Table of Contents
LGBTQ IS A SOCIAL ISSUES IN INDIA
Abstract
The LGBTQ community has often been in the limelight over the years, be it because of the Supreme Court’s decision on Section 377 of the IPC or NALSA’s recent ruling on legal recognition of the third gender in India. Before came into the existence of LGBTQ in the form of laws, the people think it is the type of disease. In this way some people lose their life by suicide, murdered by someone, etc.
LGBTQ communities around the world are fighting a relentless battle against the discrimination they face on a daily basis. The LGBTQ movement in the West, “with and out of women’s movements, furthered the idea of bliss, the LGBTQ movement actually coming into existence in a piggy bank on the AIDS crisis and expressing itself vividly in language of distress, violence, and remedial action, not glee.” Even though sexuality was shown to be embedded in various discourses in the academic field, it was never accepted or understood by the state. Furthermore, no debate about sexual desire has ever been with sexual agency as a basis.
In India when this issue came under the laws by the Indian Penal Code is Section – 377, the people are accepting their gender. They are agreed and married with each other whether they are lesbian or gay. In India it is happening in most of the state such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, etc.
Introduction
As we all know that the LGBTQ is the main social issues in the world. At a time when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) individuals are an increasingly open, accepted and the visible part of society, physicians and researchers are faced with incomplete information about the health status of this community. LGBTQ history is an umbrella term that captures the stories of strength and struggle of various individuals, cultures, and communities that are considered non-standard. This is the story of the movements for justice; There are moments of triumph and tragedy that we now understand as LGBTQ – and often continue to face – in our daily lives and demand the right to live, love and flourish. In the modern era, sexual and gender identities and expressions have been central to Americans’ understanding of themselves, regardless of race, ethnicity, class, gender, ability, and nation shaped and shaped by broad structures and attitudes. Major institutions, governments, courts, churches and the medical profession have acted as mediators, creating normative and deviant sexuality and providing criteria to define limits within each.
Although a modest body of knowledge on LGBTQ health has been evolved over the past two decades, much remains to be discovered. Being heterosexual, gay, bisexual or transgender isn’t just about sexuality. It is about the complex lifestyle that has an impact on every aspect of a person’s life, including emotional, psychological, social and professional. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes the right to life, privacy, equality before the law, etc. and certain freedoms such as freedom of speech and expression, freedom from discrimination and violence, etc. Therefore, being human, these rights and freedoms are also vested in people belonging to the LGBTQ community. But, it is often seen that LGBTQ persons face fear, torture, imprisonment, etc., they are disadvantage of their rights. While there are health differences between transgender and non-transgender people, it should be realized that there is no shame in being gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual and at the end of the day. When it comes to India, homosexuality is considered an offense under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha by a voice vote on 5 August 2019 and by the Rajya Sabha on 25 November 2019. It was signed into law by President Ram Nath Kovind on 5 December, which became the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. The researcher is of the view that all such provisions that deprive LGBTQ persons of their basic human rights will be abolished. There are lots of questions arises like – What is currently known about LGBTQ health? Where do gaps exist in research in this area? What are the priorities of a research agenda to address these shortcomings?
History of discrimination against LGBTQ
The historical context of homosexuality or LGBTQ can be seen in Puranas, Vedas, religious books etc. Idea at homosexuality is considered. It is believed that romantic love is possible only between humans and women and is due to sexual descendant recovery between both men or two women. Therefore homosexuality is considered a serious crime. When it comes to Islam, Muslim Shariat law considers homosexuality to be a heinous crime. The codification of laws related to homosexuality started in 1860 under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which was considered homosexuals as an unnatural crime, for which the sentence was set up. However, homosexuality is prevalent in India, because the issue was increased only after the 19th century, when the first grave magazine Bombay dost began at the end of the 1980s, and the city started the law of the Levi’s public collectively positively, which is the issue of the issue related to the violation of the criteria.
When it comes to legal discrimination, then a vague section of the Indian Penal Code is under Section 377 is most important that comes out of the law made during the British colonial period. It is still continuing in Indian country books, but British laws have been removed from the books. Section 377, IPC, 1860 reads as thus: “Whatever the volunteer does not have sexual intercourse against the order of nature with any man, female or animal, will be punished for the prison for life or for a period, which can expand for ten years, and it will also be liable to determine it”. The sufficient person to form the orders factor for the crime described in this section is enough to form.
