After I landed in India, I picked up a couple of "India Today" and an "Outlook". Between those two and a bunch of newspapers I managed to pick up on a few of the issues here. Keep in mind, while in the US I almost never read any Indian news (except Cricket and Movies). I was going to write about them in a big entry but I figured they will all pop up individually sooner or later in other ways and I will mention them.
An issue that is making waves in India is Gay Rights. It seems like just a couple of days have passed since the Fire controversy. And just yesterday that movie producers were trying (in vain) to cash in on the theory that all males find lesbianism to be erotic by making Girlfriend. And as I flipped through the magazines, turns out that gay rights have made a lot of progress. There was an article on a gay rights march. And then about efforts to legalize homosexuality.
I was surprised. I didn't even know that homosexuality was acknowledged in India, much less banned. Turns out that the Indian Penal Code criminalises 'carnal intercourse against the order of nature.'
(If I may get off on a tangent here, thank you, I always found the word "unnatural" to be meaningless when applied to behavior. Because the word seems to imply that such behavior doesn't exist in nature. Well, if someone's doing it, then it exists. That's the end of that. If I throw a ball into the air and it doesn't fall down, that's unnatural. If a dog gives birth to a kitten, it's unnatural. But if a dog is born with only three legs, or blind, then yes, it's an anomaly, but hardly against nature because guess what, it did happen. I extend that argument to environmentalism - people argue that we're destroying nature, as if we are apart from nature. We are nature, nature made us. So whatever we do, it's a part of nature. Now, I'm not saying there aren't consequences for those actions, but don't label them as unnatural. )
Coming back, the crux of the gay rights movement in India is to decriminalize homosexuality. One key factor to remember here is that the govt doesn't really arrest/prosecute homosexuals, or individuals who commit homosexual acts. It's just a law that the govt. is quite happy to ignore. Of course, it doesn't recognize gay unions but then again, marriage doesn't provide as much of a benefit from the state as it does in the US. So it's not really an issue.
In my personal opinion, this gay rights movement is just a bunch of hot air most probably initiated by some politicians who want to say, "I'm not opposed to gay unions." Or even worse, just something started by individuals who have nothing better to do. I'm all for gay rights but there are worse things in this country to march for. For example in my company, the amount of investment that you have to make for it to be tax deductible is different for males and females! Another example, singles, especially males, get treated like second class citizens by the rest of the middle class. Of course, this is more a social problem than a political problem, but one that's worth marching for. More on this single male issue later.
An issue that is making waves in India is Gay Rights. It seems like just a couple of days have passed since the Fire controversy. And just yesterday that movie producers were trying (in vain) to cash in on the theory that all males find lesbianism to be erotic by making Girlfriend. And as I flipped through the magazines, turns out that gay rights have made a lot of progress. There was an article on a gay rights march. And then about efforts to legalize homosexuality.
I was surprised. I didn't even know that homosexuality was acknowledged in India, much less banned. Turns out that the Indian Penal Code criminalises 'carnal intercourse against the order of nature.'
(If I may get off on a tangent here, thank you, I always found the word "unnatural" to be meaningless when applied to behavior. Because the word seems to imply that such behavior doesn't exist in nature. Well, if someone's doing it, then it exists. That's the end of that. If I throw a ball into the air and it doesn't fall down, that's unnatural. If a dog gives birth to a kitten, it's unnatural. But if a dog is born with only three legs, or blind, then yes, it's an anomaly, but hardly against nature because guess what, it did happen. I extend that argument to environmentalism - people argue that we're destroying nature, as if we are apart from nature. We are nature, nature made us. So whatever we do, it's a part of nature. Now, I'm not saying there aren't consequences for those actions, but don't label them as unnatural. )
Coming back, the crux of the gay rights movement in India is to decriminalize homosexuality. One key factor to remember here is that the govt doesn't really arrest/prosecute homosexuals, or individuals who commit homosexual acts. It's just a law that the govt. is quite happy to ignore. Of course, it doesn't recognize gay unions but then again, marriage doesn't provide as much of a benefit from the state as it does in the US. So it's not really an issue.
In my personal opinion, this gay rights movement is just a bunch of hot air most probably initiated by some politicians who want to say, "I'm not opposed to gay unions." Or even worse, just something started by individuals who have nothing better to do. I'm all for gay rights but there are worse things in this country to march for. For example in my company, the amount of investment that you have to make for it to be tax deductible is different for males and females! Another example, singles, especially males, get treated like second class citizens by the rest of the middle class. Of course, this is more a social problem than a political problem, but one that's worth marching for. More on this single male issue later.
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