Homosexuals, Homophobics and the Current Situation

There has been a lot of progress in terms of upliftment and rights of the LGBTQ community in recent years. All over the world, they are being emancipated from not being able to live as they want, from not being able to express themselves and their true identity. The matter is not subjective but there is still significant opposition to the idea of letting people marry or love as non-conventional couples. What are the arguments of both of these sides you may ask?

On one hand we have those infected with the “Gay disease” and anyone stupid enough to support such vermin. They want LGBTQs have the same rights as other humans, be able to marry and love freely, and not be discriminated against. How dare they? Who in their right minds would give ‘them’ actual human rights? They aren’t humans. There’s nothing human in their behaviour! Even if Homo sapiens and Homo-Sexual may suggest the contrary. Who needs science anyway? Not the contemporary world apparently.

On the other hand, we have people, mostly blind of the book, blessed by God and the only ones worthy enough to interpret what god says. According to them, God did not make people “queers” by birth and hence LGBTQs should be customary to long lasting culture. In their words, they just want to rid the land of this disease and heal the people under the shackles of this widespread disease. The most effective way is to bash them with a big giant book of your nearest favorite religious teachings. The biggest opposition they have is to ‘their’ marriages. We can’t let the vermin breed, who knows what kind of monsters they will conceive? The devil’s sons all of them! It’s too risky to let them near kids or adopt them. Now that the world is being more “tolerant,” whatever that means, we can’t kill ‘them’ on a spit-roast publicly like before. How will we teach our children to do the same with them? On a side note, I am not using the word gay because it is seen as too pejorative by the community whose argument I am displaying.

Now the government’s side on this is that “we really don’t want to lose votes from any side so we’re just gonna be as slow as possible in any implementation of laws.” Of course, you can’t blame them, in a developing country of over a billion plus, our politicians have a lot more important work to do like drinking chai, visiting Astrologers and taking the odd trip to Bangkok all while turning a blind eye to all the hate the LGBTQ community gets for no apparent reason in the Indian context. All the more reason why we don’t have something such as an “anti-discrimination law” because how can we legally force Indians not to discriminate? Its absurd, unthinkable even! We even stopped a bill on transgender rights from even coming into discussion! It’ll make half of the sitting MPs very uncomfortable of course and they truly do matter more than the common homosexual.

Satire aside, it really is a problem in the world and in our country on how homosexuals are treated. Just the fact that it needs to be written that homosexuals deserve to be treated as humans too with respect, individuality and franchise itself says a lot about human society. The progress has been slow, in the implementation of laws and most definitely in the changing of mindset of the people. It is the acceptance of the people and the changing of their mindset is what really matters because laws mean nothing without the people’s acceptance to follow them. After reading both the sides and the supposedly neutral side, but we all know which side they are on (p.s.- it’s the votes), I think we can make up our minds on what we side with, morality or repression. I have made my mind and I can be sure you have made yours’ too. 

HOMOSEXUALITY AND ITS ADVENT IN INDIA

  Let’s start with the basics. What is meant by Homosexuality and Heterosexuality in terms of Indian Teachings and much revered Scriptures? Simply said, any person who had a lack of desire for the opposite sex, were considered ‘the third gender’ by the Vedas. This third gender was clearly accepted as a part of the society without any discrimination. Of course, the terms used today are too refined to be used at those times, so they resorted to an assortment of terms like ‘hijra’ and ‘kinnar’ , quite a lot of which are used today as well, though mostly as slurs. So, what did Hinduism preach and how is it that belonging to a third gender is now ‘unacceptable’? If you have heard of the Rig Veda, you know that it is considered an utmost holy scripture, which speaks of two celestials Varuna and Mitra, who were a ‘same sex couple’(both were males), and not only that, they also managed to conceive children! I will leave the scientific part of figuring how that happened, out to you, nevertheless, they did and King Bhagirathi who achieved supernatural feats (apparently he brought the river Ganges to Earth, from Heaven) was also the child of two widowed women. Ever heard a Politician named Mahesh Sharma, say: “I worship Ramayana and I think it is a historical document. People who think it is fiction are absolutely wrong”? He also protested against the Supreme Court’s decision on the decriminalization of homosexuality, even though, Hanuman (a god in Ramayana) when in Lanka noticed several women in carnal fashion, both demonic and human. Once again all this is mythical, so what about the times where we can get proof besides written text?

