For many years, the struggle in India of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual (LGBT), hijra, kothi and other non-heterosexualities – what this writer terms as 'queer' sexualities – has been fought along the silent margins of both mainstream society and 'progressive' politics. Things have begun to change in recent years, but there is still a long way to go. While certain sections of Indian society have opened up due to the activism of the queer-rights movement, the spaces that queer lives must negotiate in India today remain difficult – in their everyday lives, as well as in their struggle to articulate sexuality as not just as an aspect of identity, but as a deeply held political language in its own right.
Society repeatedly tells us that there is only one kind of acceptable desire – male, heterosexual, within marriage. Social structures further define and defend what can be referred to as the 'hetero-normative ideal': rigid notions of what it means to be a man or a woman, how the two should relate, and the family unit that should result from such a relationship. This dynamic creates a unique kind of universe. A certain type of family is privileged – heterosexual men and women of the same caste, class and religious backgrounds – while any other realities outside this ideal (think single women, widows, sex workers, inter-caste and inter-class couples, along with LGBT-identified people) are punished, subtly and not-so-subtly, through law, medicine, social norms and religion. There is a fundamental principle at work here: those in power create rules and structures that enforce their vision of what is acceptable, and penalise all those that fall outside of these structures. This play of power will sound familiar to those in other political movements, but unlike in the case of gender, caste, religion or statehood, for example, the acknowledgement of such marginalisation on the basis of sexuality is relatively recent.
For people desirous of same-sex relationships, the boundaries of this regulation are unashamedly clear – Sec 377 of the Indian Penal Code, written in 1863, criminalises "voluntary carnal intercourse against the order of nature", effectively criminalising homosexual activity even when it occurs between consenting adults in private. In an unfortunate shared-neighbourhood legacy, most Southasian countries carry similar laws.
Few cases tend to be brought to the court under Sec 377. Yet both documented evidence and the lived realities of thousands of queer people in India testify to the fact that the law creates an environment that justifies violence, stigma and discrimination against same-sex desire. In the name of the law, there is widespread police abuse, violence and sexual assault, especially against transgender hijras and non-middle-class LGBT people. Activist groups in Delhi have documented tales of leading hospitals and mental-health professionals ordering 'conversion' therapies that include years of electric shocks and psychotropic drug prescriptions to 'cure' people of their sexuality. In 2001, the offices of an NGO working on sexual health and HIV/AIDS prevention were raided, and the members were charged under Sec 377. More recently, in Lucknow, several gay men were set up in a fake encounter and then arrested, publicly humiliated and charged under Sec 377 – simply for the crime of trying to meet a partner of the same-sex.