Decriminalising of homosexuality is a welcome, progressive move. But eradicating homophobia will be a long haul
If there is one downside to the landmark judgement decriminalising homosexual relationships it is that it happened through the judicial route and not the legislative route and other than a few notable exceptions most politicians who will come out of the woodwork celebrating this judgement did nothing to push the case for legislative reform. However, while this is a moment for celebration, there are several things that have not changed, other than the end of police harassment and possibly Chief Justice Dipak Misra’s image among a certain section of the commentariat. People do not change overnight, and overall acceptance of homosexuality among society at large in India, particularly among the middle classes, is tenuous to say the least. And a direct corollary to this is that while homosexuality has been decriminalised, homophobia has not been criminalised. And let us be honest, as a community, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community has faced more hate than any other community across the world and in the light of today’s judgement, when some of them come of the shadows, many of them, starting with more famous individuals, will face immense amounts of hate from motormouths on television panels, trolls on social media and unsolicited opinions from their neighbours, colleagues and possibly even their friends.
Responsible media in India should not lend their platforms to purveyors of hate of any description but that is wishful thinking given the state of professional media today. But what should also happen is that there must be pressure put on politicians and the judiciary alike to recognise hate speech and hate crimes against the LGBTQ community. This paper has argued for the decriminalisation of Section 377 in the past, and we are also arguing for the inclusion of homophobic actions and speech in public in the hate speech lexicon though naturally without putting any unreasonable restriction on free speech. Outright abuse of any individual and/or group of homo sapiens including gay people or advocating mad solutions to 'cure' them must be condemned and curbed. At the same time, the LGBTQ community should work towards not just combating hate but also winning the hearts and minds of those who for whatever reason feel threatened by this decision. There is no rationality to the fear that many feel; some talking of how decriminalising Section 377 will legitimise ‘male rape’ et cetera. Others fear that it will alloy ‘gays to take over the world' and yet others feel quite incorrectly that homosexuality is in itself a Western construct and we are ‘forgetting our cultural mores'. These are the actual issues mindsets of fellow citizens in the real world outside the cosy confines of posh enclaves in our metros and the fact is they cannot be combated through pride parades and newspaper editorials. This is the challenge facing the LGBTQ community in India today. The path forward towards a legislative recognition of same-sex marriage is a long one but hopefully one that will take considerably less time than it took India to arrive at the decision of 6 September.