INDIA: Hundreds Attend First Pride Event Since Homosexuality Was Recriminalized

Via Reuters:

Hundreds of people danced, sang and cheered in a gay pride parade in India's capital on Sunday, the first since the country's top court reinstated a ban on gay sex in the world's largest democracy. Multi-coloured balloons, masquerade masks and wigs, a huge rainbow flag and a St Bernard dog ushered in the seventh Delhi Queer Pride parade, with many shaking their hips to drum beats. Participants chanting "Azaadi" (freedom) and shouting slogans such as "I'm gay, that's OK" carried banners and placards demanding their right to love. In December, India's Supreme Court threw out a 2009 ruling by a lower court that had decriminalised gay sex, saying only parliament could repeal Section 377 of India's penal code which bans sex against the order of nature. The British colonial-era law is widely interpreted to mean homosexual sex, and can be punished with up to 10 years in jail. Many choose to hide their sexuality for fear of discrimination.

INDIA: LGBT Community & Allies Demonstrate Against Court Ruling

In what was titled as a "Global Day Of Rage," yesterday LGBT Indians and their allies demonstrated against last week's Supreme Court ruling that recriminalized homosexuality. Supporting demonstrations were held in major cities around the world. The clips below are from New Delhi and Bangalore. Buzzfeed has posted a massive compilation of photos from cities in many nations.

INDIA: At New Delhi Pride 2013

New Delhi's gay pride parade was Sunday and while the event was small by Western standards, hundreds took to the streets to demand LGBT rights.

The demonstrators urged an end to all forms of discrimination against gay men, lesbians and transgender people in India, four years after a colonial-era law that criminalised gay sex was overturned. One group of activists carried a 15-metre (50ft) rainbow-coloured banner, while others waved placards demanding the freedom to lead dignified lives. The march ended with a public meeting at Jantar Mantar, the main area for protests in Delhi. Many gay rights activists and their families danced and sang as drummers and musicians performed. Others distributed rainbow-coloured flags and badges to members of the public who had gathered to watch and listen to the speeches. Many demonstrators had come to the march to express their support for the gay community in the city. In 2009, the Delhi high court decriminalised gay sex, which until then had been punishable by up to 10 years in prison. In some big Indian cities, homosexuality is slowly gaining acceptance, and a few high-profile Bollywood films have dealt with gay issues. Still, many at the march on Sunday covered their faces with scarves or wore masks because they have not told their friends and families about their sexuality.

At New Delhi Pride 2012

The Times Of India reports that a small but exuberant crowd demonstrated this weekend at New Delhi's fifth gay pride event.

In spite of the prying eyes and shocked stares, the LGBT community in the capital came out once again in rainbow colours on Sunday to reinforce their identities. Almost three years after the judiciary decriminalized consensual sex among homosexuals, the community feels a lot more confident. However, a sense of taboo and underlying insecurity still exist, say many at the fifth Delhi Queer Pride March. The LGBT (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) parade, which was flagged off from Barakhamba Road with a giant rainbow flag, attracted people with all types of sexual orientation. The parade, however, saw a dip in the number of participants, with around 200 people - mostly youngsters - turning up this year against a few hundreds last year.

INDIA: Gay Pride In New Delhi

INDIA: Supreme Court Defers On 2009 Ruling Decriminalizing Homosexuality

In 2009 the New Delhi High Court issued a landmark ruling decriminalizing homosexuality. That judgment prompted religious and political groups to petition the Indian Supreme Court to overturn the ruling. Today the Supreme Court deferred their decision until "after summer vacations."

Senior BJP leader B P Singhal, who had approached the High Court opposing legalisation of gay sex, has challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court saying such acts are illegal, immoral and against ethos of Indian culture. Religious organisations like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Utkal Christian Council and Apostolic Churches Alliance have opposed the High Court's verdict. Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Right, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munn Kazhgam, astrologer Suresh Kumar Kaushal and yoga guru Ramdev have also opposed the verdict in the apex court.

Indian activists are disappointed that the Court refused to reject the petitions entirely. Below, Australian television covers the issue in a report filed before today's deferment.

UPDATE: India's Decriminalization Of Homosexuality DOES Apply Nationwide

Contrary to earlier reports that the Dehli High Court's ruling to decriminalize homosexuality only applied in the National Capital Territory, today the Times Of India reports that the ruling does indeed apply nationwide.

Since a high court has a limited territorial jurisdiction, is homosexuality decriminalized only in Delhi or the whole country? Although legal pundits are divided on this, the law laid down by a 2004 SC judgment implies that homosexuals across the country may rest assured that they too are entitled to the benefits of the historic Delhi high court decision on Section 377 IPC. In Kusum Ingots vs Union of India, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had ruled: “An order passed on writ petition questioning the constitutionality of a Parliamentary Act, whether interim or final, will have effect throughout the territory of India subject of course to the applicability of the Act.”

In a separate story the Times Of India also reports that the government is unlikely to appeal the High Court's ruling.

Though under pressure from religious groups of all hues to appeal against the Delhi High Court order legalising gay sex, the Manmohan Singh government is unlikely to move the Supreme Court on its own. The opinion in the government on the fraught issue is far from settled and the Delhi HC may have spared it the tough task of coalescing divergent views into a position. In fact, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi indicated as much when he said that "the verdict has rendered legislative intervention meaningless".

Veteran gay reporter Rex Wockner has issued requests to several major U.S. newspapers that they correct their earlier reports about the ruling's impact nationwide.

Indian High Court Legalizes Homosexuality In New Dehli

In a ruling that is only binding in the National Capital Territory (for now), the Delhi High Court has decriminalized homosexuality in a decision with sweeping implications for one of the world's largest gay populations.

Rex Wockner has done an excellent analysis of the decision. An excerpt:

What about the rest of India? It certainly carries weight there but is, at the moment, legally binding only in the National Capital Territory. What could happen next is that (A) the national government could appeal the ruling to India's Supreme Court, (B) the national government could accept the ruling and not appeal it, (C) the national government could accept the ruling and use it as ammo to introduce a bill in Parliament to duplicate the ruling in national law, and/or (D) anti-gay parties to the lawsuit could appeal to the Supreme Court. Regardless, gay sex is now legal in India's National Capital Territory and, as the Queer Media Collective put it: "This is the first time a court as senior as this, with such respected judges, has given a decision on homosexuality. Because of that it sends a powerful signal to the legal establishment across the country. We are confident that judges, lawyers and police officers across the country will understand and follow the Delhi High Court's lead."

The most damning bit of the ruling: "The criminalisation of homosexuality condemns in perpetuity a sizable section of society and forces them to live their lives in the shadow of harassment, exploitation, humiliation, cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of the law enforcement machinery."