LGBTQ+ FLAG

Homosexuality may be considered as a new ideology amongst the minds of today’s population, but in reality, one can simply take a look at some shrines built during the twelfth to fourteenth century, such as those at Puri in Orissa or Tanjore in Kerala, which often depict a range of sculptures and statues ranging from “affectionate” hugging to romanticized glances between women, to men outright exposing themselves to each other, all of which suggests a queer intent across the subcontinent, which has been a subject of immense interest, since it is open to endless interpretations to historians in modernity.

So, despite vivid mention of sexual fluidity across Hindu Literature or architecture, why is belonging to LGBTQ+ community considered such an aberration today? Now instead of such historic references, let us come to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, where the term ‘homosexuality’ came to be used in Europe. Europeans considered a person who chose desire over the innate purpose of propagation of bloodlines as ‘criminal’ and ‘vile’. Similarly, the practices where men and women were not indulgent with members of the opposite sex, and rather felt an attraction among their own gender was deemed ‘unnatural’. In this case, the West perverted (here, distorted) the laws of their imperial colonies, and when they came to India, they passed the anti-sodomy law, disrupting the beliefs of the country’s population. Then, to say transgenderism today is part of the “western culture”, would be wrong. After British rulers passed the anti-sodomy law, many educated Indian social reformers and nationalists began to express a new aversion to what was a part of their, including polytheism, and sex outside marriage, including same-sex relationships. It also became unacceptable to write about same-sex relations in “polite literature”, throughout the first-half of the 20th century. After the culture of the country was twisted beyond recognition, the claims of queerness now became immoral. In reality, queerness was always our culture, and history is an account of it. Nevertheless, most communities continue to be unwelcoming of LGBTQ+ people, often reflecting attitudes imported from colonial times. It reveals how we have forgotten ancient Indian heritage of recognizing and accommodating queer sexualities, and have submitted to “Victorian morality”. This colonization of the mind was reflected in IPC Section 377 that saw non-heterosexual non-procreative sex as ‘against the order of nature’. This outdated law was finally struck down by the Supreme Court on 6 September 2018.

ANCIENT INDIAN CULTURE

The deism of Hinduism is fluid, where Gods changed forms from Rocks, to Rivers to men to women to hermaphrodites (saguna), and sometimes became formless (nirguna). Hinduism should not be misunderstood as an anti-passion religion, as choosing to pursue one’s desires does not make them any less spiritual or sinful. The verdict in 2018 was highly overdue, since it led us to give up simply controlling someone else, restricting their freedom and refusing to understand the diversity that is our culture.

COUNTRIES WHERE HOMOSEXUALITY IS ILLEGAL

Hopefully, one day Families will realize the value of someone’s sexuality rather than constrict it and understand there are several ways to life and to love, which need not fit the traditional norms. We all appreciate Tim Cook, the openly gay CEO of Apple, singers like Halsey and actors like Ellen Page, or television hosts such as Ellen deGeneres and in the future, we must refrain from denying employment, education, healthcare, and most importantly, love, to anyone based on their identity. Hopefully people will recognize the simple fact that if you ARE gender-fluid, you will always be gender-fluid. At the least, we can be allies, supporting and creating a safe space for the third gender in our world. Our choice of action can be either rooted in love, or hatred. That is in our choice, and both ignorance and exclusion, are not love.

ARTICLE CREDITS: THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED BY KANISHKA SAXENA FROM INDIA.

HOW COVID-19 TRANSFORMED LGBTQ COMMUNITY?

 

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY

This title here is a sarcastic statement. When talking about the LGBT community, we have to keep in mind that, we are not here to dwell on the past, not to play blame games, we are hear to join our heads together and make self-acceptance in LGBT community and make them a part of us. Looking towards the catastrophic situations created by the Covid-19 pandemic, we all forgot that apart from the rest of the casualties, the LGBT community has suffered even worse than ever before. Where everyone lost their jobs, many became unemployed, homeless, the daily wage workers became even poorer and are living on roadside. The girls working in household jobs became lost their work, in such scenarios, the LGBT community which was already suffering huge discrimination and difficulties in finding proper jobs, employment, education, living, saw the worst parts of their lives, where no food, no money, no house, no water. The covid-19 pandemic has caused the worst damage to the LGBT community and now its even difficult to lift them out of the poverty and off such an adverse situation. In India, the present scenarios clearly implies that now, we must take strict actions against all those parties which are a troublemaker to the LGBT community. The current situation in India, is like a nightmare. The Covid-19 situation, the crisis period, the insecurity, the fear of being tested positive for corona virus, lack of awareness and education, exploitation of forced-labor, children, girls etc. All this adds up to more than a well of troubles. The worst affected are the daily-wage workers, girls, poor, middle class, and the LGBT community. Out of these if we talk about not even able to get access to any facility, is the LGBT community. The LGBT community has suffered beyond our imagination, and still not even able to come out of it. During this pandemic, and crisis the LGBT community has seen the darkest side of the world, where they can’t even have access to education, health care, jobs and employment. The society has neglected and ignored the LGBT community, as if their existence is opposed by the God. People have no idea what the LGBT community have seen in their lives and what will come in distant future. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender are struggling majorly because of the stigma and superstition in the society, and nothing else. People here in this country do not realize the pain of others, they just inject pain as much as possible. What we all see is just the upper layer or the roof top, we haven’t seen the bitter reality of the conditions in which the LGBT community live. Hence, its high time to just criticize and think, it’s time to initiate plans and take actions to assist LGBT community and other people as well to come out of such issues.

