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Greater than 2,000 individuals took half in a homosexual pleasure occasion in New Delhi, waving rainbow flags and multicolored balloons as they celebrated sexual variety in India but in addition raised issues over the nation’s restrictive legal guidelines.
Dancing to drums and music, the contributors walked for greater than two hours to the Jantar Mantar space close to India’s Parliament. They held banners studying “Equality for all” and “Queer and proud.”
(AP)
The annual occasion comes after India’s high court docket refused to legalize same-sex marriages in an October ruling that dissatisfied campaigners for LGBTQ+ rights on the earth’s most populous nation.
“It’s not about marriage. It is about equality. All people ought to have the identical proper as a result of that’s what our structure says,” mentioned Noor Enayat, one of many volunteers organizing this yr’s occasion.
(AFP through Getty Photos)
(AP)
(AP)
Earlier this yr, the Supreme Courtroom’s five-judge bench heard 21 petitions that sought to legalize same-sex marriage in India.
The justices referred to as for steps to lift consciousness among the many public about LGBTQ+ id and to determine hotlines and secure homes for these in the neighborhood who’re going through violence. Additionally they urged the state to ensure same-sex {couples} don’t face harassment or discrimination in accessing fundamental wants, like opening a joint checking account, however stopped wanting granting authorized recognition to same-sex unions.
(AFP through Getty Photos)
(AFP through Getty Photos)
Authorized rights for LGBTQ+ individuals in India have been increasing over the previous decade, largely because of the Supreme Courtroom’s intervention.
In 2018, the highest court docket struck down a colonial-era regulation that had made homosexual intercourse punishable by as much as 10 years in jail and expanded constitutional rights for the homosexual neighborhood. The choice was seen as a historic victory for LGBTQ+ rights.
Regardless of this progress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist authorities resisted the authorized recognition of same-sex marriage and rejected a number of petitions in favor. Some spiritual teams, too, had opposed same-sex unions, saying they went towards Indian tradition.
(AFP through Getty Photos)
Homosexuality has lengthy carried a stigma in India’s conventional society, despite the fact that there was a shift in attitudes towards same-sex {couples} in recent times. India now has overtly homosexual celebrities and a few high-profile Bollywood movies have handled homosexual points.
In accordance with a Pew survey, acceptance of homosexuality in India elevated by 22 proportion factors to 37% between 2013 and 2019. However same-sex {couples} typically face harassment in lots of Indian communities, whether or not Hindu, Muslim, or Christian.
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