Homophobia- The Indian Way

“Homosexuality is a disease” – Anonymous

This is a statement that I have been hearing since I was a child, and I belong to Upper Middle Class family in New Delhi. Homosexuals are considered as a parasite to our mankind, they indulge in sexual relationships which our Gods and Society does not allow of. They are an abomination and are suffering from an illness which needs to be cured, homophobia has been taught to us since we were born. We were not born as homophobics, it is a stereotype that our society made us believe, they said homosexuals do not belong to this community and were not a part of us. Section 377 of our Indian Penal Code has a heading of “Unnatural Offences” which states that any sexual intercourse against the Order of the nature will be held punishable. Which means that we have already made up our minds and we have a preconceived notion that homosexuals are not a part of nature, who are we to decide upon the order of nature anyway? The 2018 Supreme Court in the case of ‘Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India‘, held Section 377 as unconstitutional and decriminalized consensual sexual conducts between two adults. This judgment reinstated my faith in the justice system of our country and the belief that Indians are really progressing towards a better tomorrow. But are we really free? Can we still indulge in any sort of conduct with the same sex without being looked down upon or without being judged by the people. The homophobia in us has been buried so deep that there is no coming out of it, the societal stigma continuously chokes us in vain. People do not realize the simple fact that people cannot choose the way they are born, they did not choose this life, they are humans, just like others. Mothers in our country make us believe since our childhood that people belonging to the third gender are “bad” in nature. Whenever we see a transgender on the roads we get scared, we’ve been taught to call them as “Hijras”. But the hypocrisy in Indian Mentality comes into play yet again, when the same people who are scared of these “Hijras” welcome them in their homes when there is a childbirth or a marriage get their “blessings”. If a homosexual child is born in this society, his parents will initially try to cure his disease and try their best in changing his sexual orientation to ‘straight’ from ‘gay’, and if that is not successful, they would try to conceal his identity for the rest of his life, which shows how deep we have already fallen into this abyss. If we look at it from a religious point of view, our ancestors believed that our Ancient Gods forbid these relationships and people born this way do not belong here but they do not pay heed to the fact and forget that it is that Ancient God himself who has made us this way. India is a land of many religions, cultures, traditions, customs and none of it supports homosexuals and their rights, even though the Judgment has been given by our Apex Court but we are still not free. The shackles of these chains are very difficult to be torn apart, our old stereotypes and prejudices would never let us live. Suicide rates and suicidal ideation among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQIA+) youth is significantly higher than among the general population, it is solely on our heads why the LGBTQIA+ community indulges into suicidal activities and we should carry this guilt with us until death. Ask yourselves a question, would you, a citizen of this modern progressive society still hold your daughter’s hand if she comes upto you tomorrow and tells you her deepest confession, that she’s a lesbian?

“Homosexuality is found in over 450 species, Homophobia is found in only one”