Sexual minorities in India fight archaic law

Thanks for dropping by my blog.  The videos came as a surprise to me, too. I started the blog thinking I would always be short on topics. I'm happy to find out that I was wrong. Progress is slow on our side of the planet but at least it's taking place. Looking forward to more of your entries :)

Max

http://www.popmaxnow.com

Welcome Kalki! I am sorry I missed this comment. You have a wonderful  blog.

Yes, changing an old law has always been a challenge in India. I am glad things are coming out in the open.

...I didn't either, Max. Thanks to the growing activism, now I do. I like the videos you posted on your blog. I hadn't seen them earlier.

Thank you for stopping by :)

I know this is an old post but I still found it useful. I just posted something about section 377 in my blog a few days ago. I didn't know how badly it affected the lgbt community in India until I saw your link for the article in Times Of India. I loved the other links at the bottom of your post, too. Very, very, VERY helpful! Thank you so much. :)

Max

http://www.popmaxnow.com

 The section 377 of the Indian Penal code should be repealed as it is an outdated law written by Lord Macaulay in 1860. It was actually repealed in England from where it originated in the 1960s. In India we still have this confusing law which does not differentiate sex between two consenting adults and rape. 

 There needs to be a seperate and clear law and same sex partners need to be recognised legally.

Kalki

http://www.sahodari.org

Nita, I agree it will be a while before we come around to it, but I am glad that somebody has thought it worthwhile to take this issue to court, and the supreme court had asked that it be heard.

And I also agree that even if this law changes, it will be more on health grounds (HIV/AIDS prevention) than on any sense of justice or euqality.

Thanks for pointing out the technical issues. Yes, I too land up on my profile page instead of the article! If it's not a big deal for you, maybe you can get an RSS feed of my posts? That's what I do with your blog. 

About the search, what term are you searching for? Try searching for my entire name (first and last) as one word.

Or, one easy way of getting to all my posts is this address:

http://www.blogher.com/blog/snigdhasen

Hope this helps! Meanwhile, I'll ask my editors and tech ladies about it.

Thanks Nita! 

It's sad isn't it, the gay laws in India. I guess it's going to take years for us to become liberal about this. You are right, it is percieved as a threat to family and also to "culture." In India we are at a stage where even minis skirts are considered a threat to Indian culture, and we are a long way off from accepting gays. I would give it another 50 years at least before anyone will even sit down and discuss this rationally in the government!

By the way, once I sign in it's very difficult for me to come back to your page. Usually I come to your article via google reader and then realise I have to sign in. Once I do that, I find that the page does not take me automatically to what I was reading and even searching for your name does not take me to your latest posts.

Nita ( http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/ )

It's sad to read that the lesbian couple who killed themselves were from Chennai. Tamil Nadu has shown the way forward for the rest of the country when it comes to recognising transgenders:

Tamil Nadu universities to teach third genders ( http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id... )

While what Sanjukta says(the quoted portion) is true, the same applies to women as well. The heterosexual women in a patriarchal society believe that a woman is not "complete" unless she experiences motherhood atleast once in her lifetime. Unfortunately, women are brainwashed into believing that they are not "complete" unless they give birth to a child, so they go through unbelievable mental torture if they are not able to bear a child, not to speak of the physical torture in the form of "fertility treatments". As long as women are viewed by other women as child-bearers, lesbians have no hope at all.

Raj ( http://analienearthling.wordpress.com )

Snigdha, though Tamil society has always been a patriarchal society, women were given adequate respect. But now, things are changing for the better with respect to women's rights in Tamil Nadu. Tamils gave up surnames because they were usually the names of the castes and sub-castes. Modern Tamil names have two components - a first name and a father's name or initials that represent the father's name. A married woman used to change her initials after marriage i.e. replace her father's name/initial(s) with that of her husband. Now, a married woman may just add her husband's name/initial(s) to her name or may not make any change to her name at all, just like married men. If men do not make any change to their names after marriage, why should women? For instance, my mother only uses my grandfather's(her father's) name/initial after her name and not that of my father(her husband).

I don't know if you have heard about this, but some time ago, the law in Tamil Nadu was changed to allow a child to use his/her mother's name/initial(s) after his/her first name! This is a huge positive step with regard to women's rights. It comes as a big boon to the children of women who were divorced or abandoned by their husbands.

I am not a guy with a mediæval, feudal mindset who regards women as the "property" of men or as "child-bearers". I would like women to get the same rights as men, if not more. I firmly believe that having children is the sole right of the woman concerned, and not a duty! And just like with any other right, the woman can choose to either exercise it or not! If a woman wants to have five or seven children, that is fine as long as it does not harm her health and as long as the couple is able support so many children. If a married woman chooses not to have a child, that is fine as it is her right as she is the person who is going to bear the child. Far from being bothered, I would greatly respect a woman who does not have a kid or chooses not to, or says she does not want to have a child as it requires a lot of courage to even say such a thing in our patriarchal society!

Hey Raj, yes, I read about Tamil Nadu univs recognizing transgenders. That's a positive step, right?

I agree with you that Indian women come under much emotional and physical pressure if they don't have children, and many times this is forced upon us. But that shouldn't come in the way of lesbians -- they may want to be parents. And with access to options like artificial insemination and adoption, I'm hoping gays and lesbians will be able to make a choice, too.

I also hear quite a few (urban, educated, heterosexual) couples of our generation are opting out of being parents -- you know, the double-income-no-kids group? I guess,  over-the-top busy schedules, higher ambitions, and more disposable income have all contributed to these choices. It also means women are either feeling less pressured or couldn't care less about the pressure to be moms.

But yes, many of us continue to have to deal with it. That's another story altogether :)

As an Indian guy, does it bother you if a married woman doesn't have a kid or chooses not to, or actually says she doesn't want to?