The Orlando massacre at a gay club, last Sunday in which over 53 people were killed and 50 others injured have subjected the entire LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community to a sudden awareness about the hate and prejudice that they hoped they had left behind.
Although the terrorist pledged allegiance to ISIS in advance to his attack, it’s obvious from the tone of events that this attack had a purpose other than terrorizing: to make a loud and obvious statement that being LGBT is not accepted nor tolerated. An orchestrated crime that would tint their Pride month with colors of mourning and drown their songs with weeping.
For Americans, hate crimes against LGBT are not new and according to FBI hate-crime statistics, LGBT people are twice more likely to be the target of a violent hate-crime than other minorities. Their numbers being significantly smaller than other minority groups, strong discriminatory attitudes are held against them. They’re described as perverts, as people who seduce children, as people who engage in horrible, unnatural practices and other demeaning adjectives.
Although the DSM (diagnostic statistical manual) and the ICD (international classification of disease) no longer classify homosexuality as a deviation, pathology or abnormality, LGBT individuals have to fight hard to assert their rights for them.
In the US and many other countries in the world, the gay movement has caught momentum and they have against all odds been able to assert their rights if not gain social support for their rightful expression.
In India, the scenario is very different. The Naz Foundation (NGO working in the field of HIV/ AIDS and sexual health) had earlier challenged the constitutional validity of Section 377 because it violated the rights to privacy, to dignity and health, to equality and non-discrimination and to freedom of expression. Naz Foundation also argued that the law prevented public health efforts at reducing the risk of transmission of HIV/AIDS as the fear of prosecution prevented people from discussing their sexuality and life style.
The Delhi High Court on 2nd July 2009, in a landmark judgment, held Section 377 to be violate of Articles 21, 14 and 15 of the Constitution, as it criminalized consensual sexual acts of adults in private.
Unfortunately individuals and faith-based group appealed the High Court verdict. The Supreme Court of India, on 11 December 2013, upheld Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a 19th century law, barring “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”. Thus bringing to power the Victorian morality of criminalizing non-productive sex.
The reinstating of such a law itself brings out a very pertinent issues for all of us to ask. Why are we in such denial about LGBT in our society?
We dismiss homosexuality as a deviation and aberration of what is the normal sexual response. We believe that people are not born that way instead they choose out of willful desire a sexual orientation so perverse that they deserve the wrath of God and nothing less than being termed as deviant, abnormal and pathological.
So what happens to the LGBT community in India?
While many remain in the closet, the rest that do express their sexuality in small circles are constantly living with fear of harassment and no protection.
Perceiving homosexuality as a disease is not new. Until the 1970s, it was classified as a mental disorder. Today homosexuality is no longer under the classification of the DSM or ICD, yet people who experience such attraction struggle with their sexual desires and find ways to make them go away. There are many complex reasons why they choose such actions, but the core reason is the conflict between a person’s sexual desires and their religious/cultural beliefs.
Moral and religious groups have the right to identify that they see homosexuality as “wrong,” and to campaign about their views. But when they guise their moral and religious views with scientific justification it becomes deceptive and insidious. This suggests that their proselytizing is about compassion for people suffering from a disease, and masks that they are being judgmental about their choices when in fact that’s exactly what they are.
It is exactly such attitudes from others that pushes people to denial. Is denial healthy or normal? Is normality conforming to the majority? What happens when you are different? Different from the rest of the majority. Does normality become abnormal then? Does abnormal mean wrong. Do we value you it with judgment.
The fear faced by the LGBT community is so great that often this is the only compromise they choose. They get married, have children, destroying lives as they go along, finding ways to disguise, feeling different, and feeling abnormal always.
Homosexual orientation is not an easy journey. If and when you do meet this orientation without judgment, the reality is very daunting. Many homosexuals try hard to conform, want to belong and feel accepted. The feelings in them are real. They struggle every day with conflicts. Some may also try hard to bury their expression in ways that they cannot explain but through their teenage years they constantly find themselves in situations where they feel hopeless and desperate.it is when you perceive without judgment that you realize that they are a reflection of you and your reality. just another human who chooses to love .
