With all the attention to gay rights and gay marriage in the U.S., it's sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that homosexuals face far worse
discrimination and even outright persecution in many other areas of the world. But there was a
major advance for gay rights today in India.
In a landmark ruling, the Delhi high court scrapped parts of Section 377, a colonial law that criminalised gay sex – and indeed anything other than heterosexual vaginal intercourse – in India. Hence, consensual sex involving two adults of the same sex can no longer be a criminal offence.
As the above source points out,
This is the first time that an Indian court has gone on record to say that sexual minorities are not second-class citizens, and that they cannot be discriminated against. Granted, the anti-gay law was seldom used to secure convictions. However, for decades, the police and sometimes society at large used the law as an excuse to persecute gay men and women
Guess who opposes the ruling? That's right, pretty much every major religious
organization in India.
Go, India!
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