men or two women is, if I'm reading this right, still a crime in the rest of India.
India media hails gay sex ruling (BBC). See also: Mumbai gays' long fight for recognition (BBC). Below: image from WAtoday: "A eunuch kisses another member of the transgender, gay and lesbian communities as they celebrate the Indian court decision." (thanks, Antinous!)
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that film clip looks to be possibly from a famous 80's Hindi film that while not actually *intentionally* gay-themed, became popular with the Indian GLT community for its *effectively* gay-theme.
Mind you, i suspect its hard for many outsiders looking inwards at Hindi/Tamil/etc language cinema not to be struck by the possible campness in some films. Salman Khan's movie costumes are a particular example of this...
a nitpic; gender = mental, sex = physical.
How wonderful, and unexpected! hurray!
Congratulations to one sixth of the world's GLBT population.
Abolishing all colonial laws might be a good thing for India, bad thing for England. Love and Light
I'm curious as to how these laws applied to hijra/khusra/jankha.
http://www.beyondthepinkcurtain.com/
Great documentary made by a friend of mine recently about the LGBT community's problems in Eastern Europe.
#2 - Not sure exactly where you arrive at your rather poor interpretation of gender/sex. Gender is a set of classes. Sex is a class or set determining gender type. This is often used in reference to reproductive functions (to HAVE sex) but is primarily used to determine gender. Coitus is the physical act between two individuals of the opposite sex. Sexual intercourse is the physical sexual contact between two individuals (regardless of gender) involving the genitalia of at least one of the individuals ...
I could go on but you get my point. Were you sleeping during sex-ed?
#5 Keharr-Wakey,Wakey! we are in the 21st.century don't you know.History 101 reveals that July 18th
will mark 62yrs of Indian independance.Any laws in
Indian jurisprudence,that have been retained from
previous administrations,are the choice of those that,unlike you, do not have a "colonial chip" on their shoulder.Anything positive that improves the lives of the Indian people, will be a good thing for the world at large and that includes the the Brits[England is only a part of Britain- see Geography 101] Use a little of that Love and see the Light and get a Life.
Gratz to the dudes and ladies who love dudes and ladies respectively of India.
Of course, as long as they're still the major proponents behind good curry, they can make out with table lamps for all I care. Love comes and goes, but good tikka masala is forever.
Wow, here's something I thought would never happen: I agree with everyone on the BBC's "Have your say" board, which normally seems exclusively populated by reactionary, angry xenophobes. But the "most popular" comments are all heartily in favour of gay rights. Awesome. Must be a sign of the apocalypse.
@Kehaar
I agree with wizardofplum: speaking as a (non-English) Brit, I'm heartily in favour of old, oppressive laws being thrown out. Nearly a sixth of the world's population suddenly have the freedom to date whoever makes the happy? I'd call that a huge win.
Thinking about it, even if I did have delusions of the UK still ruling India I'd be fine with this change, as it's actually aligning them closer with current UK law then they were before. Mwahahahahaaaa!!!... etc.
Sadly, this only applies to one area. But it's a step forward
This applies only to tiny Delhi state - a bit over 1% of India. This decision of Delhi High Court to declare parts of Sec 377 of criminal code dealing with private sexual preferences of consenting adults as violating 3 separate articles of Constitution.
These acts are still illegal in most of India, though the pundits are saying courts elsewhere might use Delhi High Court judgment as a precedent.
Also, today's Bombay newspapers are full of speculation that this judgment will be challenged in Supreme Court. Which can stay it immediately. Only Supreme Court judgment applies to all of India, & even then, the parliament can bring in a new law that continues to keep it illegal. Current parliament seems to be seriously divided on the issue.
There is still a silver lining. Supreme Court will still be the final arbitrator of whether any further parliamentary act violates the constitution.
This has been just the first step - bringing a taboo subject in the open. There's still a long way to go.
that clip is from Sholay I believe, from the 70s, and is not gay-themed at all. The translation is of course, a goof. It may seem there's a gay subtext but in India straight male friends often hold hands and this is not considered gay.
@HotPepperman.
"Were you sleeping during sex-ed?"
Well, he was certainly awake during English class.
Yes, the language is always in flux. But gender has usually been a property of words, not of people. Vets "sex" an animal, they don't "gender" it to find out about it. Flowers may come in one of two sexes. People still (usually) express a sexual preference, not a gender preference.
In the past, "gender" as a replacement for "sex" was largely done by people who had some aversion to using the word "sex", even to mean precisely what it meant. (I will NOT say this was done by librarians - I know some librarians!!!)
I don't have a problem with humans deciding this class has more than the stereotypical two members in it. But there's a useful distinction between "gender for language" and "sex for animals, plants and people".
I will also point out a Google-count...
"same-sex" 11,300,000 results
"same-gender" 722,000 results
Clearly, "same-sex" is the heavily preferred term.
#1
Just a little more detail for anyone curious, it's from the hugely popular 70's "curry western" Sholay: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholay (with some added subtitles of course).
This was one of the first films screened and produced in India with stereo sound, leading the way for the Bollywood music-spectacles of today!
Gender is a performance.
"Gender is a set of classes. Sex is a class or set determining gender type."
I must have missed those classes. More seriously, how can the class "sex" determine membership in the class "gender" if there exist those who break your pretty little rules?
The role that you play as "man" or "woman" is a socially constructed role that you enact. The problem is that the cisgendered tend to conflate their natal sex with their gender identity because there is no need for them to distinguish the two. For the transgendered however the gap between our constructed gender roles and our natal sex is more apparent.
as is noted here, the ruling only applies to india's capital. it's still a great and important victory, obviously, but gay sex is still illegal in the rest of india, which has approx. 12 gajillion people in it, most of whom do not live in Delhi.
but still, yay!
I am a man who lives in a female body. When I have sexual intercourse with a man, it is opposite-sex but same-gender. I don't think India would have cared who I had intercourse with under their old laws. The only change from this decision is about body parts; India would not have cared who I had intercourse with under their old laws.
Transgender and transsexual are the caboose on the LGBT train in more than just the order of the letters. We are used to dealing with ignorance and discomfort from even other queers. I don't take offense when people don't understand when I meet them, but I am extremely annoyed with people who refuse to accept that there is a difference between brain and body when it is explained to them (even when I point to Real Science that backs it up).
Social clue: When you are corrected by people who know it because they live it live it and and don't just rely on a primary school grammar text, you should say "I did not know that. Thank you for explaining." Certainly don't presume to lecture that person on how zir brain is really wired.
"decriminalize" is not a synonym for "legalize."
"decriminalize" means to reduce or eliminate punishments for a still illegal act.
the Delhi court declared homosexuality was not an illegal act - they didn't decriminalize, they legalized.
there is a difference.
@Blank Look;
Then do I understand that you also object to the wording in the title and the post?
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@ Chris S.
Technically, it is now "sexual orientation" and not "sexual preference" though I'm generally forgiving of people mixing the terms. The reason for this, of course, is the attempt to avoid validating the conservative view that homosexuality is a choice or "preference." Therefore, the terms "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" are ever so slightly more socially appropriate. But I definitely appreciate your comments.
Chris @ 21:
Yes, I do think that the title. You might have noticed that I didn't reference a specific post or poster in my comment.
Jaysus, clearly my internal proofreader has taken the holiday off. I think that the post title is incorrect.
meanwhile, in less developed nations
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/05/michael-nazirali-church-o_n_225931.html