Pride month and laws in India

Introduction

Pride Month is the month of love which is celebrated all over the world in June every year. It is the month where people all over the world celebrate every kind of love.

The pride parade (also known as pride marches, pride events, and pride festivals) are outdoor events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events also at times serve as presentations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Most pride events occur annually, and many take place around June to dedicate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBTQ social movements. Each year new members of the LGBTQ+ community are welcomed into this long notion as part of the education needed to better know the history of this community and the elders who helped shape it as all endured social and constitutional discriminations many of which have yet to be remedied.

Many parades still have at least some of the original political or activist character, especially in less accepting settings.

LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY:

The pride community includes every kind of diverse sexuality. The LGBTQ+ community as LGBTQQIP2SAA stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit (2S), androgynous and asexual.  In the LGBT version of the rainbow flag, each colour has a different meaning: Red = Life. Orange = Healing. Yellow = Sun.

The first national gay rights organization, the Mattachine Society, was formed in 1951, was created by Harry Hay. The first lesbian rights organization in the US was founded in 1955. The Daughters of Bilitis was founded in San Francisco, California by activist couple Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. From about 1988, activists began to use the initialism LGBT in the United States. Not until the 1990s within the movement did gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people gain equal respect. This spurred some organizations to adopt new names, as the GLBT Historical Society did in 1999. Discrimination against LGBT persons has been associated with high rates of psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, and suicide. Experiences of violence and victimization are frequent for LGBT individuals and have long-lasting effects on the personal and the community. Sexual orientation discrimination is discrimination against a person or group on the basis of their sexual orientation or sexual behaviour. Sexual orientation discrimination often comes up in the context of employment actions. There are many issues even related to accessing the healthcare facilities by the community members.

Issues related to the gay members in India and laws around the globe:

In India, the LGBTQ+ community members faces many problems as the constitution does provide equality but it had no place for the wide set of sexualities at the time it was made.

• On 6 September 2018, consensual gay sex was legalized by India's Supreme Court. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), dating back to 1861, makes sexual activities "against the order of nature" punishable by law and carries a life sentence. The legalization of such section was a big step for the country like India which is believed to be so conservative and still developing. 
• Furthermore, it ruled that any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a violation of the Indian Constitution.
• Sexual orientation is one of the many biological phenomena which is natural and inherent in an individual and is controlled by neurological and biological factors. The science of sexuality has theorized that an individual exerts little or no control over who he/she gets attracted to. Any discrimination on the basis of one‘s sexual orientation would entail a violation of the fundamental right of freedom of expression
• Transgender people in India are allowed to change their legal gender post-sex reassignment surgery under legislation passed in 2019 and have a constitutional right to register themselves under a third gender. Additionally, some states protect hijras, a traditional third gender population in South Asia, through housing programmes, and offer welfare benefits, pension schemes, free operations in government hospitals, as well as other programmes designed to assist them. There are approximately 4.8 million transgender people in India. In 1871, the British labelled the hijra population as a "criminal tribe".
• Hijras were legally granted voting rights as a third sex in 1994.
• LGBT people are banned from openly serving in the Indian Armed Forces. In late December 2018, Member of Parliament Jagdambika Pal (BJP) introduced a bill to the Indian Parliament to amend the Army Act, 1950, the Navy Act, 1957 and the Air Force Act, 1950 that would allow LGBT people to serve in the Armed Forces.

Even though there has been many changes in the constitution and the mindset of Indian society, the gay members have come a long way in claiming the equality in the eyes of law but yet there are still many more hurdles to cross as we go along in the future.

Countries like The USA have legalized gay marriages which are still prohibited in India.

Recently there was a huge law passed in the US with regard to TITLE IV of the constitution which was that no person can be fired from their jobs for being gay or transgender.

Yesterday, in Egypt a young software engineer was tortured, exiled and killed on the orders Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi’s well-documented crackdown on free expression as she raised the Pride Flag during a concert.

CONCLUSION:

As our country is moving towards the developed state, so is our mindset of this conservative society. It is still a long way to go but all we can hope is one step at a time. We still require more and more awareness and acceptance.