Our society has always been obsessed with labels. Putting everyone into square sized boxes when we really are found in all sorts of different shapes and more. I get the urgency though, the need to pile everything neatly, blatantly into one order. But we weren’t designed to be this way. To follow organized definitions of ourselves. Human beings are complex and cannot be defined with simple definitions of substance. There are parts of us that are difficult to even fathom about and much more difficult to explain. And it is okay to be that way, to be an open-ended puzzle. Sexuality is one of those labels proudly bestowed upon us. Excruciating the ones amongst us who don’t feel the one way that everyone is supposed to be feeling.
Under the section 377 of Indian penal code “Unnatural offenses: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
LGBTQ was legalized back in 2009 in India, but again revoked by law in 2013 and section 377 was put back in order. Concerns were raised by the home ministry of India that even if consensual, sex between LGBT may create a “breach in peace”, would cause the “spread of AIDS and HIV” and “degrade Moral values of Society”.
But this completely contradicts the ancient Indian view on life. In ancient India before India became a British colony, lines dividing male from female and homosexual from heterosexual were blurred. Hinduism the most dominant religion in India believed in the ideology of “Live and let live”.
Western influence brought in the word “taboo” and all its secondary side effects with it. The British colonists started establishing their rule over India, they were completely repelled by the transgender and homosexuals, and just by how well they were adjusted into the society. To them they were a sight of moral misconduct. So, in the early 19th century, British colonists introduced the section 377 under the British rule of India and criminalized sexual activities “against the order of nature” targeting the homosexuals and transgenders. In modern India, British colonies and their tales are a long forgotten past but we still sing their poems by stigmatizing something we once completely accepted and didn’t even give any thought to. In India society and religion go hand in hand, Being a dominantly Hindu nation we just need to go back to our ancient ways and learn to love and accept everyone as humans like we used to do.
Personally, I feel like as human beings the least we could do is accept.
