July 3, 2009
Gay Sex Decriminalized in India After 150 Years
Not that India’s radical religionists aren’t going batpoo ballistic — they are, of course:
India’s ban on gay sex
overturned after 150 yearsLAWS dating back to the British Raj that banned gay sex have been overturned in a landmark judgment in India’s capital.
The 150-year-old section 377 of India’s penal code, introduced when the British ruled the subcontinent, described homosexual intercourse as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and imposed a 10-year jail term for offenders.
The Delhi High Court yesterday declared the laws a violation of “fundamental rights” and unconstitutional.
The decision means consensual sex between those over the age of 18 will no longer be punishable, although the court ruled that section 377 should still apply to cases of non-consensual sex and pedophilia. …
The ruling is a big victory for India’s gay rights movement, which has staged a long campaign for homosexuality to be decriminalised. …
Gay activists said the judgment reaffirmed the liberal and secular nature of India’s democracy. …
Huh? I think India is totally cool, and if I weren’t so freaked out by… well, a lot of things I won’t get into right now, I’d totally want to go there. But I’d never think to call it liberal, much less secular. (But then, what do I know, ’cause I haven’t been there.)
The court’s decision drew fire from Indian religious leaders.“This is absolutely wrong,” said Muslim leader Ahmed Bukhari, the imam of Delhi’s Jama Mosque. “If the Government (attempts) to scrap Section 377, we will oppose it strongly.”
Last year, during a hearing into the Naz Foundation’s petition, a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, objected to gay sex on the grounds that it caused bodily injury, a claim rejected by the Delhi High Court. …
The only way gay sex causes bodily injury is when some homophobic ass decides to bash the brains out of a gay person who isn’t causing him a lick of trouble.
Damn, isn’t there some sort of Rapture thing for all religions? Dear God, if You exist, can’t You just suck these chuckleheads up into the stratosphere right now?
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Filed Under: Civil Rights, Hinduism, India, Islam, Privacy, Radical Religious Right, Religion & Spirituality
