NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF STUDY AND RESEARCH IN LAW

RANCHI

EFFECT OF SOCIETY ON LGBTQI+ COMMUNITY

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

ARUSHI SINGH DR. JESU KETAN PATNAIK

SEMESTER III ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
SECTION A
ROLL NUMBER:859

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 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM

"All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement.
We are no more - and no less - heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the
19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators,
and environmentalists of the 20th century. We are ordinary people, living our lives,
and trying as civil-rights activist Dorothy Cotton said, to 'fix what ain't right' in our
society."--Senator Tammy Baldwin.

LGBTQ is not unknown to us anymore. Even though our pace of accepting and
respecting the acronym is slow. LGBTQ movement started around the 80s with the
advent of the AIDs. Nobody actually knows when the term ‘LGBTQ’ came into
existence. The term ‘homosexual’, when it came to existence, was used as a
derogatory term. Thus was replaced by ‘homophile’ in the 1950s and 1960s. Which
was in turn replaced by the term ‘gay’ in the 1970s. Although there was a point where
the term ‘sexual minority’ by Lars Ullersman was used. With no time, the words
‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ came into existence, became household ‘controversial’ names.

Throughout the world, these people have had to face the worst discrimination. Even
when governments, all over the world have tried their level best to bring amends, the
society still hesitates before accepting them.

For a country like India, the process of acceptance is very slow as compared to other
nations. India is a land of various traditions and customs where the primitive customs
have not entirely left us. Thus LGBT community is looked down upon by us. This has
a very serious repercussions on the people of the LGBT community as they face
various issues because of that. From not getting education to being kicked out of their
houses and families for the same. That’s not all,because of this societal pressure most
of the people never come of the closet and face severe identity crisis and the mental
health issues related to that.

Thus, its important that people in this country, whether rural or urban realise this
problem and come together to solve this crisis.

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 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

This paper mainly explores the LGBTQI+ community and how public consciousness
governs them. The extensive study has been carried out in the Indian Subcontinent.
The research mainly focuses on the topic of contextual identity development and the
problems faced by LGBTQI+ community. To conduct this study, both qualitative and
quantitative approaches were used. Along with that, through this study we also talk
about the social stigma and how the society can be more open and accepting to them.
The paper also gives instance purview of what is this and how it carried out and what
are the challenges they are facing at all.

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 LITERATURE REVIEW
For this research, various articles from USA as well as India were referred. Even though our
research was mostly based on Indian society, articles from USA gave a better perspective
towards how society plays an integral part in the lives of LQBTQI+ spectrum. Works referred
to were written in the span of 2014-19 because this is the time where the LGBTQI+
movement started gaining momentum in India. Regions like Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bihar
have been given special attention, as to show the variation in the societal trends in these
regions.
 Leon &Guerrero(2016). Sociological Prespectives on Sexual Orientation and
Inequality,Chapter:5.
The paper was an extensive study of the effect of society on the sexual orientation of
the LGBTQI+ people. Under various surveys and interviews conducted, this paper
also highlights the societal pressure which forces these people to stay closeted
forever. However, the paper mainly covers the high end metropolitan cities, and thus
the scope of the research becomes rather limited.

 Karan Jajal (2017). A study on LGBTQ community.

This paper was an extensive study on the LGBT people, living in the city of
Ahemdabad. The paper shows a great variation of the sociological changes in the posh
and less developed part of the city and how LGBT people tackle with that everyday.
However, the scope of the paper is very limited as it covers only one city and is of
little help in our research as the prime objective here is to cover the whole of country
in a very broad sense.

 Ananya Das(2018) Analysis Of LGBTQ rights in India.

The paper talks about the trans bill and the decriminalisation section 377 IPC. The
paper prime focus is on the fact that why the LGBTQ+ people need representation and
what is the need of the awareness in the Indian society. But the paper was a legal
paper, so there was little knowledge about the sociological perspective.

 Aniruddha Dutta (2017) Undoing the Metronormative: Urban-Rural Exchange within

LGBT Communities in Eastern India.
The paper covers the society of Eastern India mainly West Bengal, Bihar and
Jharkhand. The paper is an excellent example of sociological disintegration and evils
related to that. The paper also covers a comparative study between the urban and rural
LGBTQ communities and how they differ from the Metropolitan cities, for example:
Mumbai.

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 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 To find out the approx. population of LGBT people in rural community
 To Find out the approx. population of LGBT people in urban community
 To find out the differences in the living standards and the amount of societal pressure
faced by them.
 To find out the extent to which the society plays a role in determining the sexual
orientation of LGBT people
 To find out an effective suggestive solution to the problem.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
 The percentage of people who come under the LGBT is not accurate.
 Most people of the LGBT community never come out due to societal pressure.
 Society plays a key role in determining the sexual orientation of the people.
 The people living in the urban area are more open to confronting their sexuality.
 The people living in the rural area are less comfortable to confronting their sexuality.

