Atrocious. India's Supreme Court has overturned a 2009 High Court ruling that had decriminalized gay sex, and now once again homosexual acts are illegal, punishable by up to ten years in prison. It was one of the judges' last day on the bench before retirement. The BBC adds:
"Correspondents say although the law has rarely - if ever - been used to prosecute anyone for consensual sex, it has often been used by the police to harass homosexuals. Also, in deeply conservative India, homosexuality is a taboo and many people still regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says some politicians have spoken out against the court decision - but many believe it is going to be difficult for them to take on the anti-gay lobby."
You can thank Colonialism: Priggish, officious white Brits introduced anti-sodomy laws to India 153 years ago. (Six decades later, E.M. Forster perfectly captured their peevish superiority -- and hints of how the oppressed can internalize and perpetuate the worst traits of their oppressors -- in A Passage to India.)
For the more recent, more authentic gay Indian experience (including the Indian immigrant experience) read Rahul Mehta's Quarantine
This year, Minal Hajratwala published thirty writers in Out! Stories from the New Queer India or get her earlier memoir Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents.
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