On September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of India legalised homosexuality in India, but same-sex couple cannot legally marry or obtain civil partnerships. The Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, pertaining consensual sex between people of same gender, was declared unconstitutional.
The court ruled discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a fundamental violation of rights.
Lawyers and activists have maintained that the LGBTQ will obtain real victory only when they secure the right to marriage, inheritance, guardianship and adoption.
While the historic verdict has put India in the list of progressive nations, most people of this country hold a different view on same-sex marriages.
One in four persons find same-sex marriage acceptable in India.
According to the Mood Of The Nation Poll by India Today Magazine, 62 per cent Indians say same-sex marriages are not accepted by them.
BCCL
India is largely a conservative society where prejudices, biases and stereotypes have always taken an centrestage, and the LGBTQ community is no exception. India’s bureaucracy is filled with conservatives. The ministers sitting in the parliament and lawmakers have time and again issued statements, which range from incorrect to abusive.
In December 2013, Yogi Adityanath, the current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said, “Homosexuality is dangerous to social morality. If social norms and boundaries are done away with, then there is not much difference between man and animal…
I feel that to associate this kind of cheap sophistry with religious texts is gross immorality… There should be no social sanction if someone wants to do at a traffic junction what one does at home. It shouldn’t receive any constitutional status either.”
Not undermining the fierce resistance from largely conservative states like UP and Bihar, whose population sizes offer too much political value for politicians to ignore.
AP
In 2013, Subramanian Swamy, BJP member of parliament, said, “As long as they don't celebrate it, don't flaunt it, don't create gay bars to select partners it's not a problem. In their privacy, what they do, nobody can invade but if you flaunt it, it has to be punished & therefore there has to be #Section377 of the IPC.”
Majoritarian views and morality opinions should not hamper the right to equality and cannot dictate constitutional rights. While, there has always been a strong opposition among religious groups and in conservative rural communities when it comes to same-sex relationships, the judgement in favour of the LGBTQ community is a huge victory.