SITUATION OF LGBTQ IN INDIA: SUFFERING OR PRIDE?

                                  

The current situation in India, is like a nightmare. The Covid-19 situation, the crisis period, the insecurity, the fear of being tested positive for corona virus, lack of awareness and education, exploitation of forced-labor, children, girls etc. All this adds up to more than a well of troubles. The worst affected are the daily-wage workers, girls, poor, middle class, and the LGBT community. Out of these if we talk about not even able to get access to any facility, is the LGBT community.

The LGBT community has suffered beyond our imagination, and still not even able to come out of it. During this pandemic, and crisis the LGBT community has seen the darkest side of the world, where they can’t even have access to education, health care, jobs and employment. The society has neglected and ignored the LGBT community, as if their existence is opposed by the God. People have no idea what the LGBT community have seen in their lives and what will come in distant future. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender are struggling majorly because of the stigma and superstition in the society, and nothing else. People here in this country do not realize the pain of others, they just inject pain as much as possible.

What we all see is just the upper layer or the roof top, we haven’t seen the bitter reality of the conditions in which the LGBT community live. Hence, its high time to just criticize and think, it’s time to initiate plans and take actions to assist LGBT community and other people as well to come out of such issues.

LET'S CEASE HOMOBHOBIA - KNOW HOW?

  We have always been exposed to certain gender signifiers regarding colors, piercings, hair length, body building and the list goes on. We tend to always assign a color to femininity and masculinity, namely pink and blue. How often you come across people gifting dolls to little boys? These created norms the society has bound us with since a very early stage seem to have made us reluctant to accept the people that we see not following them. In terms of awareness we may appear to be ascending but in terms of practical approach, we descend. While giving the LGBTQ+ community legal rights we push them forward but rise in hate crime rate push them down. Protests, rallies for dignity in society seems to uplift them but rigidity in terms of feminine and masculine plunges it down. Willingness to post about LGBTQ awareness shows open-mindedness  but reluctance to allow them part of your social group proves the intolerance. Accepting everyone has freedom to express themselves in the way that they want is aflame but to be weirded out by cross dressing is shame. 

Every person regardless of the fact to which religion they belong, what ideals the believe in, what choice they prefer, what section of the society they belong to and which ever gender/race/sexuality they belong to have the right to be treated human but still honor killings, prejudice, bullying, rapes, marginalization, social exclusion still prevail in our society with the ratio in rural areas being more than in urban areas, people tend to look down upon them as they are not "normal" but how can someone define normal as being normal is highly subjective. What you consider normal may not be normal to someone else and everyone should respect that but not harass them for being different. People consider being part of LGBTQ community as socially and biological unacceptable, a mental disorder ,a disease, a 'phase' that one will eventually get over but it's high time we realize that these conventional and orthodox views are long gone and that it is toxic and highly erroneous to still support them.

All of us in some ways make efforts no matter how small can help increase LGBTQ+ dignity and awareness. To stop bullying, to speak against homophobia, to not use offensive slurs against them, to educate the uneducated and try to change the boundaries of the conventional society can be of great impact. How others treat someone is who they are but how we react is who we are and we must act on what is right no matter if the majority follow the wrong. Being aware regarding the genders, pronouns and sexualities is in welfare of us as a whole. To do the least, let's accept everyone and respect them. How difficult can it be to treat people with kindness or just not to look upon them as a disgrace? Let us all give in our effort to create a society where nobody needs coming out videos to show who they are.

Note: The following article has been written by Avni Singh and published at Kanpur Wallah by senior executive, Pallakshi Pandiya.