Marriage Proposal

After the historic Section 377 judgment, the next step should be the right to wed

- Ashok Row Kavi

AFTER THE Section 377 judgment, the door has opened….

Even as Supreme Court judgment created tidal waves in the country on September 6, I was not just overcome with joy, but also a massive anxiety attack that led me to take an anti-depressant.

I saw a glass not just brimming with blessings, but also with muddied water. You may wonder why. Frankly, the issue of gay and lesbian freedom is really the last frontier our society has to confront.

Religion, class and caste may and will dissolve as our cities get more egalitarian and more densely populated. Imagine a Brahmin trying to practise untouchability in a crowded Bombay suburban train and you will get what I mean.

The 2006 Yogyakarta Principles introduced a new framework of human rights based on sexuality and gender. Called the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) framework by the United Nations, these are organised and outfitted in the human rights framework to accommodate a new kind of human being who has a sexual and gender identity that is based on an individual’s right to them. In previous eras, gender was a socially constructed identity. You were ‘taught’ by society to be a man or a woman. This binary was not recognised in many indigenous societies. In India, we had the tritiya panthi (the third gender). Today, the WHO recognises more than 20 genders as legitimate and scientifically valid. Thus, a certain autonomy has come into the gender paradigm.

Though I am against the very institution of marriage, probably the first benefits that must accrue from the Supreme Court judgment are the right to marry and the demand for civil unions.