We are not criminals, says the LGBT community

DECRIMINALISATION OF Indian Penal Code 377 on July 2, and recent Supreme Court judgment to have ‘other’ category for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) communities in all government agencies is a justifiable judgment in the Indian judiciary and it deserves to be jubilated. But will this step bridge the gap? Will these communities enjoy all fundamental rights? Will they be not further harassed by police, public bureaucratic ants who put jaggery syrup on them and feast on them? These questions still need to be answered.

LGBT community in India has long borne the brunt of male chauvinistic and social prejudices despite the fact that India has a long 4000 years of third gender culture. They have been sacked by every shades of our society. They have been deprived of fundamental rights; they have been forced to show their genitals in the government medicals as if they are some museum display. They are forced to do sexual fervour to the police to keep them at bay.

LGBT community has become a vestigial part of our society. They have been rejected by our society which forces them to indulge in sex trade, dancing to feed their starved stomach. “If I would have been supported by my parents then I would not have been in this sex trade,” says, a LGBT individual of Andhra Pradesh. They have been struggling since their puberty, first by family, then by their own Indian society which proclaims itself as the spiritual leader in humanity.

After 62 years of independence their freedom is sacrificed at the altar of expediency. They are being branded as criminals.

It is high time now for all of us to understand the motives of the political, religious bureaucrats who manipulate us by misinterpreting the clauses of holy books and making us to desegregate-- so that their own vested interest is achieved. Let us peep behind the mirror and look that they are the same leaders who revolt in the name of humanity when some Indian is racially abused in Australia and surprisingly they themselves only motivate us to assault Indians inside India. By this act, are we not setting a shameful example of sheer democratic system of our country? Let us not replicate our morals of humanity by reasons of judgment. Let us ingrain our cultural values. If at all we have decided to condemn LGBT groups then let us first firmly erase the concept of ‘ardhanareshwari’ from our religious books. Let us not play anymore blame games or dramatise any law as we know they are not implemented. Let us not anymore fall victim in the hands of these spiritual, political gurus who are using us as the weapon of religion, law to colonolise us in our own society.