India's top court legalises gay sex in landmark ruling

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India's top court legalises gay sex in landmark ruling

By Alasdair Pal

 

FILE PHOTO: A participant stands behind a rainbow flag during a gay pride parade promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, in Chennai, India June 24, 2018. REUTERS/P. Ravikumar

 

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's top court scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex on Thursday in a landmark judgement that activists hope will uphold the right to equality.

 

Gay sex is considered taboo by many in socially conservative India, and was reinstated as a criminal offence in 2013 after four years of decriminalisation.

 

A five-judge bench in India's Supreme Court was unanimous in overturning the ban.

 

"Any consensual sexual relationship between two consenting adults - homosexuals, heterosexuals or lesbians - cannot be said to be unconstitutional," said the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, as he read out the judgement.

 

Gay sex had been punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

 

Activists welcomed the ruling.

 

"Thanks to all that fought for this, braving the worst sort of prejudice. This is a good day for human rights," Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch said on Twitter.

 

"It is not only about decriminalising but recognising our fundamental rights," Akhilesh Godi, one of the petitioners in the case, told Reuters shortly before the judgement was announced.

 

The judges in the case had previously said that gay people in India faced deep-rooted trauma and live in fear.

 

A law known as "Section 377" had prohibited "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal" - which was widely interpreted to refer to homosexual sex.

 

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal, additional reporting by Suchrita Mohanty and and Malini Menon; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Robert Birsel)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-09-06

[DM07]

Now, if they could stop mass- raping little girls and women, things would begin to look okay...

[Esso49]

9 minutes ago, DM07 said:

Now, if they could stop mass- raping little girls and women, things would begin to look okay...

Yes but it appears to be second only to cricket as their favorite pastime so may take some time.

[sharpjwe]

Gay rights at last 

the law 377 is a remnant form colonial times still pleages the commonwealth countries  revoke 377 worldwide 

criminalize religions that discriminate against LGBT 

we are born LGBT gods are cultural man made lies

[KMartinHandyman]

India tourism numbers are about to explode.

[newnative]

Bravo.

[Jingthing]

India is indeed a big one but keep in mind still criminalized in 69 countries and two of Thailand's direct neighbors Malaysia and Myanmar.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/07/health/same-sex-relationships-worldwide-list-trnd/index.html

 

Quote

 

India has struck down a colonial-era law punishing consensual gay sex, but there are still 69 other countries with laws on the books that criminalize same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults.

Some countries, such as Papua New Guinea and the United Arab Emirates, jail people in openly same-sex relationships for decades. And in Iran, Sudan and Yemen, they can end up on death row.

 

 

[UPDEHSOI]

On 9/8/2018 at 1:23 AM, Jingthing said:

India is indeed a big one but keep in mind still criminalized in 69 countries and two of Thailand's direct neighbors Malaysia and Myanmar.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/07/health/same-sex-relationships-worldwide-list-trnd/index.html

 

 

SIXTY NINE countries?? What an interesting number.

[Jingthing]

SIXTY NINE countries?? What an interesting number.

If you're in grade school.

 

 

Anyway this source says 71.

 

Thanks a bunch British Empire!

 

 

The homophobic legacy of the British Empire

 

 

https://edition-m.cnn.com/2018/09/11/asia/british-empire-lgbt-rights-section-377-intl/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F

 

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