SEXUAL MINORITIES: THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY

NAME: OJASWITA DAS

ROLL NO.-59
 INTRODUCTION
• In the month of February the Valentine month, where every other
people are celebrating their love , every year thousands of people of the
sexual Community gather for a march, to celebrate LGBT Pride just for
the sake of their acceptance.

• There’s one such hindi poetry which says “ Mai kisse jakar kahu haal-e-
dil apna, Mere dukh se waakif to meri Maa bhi nahi hai”. Where their
own home itself turns out to be a place where they fear to unfold their
gender reality truth, where even the mother who gave them birth
doesn’t accept them; how will the world embrace them?”. There is no
space within their Family to express a non-heterosexual alternative.

• If someone has to live while holding an integral aspect of

themselves, then it is as good as being dead because nobody talks
about dead people.
 SECTION 377
INDIAN PENAL
CODE
• Legal Discrimination against the sexuality minorities takes place in many forms, the most notorious
being Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a British colonial Legislation criminalizing homosexual
behavior, that continues to be in the Indian statute book although it has long since been removed from
the British statute book.

• Section 377 reads: Of unnatural offences: Whoever voluntarily has Carnal intercourse against the order
of nature with any man, woman, Or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description
For a term which may extend to 10 years and also be liable to fine.

• Section 377 is repugnant on a number of counts, the main ones being: The definition of “unnatural
offences” is obsolete. It invites questions such as What is “the order of nature”? As conceived by
whom?
• This section is almost always used to target sexuality minority populations as they are erroneously seen
as the only ones to perform ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature.
 OTHER GROUNDS OF
LEGAL DISCRIMINATION
• End of the Decriminalization of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 doesn’t solve nature the hurdle which
they are facing, they’re still devoid of the fundamental rights, other personal laws like marriage, adoption, divorce
etc.
• Person in the LGBT community are allowed to get married and adopt children but neither they are protected
against the violence of domestic abuse or rape in case of a live-in relationship.
• Two couples are not even recognized then there is no question of even getting the maintenance or restitution of
conjugal rights . These are the citizens of Indian nation and the kind of treatment they are getting since years are
inhumane.
• Section 375 and section 376 of The Indian Penal Code does not apply to the people belonging to the community of
LGBT as the couples who are gay and lesbian are not protected against rape under IPC as the sexual orientation is
not even recognized in any law. If rape against women or men is heinous why is it not heinous against these
minorities? Isn’t this inhumane? Actually, “There is nothing wrong with them. There’s a lot wrong with the world
they live in.”
HISTORICAL TRACES
OF HOMOSEXUALITY
Vikriti Evam Prakriti written in Rig Veda means that Whatever is
unnatural is also natural . And the Scholars believe that this
reflects the homosexual relations between the humans at that
point of time .If laws are supposed to represent socially
acceptable dos and don’ts, then a new mindset is the need of
the hour. Otherwise, normal human beings will continue to
suffer inhuman exploitation just because nature has nourished
them with the need to be different.
 MYTHOLOGICAL TRACES OF
HOMOSEXUALITY

LORD SHIVA BECAME ARDHANARESHWAR AGNI THE GOD OF FIRE MARRIED BOTH TO THE
HALF A MAN AND HALF A WOMAN. GODDESS SWAHA AND THE MALE MOON
GOD SOMA WITH AGNI .
 STAGNATION IN THE LAW
MAKING POWER OF
LEGISLATURE

Moreover, When countries like Australia decided to make the laws on LGBTQ, they
conducted voting across the nation. More than 60 percent of the Australians voted,
that there should be law relating to LGBTQ for their civil rights. Still the registration of
the same sex couple still not done in Australia . The government sitting in the
Parliament when it comes to its own agenda the bill passes within a day but when the
fundamental rights of the Citizen are concerned the bill get lapsed.
 CONTEMPORARY OUTLOOK

In near future the stereotype attitude of society for marriage as heterosexual institution associated with procreation
and rearing of children may also include homosexual marriages where love between the Partners will be given
importance rather than the gender. Then the failure to acknowledge the changing nature Of society and the family will
result in more harm than good. Although it is long to go for this to happen. The demand for legalising homosexual
marriages is giving birth to a new conflict in the institution of Marriage, family and Law which cannot be denied. But at
the same time it can have fatal results if not handled sensitively. So, it is high time for the Legislature, Executive,
Judiciary and Society at large that they cannot demean the voice of such populous. For all of us , accepting these sexual
minorities and giving them the rights they deserve may be a matter of swimming against the current of binarism, but
for them it is a rightful and deserving rebirth of identity.
 THANK YOU
WE HAVE TO BE VISIBLE.
WE SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF
WHO WE ARE.
~ MARSHA P JHONSON