More on Indian Minorities
LGBT Community Worried Under New Regime
The Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender communities in India are worried that hardly any government support would be forthcoming for their cause under the BJP reign. The LGBT community, which has submitted a curative petition in the Supreme Court against the re-criminalisation of homosexuality, feels uncertain about getting support from the government on reversing the ban.
The Supreme Court has said it would hear the petition, though the date is still not fixed. The government will have to make its stand clear in court relating to Section 377. But going by BJP’s track record, the LGBT community feels that it might put forward a conservative take on the matter. In December last year, Supreme Court had again put Section 377 – a law against gay sex – back in action after a four-year period of de-criminalisation. During the four-year period, the LGBT community had found an open space in the mainstream, which is now again threatened.
However, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court had recognized transgender as the third gender in April this year. This translates into rights related access to public toilets and reservation in educational institutions and in government jobs for the over 19 lakh transgender (hijra) community in India.
The good news for the community is that during the entire NarendraModi election campaign, the major support had come from the corporates and the youth – both of which are in favour of decriminalisation of gay sex. So, it is hoped that the BJP government will find it difficult to support a ban. However, if RSS intervenes in policy decisions of the government, then the story will be different as its stand against homosexuality is well known., according to sources in the community.
