Do you remember your first crush? I vividly remember mine.
He was tall with kind brown eyes and also happened to be a vampire. My first ever crush was Angel (played by David Boreanaz) from the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
While I pined away for Angel, I never stopped to worry about the legal consequences of being attracted to a member of the undead community. Technically, law enforcement would not have had any grounds to harass or punish me for having relations with that beautiful vampire. However, this legal privilege to love and be in a consensual relationship with an adult had not been extended to members of the LGBTQ* community in India. Sounds unjust? That’s because it is.
Today the Supreme Court of India voted to amend Section 377, a 157 year old colonial era law that classified gay sex as an ‘unnatural offence’ which was punishable by a 10-year jail term. In a historic verdict, India has (FINALLY) decriminalised homosexuality.
Pranay Baidya, a member of the LGBTQ* community in Calcutta and Fashion Designer extraordinaire said:
As of now, 71 countries have laws criminalizing homosexuality. A few days ago (3rd September 2018), two Malaysian women were convicted of attempting to have sex in a car and have been publicly caned in a religious court.
One would hope that India’s landmark ruling provides the catalyst for other countries to review their upholding of archaic laws criminalising relations between consenting adults of the same sex.
While India still has a long way to go (the ruling explicitly states that they were not looking at it in terms of other rights such as those related to marriage or inheritance) this is an incredible victory for the LGBTQ* community.
History has consistently proven that stories are the fabric of society. The Too Much of a Person project is incredibly privileged to be able to share the experiences of our participants, including those from the LGBTQ* community being told that they were too butch, too gay, too femme, too straight to be gay, too queer etc. (coming soon!).
All of us at Too Much of a Person stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ* communities globally that are fighting to create a more inclusive and just world.
In the end, love will always win.
