INDIA'S STONEWALL

Published on: 15 July 2009

New York’s Stonewall riot in 1969 is credited with launching the gay rights movement. Now 40 years later a court in the capital of the World’s largest democracy, Delhi - India, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act. Previously homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence under a 148-year-old colonial law which described same-sex relationships as an ‘unnatural offence’.

British colonisers introduced Section 377 to India in 1860. It became a model for similar sodomy laws imposed on other British colonies, and comparable provisions survive today from Singapore to Uganda. Most of the world's sodomy laws are relics of colonialism. Isn’t it strange how quick we are to throw off the mantle of colonialism when it suits us – say to seize economic control of a country but many human rights affecting relics are retained to fulfil some moral agenda.

The court ruling in India is historic in a country where homosexuals face discrimination and persecution on a daily basis and it also promises to change the discourse on sexuality in a largely conservative country, where even talking about sex is largely taboo. Now begins the long path that we in South Africa are already on – of building supporting legislation and changing attitudes. The Indian example perhaps exemplifies just what we battle – a position held by older cultural guardians versus the new generation. We need not look far to know how activists can fall prone to violence especially where they have no law to call on for protection.

And that’s what Stonewall was all about. Standing up and saying enough is enough and demanding our human rights. The battle is far from over if 40 years later a large and very visible democracy like India is only abolishing what amounts to human right’s abuses in 2009. Taking Stonewall back to its origins, most states in the USA still withhold some of the inalienable rights their constitution speaks of for gay members of their society. One of the major contributing factors to the fall of Apartheid was solidarity of opposition from international groups and countries. Should this not be the same approach for gay people around the world? We need to stand together and announce that it is no longer acceptable for countries to criminalise our sexuality and not to recognise our full rights as citizens.

In the interim it is a time for celebration in India, a time for building impetus behind a movement to change a culture to accept all the members of its society. We too can celebrate along with our international counterparts for this is a battle won for all gay people, a changing of a dark legacy into a hopeful future for gay people everywhere. Now we can call enlightened attention to countries which maintain outdated, inhuman beliefs and we should make their shame known to the rest of the world. And even though the revolution, so to speak, began in the USA only recently did Barack Obama sign the UN declaration to stop anti-homosexuality legislation and they finally left the ranks of human rights abusers like Russia, China and the Arab countries. South Africa is yet to sign this declaration.