Ride On Gay Pride

In spite of all the rainbow profile pictures on Facebook and the images of happy folk in front of the Supreme Court, the war is still on.

- Anuja Chauhan

Fifty-eight-year-old Supreme Court Judge D.Y. Chandrachud totally disarmed my 23-year-old daughter on September 6, when he hiply quoted soft rocker Leonard Cohen to observe that, “From the ashes of the gay, democracy is coming to the USA.”

Her exact reaction was to gasp, ‘Oh-muh-god, how cute! I love this old judge!’

In fact, the five honourable members of the Supreme Court bench proved to be cuties all round. 

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, due to retire in a month’s time, and mired in controversy eight months ago, when four of his senior-most judges called a press conference to warn that “democracy was in danger” under his stewardship, was the first to rise magnificently to the occasion by declaring, “Section 377 is arbitrary. LGBT community possesses rights like others. Majoritarian views and popular morality cannot dictate constitutional rights.”

What heartening words for any citizen of India to hear, choking as we are on a thick, sick, national diet of beef lynchings, love jihad killings, gangrapes, the murders of journalists and journalism, the censorship of films and the arrests of ‘urban naxals’! 

I’d like to just say that again, and savour it properly. 

Majoritarian views and popular morality cannot dictate constitutional rights. 

Thank you, Mr CJI sir. 

Next came Justice R.F. Nariman, who observed that “homosexuality is not a mental disorder”. A sparse, bare sentence, devoid of frills and flourishes, but one which brought tears to the eyes of members of the LGBT community who felt a crippling weight lifted off their shoulders. People who’ve been taken to quacks and temples and healing services by their family members for years, like they’re ill, or unclean, infected with some shameful disease.