In the 22 years since 2001 when her organisation, Naz Foundation, moved the court with an appeal to read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised homosexual intercourse, the dynamic Anjali Gopalan has widened the scope of her struggle to ensure equal rights for the LGBTQI community and campaigned against societal prejudices and legal discrimination against people with alternative sexual orientation.  

The landmark in this struggle was September 6, 2018, when the Supreme Court finally struck down the archaic provision. By then, Gopalan was joined in her fight by as many as 32 human rights activists, artists, IITians and members of the LGBTQI community, among whom were artist Navtej Johar, journalist Sunil Mehra, food entrepreneur Ritu Dalmia, hoteliers Aman Nath and Keshav Suri, and Ayesha Kapur. The petitioners against Section 377 won the businessline Changemaker of the Year in 2019. 

This spirited group of changemakers achieved a significant first milestone in the struggle for ensuring equality – social, economic and before the law – for the LGBTQI community by eliminating the law that labelled them as criminals. While every individual associated in this struggle believes that decriminalisation of gay sex was a historic moment for the community, there is complete unanimity that it was only the beginning of a long struggle. 

According to Gopalan, it was significant that the community was not categorised as “criminal” anymore. But they are still deprived of the basic rights available to all citizens of the country. “All that has happened so far is that the community is not branded as criminal any more. That is a significant achievement, but look at it in terms of basic human rights. A large number of people in this country are still deprived of their basic rights as citizens because of whom they love. We cannot marry and have no rights associated with that basic right – the right to divorce, the right to adopt. For what reason are citizens devoid of these rights,” Gopalan asks. 

Long way to go

This struggle for equal treatment of those with alternative sexual orientation has just received a setback with the Supreme Court rejecting a bunch of petitions pleading for legalising same sex marriages and extension of the right of adoption to queer couples. Despite underlining that queerness is neither only urban nor an elitist phenomenon, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices SK Kaul, SR Bhat, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha disappointed the LGBTQ+ community with a unanimous ruling that the right to marry is not a fundamental right and the legislature had the power to regulate it in accordance with societal conditions. 

Hotelier Keshav Suri, who joined as a petitioner in the 377 decriminalisation matter in 2013 when the SC overruled the Delhi HC’s earlier judgment legalising gay sex, is also of the opinion that while it was a first and an extremely significant step, the community still has a lot of work to do. “We have a long way to go before we ensure equality for each one of us in the LGBTQI community,” Suri says. 

According to Suri, the next step after decriminalisation is to push for more inclusion, housing rights, right to marriage, insurance and equality. Suri simultaneously moved the Supreme Court to challenge its 2013 judgment. He was joined by the Hamsafar Trust, and other activists and artists. The apex court was persuaded in what the young hotelier believes in making a historical beginning towards equality.  

“It is just the beginning. This is the first step towards equality. There are a whole lot of other things to do. For instance, I am married and my partner is French. I think it is totally unfair that I have more rights in France than he has in India. In Kochi airport, they hired transgenders and after a while, a whole lot of them left because no one was willing to rent houses to them. There is housing, insurance, marriage rights, we have a lot of work. But we have made a good beginning at least by removing the stigma of being criminals,” says Suri.  

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