The law has been used to have sex with the help of HIV / AIDS prevention, along with sex workers, men and other groups with men. It also has sexual assessment to occur whatever oral sex or anal sex, which is currently treated as unnatural crime, because it is against nature (as does not help in reproduction) and punishes under Section 377 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code). But so far no case has been registered against the attached poles in such gender, which clearly shows that there has been sexual minorities for injustice, for their (sexual minority), trust, etc., is different from the mainstream.
A case that is investigating, National Legal Service Authority v. Union of India (2014) 5 SCC 438, in which the Supreme Court has recognized the people of the transgender searches with the aspect of sexual orientation. The Supreme Court concluded that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity includes any discrimination, exclusion, restriction or preference that has the effect of abrogated or superseding equality by law or the equal protection of the laws guaranteed under our Constitution and therefore we are inclined to give various guidelines to protect the constitutional rights of the members of the transgender community.
Concept of LGBTQ
The sexuality of a person is not necessarily that their major defined characteristics, nor one that they will need to define themselves. The word LGBTQ refers that lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender. ‘Lesbian’ shows the woman who emotionally sex, attract sexual and romancing other women. ‘Gay’ refers to a person who is emotionally sex, and sexually romantic attracts the other person’s same person. ‘Bisexual’ refers to a person who is emotionally sex, are attracted to more and more gender, although not together. ‘Transgender’ refers to a person whose gender identity is different from the gender to which they were assigned at birth. ‘Questioning’ or ‘Queer’ refers to Originally use as a derogatory slur, queer has now become an umbrella term to describe the myriad ways that people reject the binary categories of gender and sexual orientation to express themselves.
Sexual orientation refers to sexual relations which contain a sexual and romantic attraction. The transgendered person with transpires questions about gender identity, they were assigned at birth and inhibit it or partly rejected. Transgendered term can refer to cross-dresser, transsexual or intensive fellows (this cloud word is now used in the word of hermaphrodite) Transgender people can be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual in sexually or sexually in their internationalism. Every person is entitled to their rights regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. LGBTQ rights are not special rights, but the same human rights that should be all the people.
A famous judgement is Naz Foundation v. Government of NCT Delhi or as it is popularly known as Naz Judgement is a 2009 judgement by the Delhi High Court. In this judgment, for the first time, the Delhi High Court declared Section 377 unconstitutional.
Naz is a Delhi based NGO which filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court and claimed Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to be unconstitutional. They have been at the forefront of the fight for de-criminalisation. In 2009 he successfully got the courts to declare Section 377 unconstitutional which violates Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution.
Conclusion
A man’s choice of partner should not be restricted because of his sexual orientation. It not only restricts their basic fundamental rights to equality and privacy, but also takes away their right to live with dignity enshrined in the right to life and freedom. In India, just because a person is born of two major sexes, they are excommunicated and rejected on the ground that they belong to the third gender. If people are discriminated against on the basis of their choices, then there is no use of Shashi Tharoor introducing anti-discrimination bill. In the recent judgement of Navtej Singh Johar and others. v. Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice also noted that social morality also changes from age to age. Law competes with life and changes accordingly. The morality which the public believes, the constitution cannot imagine.
If we continue to disrespect and not treat them as our own, it will be taboo. The time has come to free LGBTQ from the shackles of stereotyping and bridge the wide gap between the community and disregard regressive laws and adopt progressive laws.
To conclude that educating people about LGBTQ rights is very important. Human rights are natural rights which are indestructible, indestructible and are provided to all from birth. It is necessary that people pay attention to the fact that homosexuals are not sick, they are not foreigners, that their sexual orientation is completely in line with the dictates of creation.
Lastly, I would say that until the government gives equal status to LGBTQIA+ people in India, there will be a just and fair struggle for social recognition by LGBTQ+ people.
References
- An introduction about the social issues in India nowadays is LGBTQ community. https://www.scroll.in
- To understanding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer: A conceptual framework in the Indian society. https://www.indianlawsociety.com
- Bockting WO, Robinson BE, Rosser BR. Transgender HIV prevention: A qualitative needs assessment. AIDS Care. 1998;10(4):505–525.
- National Legal Service Authority v. Union of India (2014) 5 SCC 438
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender health and questioning 2018.
- Naz Foundation v. Government of NCT Delhi, AIR 2009
- Navtej Singh Johar and Others v. Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice
- To conclude that in today’s generation everyone should be knows about the term LGBTQ because it is very important.
Author: Noor E Amna,
Jamia Hamdard University and 5th year/ B.A.LLB