While the British, during their unceremonious exit in 1947, took with them as much as they could carry and slightly more, they were kind enough, however, to leave behind a few trinkets we’ve cherished up until recently. One of those was the Indian rendition of the British hit, The Buggery act of 1533. And like a Sitar instrumental cover of a Coldplay song this too has weighed heavily on Indian society for all the wrong reasons. The difference being the former remained relevant for 100s of years. The latter probably won’t. Thank god for small mercies.
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code makes sexual activities "against the order of nature" illegal. This rings particularly close to home as it was the piece of law most cited by women when I asked them out. But then as fate would have it on the 6th of September 2018 the SC decriminalized certain parts of section 377. While at first glance it seemed I was the going to be the biggest beneficiary of this decision it turned out members of the LGBTQ community actually had equal if not more reason to celebrate.
Put simply, this historic decriminalization of 2018 come after the historic re-criminalization of 2013 which followed the historic decriminalization of 2009. Because sex isn’t confusing enough as it is. So if my math isn’t wrong we have a good 5 years before they send us back to the middle ages? Right? Wrong. While this, like banning tik tok, is a huge step in the right direction, it leaves much to be desired. For starters women still don’t seem to want to go out with me. And if that wasn’t enough it turns out legal changes rarely translate smoothly into societal changes. And laws don’t remove prejudices. Who would’ve guessed?
While this is a huge wait lifted off the chest of the LGBTQ community as a whole there is still much to be desired. Police, for instance, are still indifferent towards the plight of transgender people. A number of rural and urban doctors still consider homosexuality a disease. They also keep telling me I need to exercise of good health. Let’s face it, the medical community is full of loons. So what’s the solution? Conversation. We need to have dialogue in order to bring this marginalized community to the forefront. Currently there are tons of inclusion initiatives being conducted by various corporations and diversity runs by organizations desperately trying to put a Band-Aid on their festering malignant tumor of guilt. But even our doctors will tell you that’s far too little, far too late.
So what now? Well, a grassroots movement would be nice. Change doesn’t begin with a person or a law. It begins when there’s mass discomfort. Or when a lot of people are little uneasy. Change starts when the uneasiness translates to action. When you go out and approach a person in need. It begins when you pledge yourself to an NGO and start working for someone else’s cause. Change is crowd funding a tinder plus subscription for me so I can actually meet someone nice.
