What is the Origin of Pride Month? History of LGBTQ Rights in India Explained – News18

India celebrated Pride Month in June, which celebrates alternative sexual and gender identity, with members of the community mark the social and legal progress made on their rights. In the same month, Uganda’s President criminalised same-sex conduct, including a potential death term for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality”.

What is the History of Pride Month?

In the 1960s in North America, homosexual activity was illegal in all major cities, including New York and Philadelphia, besides apartheid and racial inequality.

This did not prevent gays to gather across the country. One of them was the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York City – an epicenter for gay gatherings in the city. The Stonewall Inn was reportedly operating without a liquor licence.

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, nine policemen entered the Stonewall Inn for one such raid, arresting employees for selling alcohol without licence and emptying the place of its colourful patrons.

Around 400 people continued to riot near the Stonewall Inn, eventually setting the bar on fire. The police managed to quell the fire, but the riots persisted for five days. Thus, the Stonewall riots marked a turning point where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people formed a united front against police action and bias.

Experts also refer to some other similar but equally significant incidents and uprisings that happened in the years prior to Stonewall—for instance, the one at Cooper Donuts in Los Angeles (1959), the protests at Compton Cafeteria in San Francisco (1966) and the LGBT demonstration at Black Cat Tavern also in Los Angeles (1967).

The Stonewall riots pushed the LGBTQ activism even further. A young activist called for nationwide protests each June honouring the Stonewall riots during the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations in 1969. It was thus that, a year after the riots, New York’s first pride march was held in June of 1970. Thousands marched in the parade, starting off in Christopher Street and ending in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

Bill Clinton in 1999 officially gave June the status of ‘Gay and Lesbian Pride Month’ to commemorate the event. In 2009, President Barack Obama declared June as LGBT Pride Month and, on June 1, 2021, President Joe Biden declared June LGBTQ Pride Month.

Pride March in India

India saw its first-ever gay protest on August 11, 1992 held by the AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) outside ITO Police headquarters in Delhi to protest the arrest of men from Central Park in Connaught Place on the suspicion of homosexuality.

The ABVA published a pamphlet called Less Than Gay – a citizen report on the harassment faced by members of the LGBTQ community in India.

A medical team in 1994 sought to look into the high prevalence of same-sex relations reported from the Tihar Jail. While the ABVA activists wanted to distribute condoms to inmates, then Inspector General of Prisons Kiran Bedi refused to grant permission. They were resorted to mandatory HIV testing, as reported by The Hindu.

In 1994, ABVA also filed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the constitutional validity of Section 377 of IPC in the Delhi High Court, considered to be one of the first legal protests against the government repression of the LGBTQIA+ community in India.

On July 2, 1999, India held its first Pride Parade in Kolkata – ‘Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk’ — the march was the first-ever Pride march in South Asia. Since this momentous event, Pride marches have been held in over 21 Indian cities.

Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore saw their first pride parades in 2008, and Bhubaneswar and Chennai followed suit in 2009. Kerala’s first march was in 2010 and Pune in 2011. Guwahati was the first to hold a Pride Parade in the Northeast in 2014.

Legal Hurdles for LGBTQ Rights in India

By 2002, India reported around 3.97 million HIV-affected people, second only to South Africa. At that time, former Union Health secretary Sujatha Rao convinced the health ministry to take pro-LGBTQ stand. Even lawyers decided to argue for the rights of gays and lesbians.

In 2009, the Delhi High Court held in Naz Foundation vs Govt. of NCT Delhi that treating gay sex between consenting adults as a crime was a gross violation of the fundamental right to privacy enshrined in the Indian Constitution. But the Supreme Court in 2013 overturned the Delhi High Court’s ruling in Suresh Kumar Koushal vs Naz Foundation.

In 2015, Shashi Tharoor introduced a private member’s bill in the Lok Sabha seeking to decriminalise homosexuality by amending Section 377 of the IPC. But it did not get passed in the House. In 2016, the Lok Sabha again voted against the bill to amend Section 377.

In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that privacy was a fundamental right for individuals under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

In 2018, the top court ruled that Section 377 was unconstitutional “in so far as it criminalises consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex” thus legalising “consensual same-sex acts between homosexuals, heterosexuals, lesbians and other sexual minorities.”

Battle for Same-Sex Marriage

Several cases were filed in the high courts seeking recognition of same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act, the Special Marriage Act and the Foreign Marriage Act.

Two gay couples filed writ petitions in the Supreme Court in November 2022 seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages under the Special Marriage Act, 1954.

The Union government had made its stand clear that decriminalization of same-sex relationships does not signify acceptance of same-sex marriage as it is not in line with the Indian society.

In April 2022, NCP MP Supriya Sule introduced a private member Bill in Lok Sabha to legalise same-sex marriage in the country.

According to Pink List India, the country’s first archive of politicians supporting LGBTQ+ rights, 115 of 161 Members of Parliament who have publicly weighed in on the same-sex marriage debate have expressed support.

In June 2022, the Kerala High Court made a landmark judgment by allowing a lesbian couple to live together after they were separated by their parents.

On August 2022, the National Medical Commission (NMC) wrote to all Medical Councils, banning conversion therapy and calling it professional misconduct. It also asked the states to take disciplinary action against medical professionals who violate the guideline.

LGBTQ+ Rights in the World

According to the ILGA (the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) World Database, consensual same-sex sexual activity was not criminalised in 129 countries, while 64 countries still criminalise homosexuality.

All countries in North America and Europe legalise same-sex behaviour.

In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country and, in 2019, Taiwan the first Asian country, to legalise same-sex marriage.

In Asia, it was legal in 20 out of 42-member countries in 2020. In 2021, Angola and Bhutan decriminalised homosexuality, followed by Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Kitts and Nevis in 2022.

In May 2023, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court approved a Bill seeking to decriminalise homosexuality. South Korean lawmakers too introduced legislation to extend the right to marry to same-sex couples, amending the nation’s civil code.

Some countries, like Montenegro, have recognised same-sex civil unions, while still not legalising marriage.

In June, Thailand legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the third Asian country to do so after Taiwan and Nepal.

Same-sex marriage or relationship remain illegal in many countries. As of November 2020, six UN member states— Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Nigeria— still prescribed the death penalty as punishment for homosexual acts.

In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia (including Somaliland) and the United Arab Emirates death penalty may be given but it is less certain.