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 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

 FUNCTIONALIST THEORY
Talcott Parsons believe that order, stability and cooperation in society are based on value
consensus that is a general agreement by members of society concerning what is good and
worthwhile. Stratification system derives from common values it follows from the existence
of values that individuals will be evaluated and therefore placed in some form of rank order.
Stratification is the ranking of units in a social system in accordance with the common value
system. Those who perform successfully in terms of society's values will be ranked highly
and they will be likely to receive a variety of rewards and will be accorded high prestige
since they exemplify and personify common values. According to Kingsley Davis and Moore
stratification exists in every known human society. All social system shares certain functional
prerequisites which must be met if the system is to survive and operate efficiently. One such
prerequisite is role allocation and performance. This means that all roles must be filled. They
will be filled by those best able to perform them. The necessary training for them is
undertaken and that the roles are performed conscientiously. Davis and Moore argue that all
societies need some mechanism for insuring effective role allocation and performance. This
mechanism is social stratification which they see as a system which attaches unequal rewards
and privileges to the positions in society. They concluded that social stratification is a device
by which societies insure that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the
most qualified persons.

 FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE

Feminist theory uses the conflict approach to examine the reinforcement of gender roles and
inequalities.Conflict posits that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society, with
inequality perpetuated because it benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.
Radical feminism, in particular, evaluates the role of the patriarchy in perpetuating male
dominance. In societies, the male’s perspective and contributions are considered more
valuable, resulting in the silencing and marginalization of the woman. Feminism focuses on
the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of
relationships based on the assertion of male supremacy.

 SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Sociologists focus on a sociological perspective in understanding how people develop

awareness of self and about our culture. From a sociological perspective, we cannot form a
self or personal identity without intense social contact with others. The Sex education helps
us understand our bodies in a better way. Sex was not a taboo in tribal culture but the
influence of other cultures inculcated this concept in the tribal culture as well. Thus,
imparting sex education is a way through which this misconception can be removed as
knowing the biological needs of a human being forms a part of self realization.

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

The study is mostly based only on the primary sources, i.e. field study but also takes inputs
from secondary sources of data, i.e., reviewing the available literatures. Research data,
particularly in quantitative studies (i.e. current study) is collected according to a structured
plan that indicates what information is to be gathered and how to gather it The primary source
includes first hand data collected from the village with the aid of the interview schedule
designs formulated for various stakeholders including the various Schools, local village
families, infrastructure of village.

The literature reviewed includes:-

• Various newspaper reports on Educational policies and curicullum.

• Reports by surveying agencies & their provided data.
• The various programmes undertaken by the government in rural are and its output results.
• Various studies and articles that throw light on the Education issues in rural areas.

 RESEARCH DESIGN
It is the best structure or the systematic plan of the project, a blueprint and method of working
of the research. In the present research, explanatory research design is used. This design tries
to establish various relation between various variables by means of hypothesis testing. It is a
type of qualitative research design focusing on casualty ie establishing cause and effect
relation.

 SAMPLE SIZE

A sample size is a small portion of a population selected for observation and analysis. So
much care has been taken while selecting the sample for study.

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.

PROPOSED CHAPTERISATION
1. INTRODUCTION
2. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
5. THEOROTICAL FRAMEWORK
6. RESEARCH METHODOLGY
7. STATISTICAL DATA RELATED TO PEOPLE OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY
8. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DATA IN URBAN AND RURAL INDIA
9. ROLE OF SOCIETY//SOCIETAL EVILS AND GENDER ROLES
10. SOLUTIONS
11. CONCLUSION

REFERENCES
 Leon &Guerrero(2016). Sociological Prespectives on Sexual Orientation and
Inequality,Chapter:5.
 Karan Jajal (2017). A study on LGBTQ community
 Ananya Das(2018) Analysis Of LGBTQ rights in India.
 Aniruddha Dutta (2017) Undoing the Metronormative: Urban-Rural Exchange within
LGBT Communities in East India
 Homosexuality in India- The Invisible Conflict- Anuradha Prassar.
 Denno (1985), “Sociological and Human Developmental Explanations of Crime:
Conflict or Consensus”, Journal of Criminology of university of Pennsylvania, Vol.
23, p 711
 Banerji, Rita (2008): Sex and Power. Defining History, Shaping societies, New Delhi:
Penguin.

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