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Press Release: Release of second edition (digital) of ‘Less than Gay’ – A Citizens’ Report on the status of Homosexuality in India

    The AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) is releasing the second edition of ‘ Less than Gay ’ – A Citizens’ Report on the status of Homo...

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

Press Release: ABVA releases digitized version of its report “Hard Times For Positive Travel”



On ‘World Tourism Day’ AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) is releasing the digitized version of its report “Hard Times For Positive Travel” which originally appeared as a hard copy in September, 1993 at New Delhi, India. The document is a Citizens’ Report on the status of travellers with HIV/AIDS. It was prepared by nine ABVA members. The trigger point for this documentation was the inhuman and cruel treatment meted out to a French tourist visiting Calcutta (now Kolkata) who was deported from India on account of being HIV positive. As per media reports:

“In February 1992, a French tourist visiting Calcutta fell ill. She was taken by a colleague tourist to a private nursing home of Calcutta. At the nursing home the tourist informed the doctors that she is HIV positive. This set a chain reaction of panic. Instead of taking basic precautions for infection control, the health professionals only displayed the level of their ignorance which was evident from the sequence of events that followed. The patient, who had dehydration was shifted to another nursing home and subsequently deported from the country.”

At that time ABVA was concerned about the harassment and hounding out of HIV positive foreigners by the Indian Government, as also by governments all over the world. Foreign travellers everywhere were being targeted as high risk group which could spread HIV infection amongst the people of the country being visited. This was a monumental hoax perpetrated by the medical establishment. The irrational fear amongst the allopathic doctors was the only reason for the discrimination faced by HIV positive travellers – who were being forcibly tested, quarantined and deported back to their country of origin. Not a word of regret was being offered by the local governments. Foreign students found to be HIV positive were being sent back to their country of origin. This happened even at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Even the most advanced countries including USA resorted to deportation of HIV positive persons. An International AIDS Conference which was to be held in Boston was moved to Amsterdam in protest against US curbs on the movement of people carrying HIV infection.

While preparing the report ABVA sent letters to embassies and high-commissions of ninety-three countries to explain their immigration and visiting laws with respect to people with HIV/AIDS. Only seven of them chose to respond viz Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Jordan, Poland and Switzerland. These few countries had an overtly progressive position, while a number of those who practiced discriminatory policies remained silent.

A ten point Charter of Demands was presented by ABVA (see Report) to the Indian Government to have a scientifically oriented, humane solution in the context of HIV positive travellers to India. ABVA even petitioned the United Nations to take necessary steps so that member states of the U.N. bring a halt to the discrimination faced by HIV positive persons/ AIDS patients in the context of travel from one member country to another.

25 years after the ABVA’s report was released, 35 countries out of 193 countries (WHO list) still have HIV related travel restrictions.

India reportedly lifted all travel restrictions against HIV positive patients in 2010.


Shobha Aggarwal
ABVA member

Sunday, 23 September 2018

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN INDIA by Sanjukta Bose



A Brief History Of The Gay Rights Movement In India



6 September 2018 shall be ceaselessly celebrated because the day India moved on to the suitable aspect of historical past and stood up for the rights and dignity of a group that had suffered by the hands of the federal government and the whole society because the days of colonialism. The scraping of Part 377 arrived at a time when LGBTQ activism is at its peak in India, however so is the violence and discrimination towards the group. The historic verdict is being hailed as a a lot wanted step ahead within the battle to finish all types of discrimination based mostly on one’s sexual orientation. Nevertheless, this victory is the results of almost three many years of steady onerous work and devoted activism by people and organizations who pledged their complete lives to this trigger. Most of it, sadly, stays unknown and finds no place within the annals of India’s trendy historical past. Lack of understanding and consciousness is all the time cited as a key issue that contributes to rampant homophobia among the many plenty, permits highly effective establishments to get away with distortion of information and knowledge that additional fuels the issue.
Even earlier than Naz Basis and the Legal professionals Collective filed a PIL for the repeal of Part 377 in 2001, there have been organizations and activists who had been preventing for the homosexual rights motion in India. In 1977, Shakuntala Devi revealed “The World of Homosexuals” which is claimed to be the primary research of homosexuality in India, towards the backdrop of the Emergency years. Right here, she burdened that the necessity of the hour was to acknowledge the existence of and create inclusive areas for the gay inhabitants of the nation. In 1981, the All India Hijra Convention was held in Agra and noticed participation from almost 50,000 members of the group. In 1999, the primary ever satisfaction parade in India passed off in Calcutta on July 2nd. It was referred to as the Friendship Stroll and hardly had fifteen individuals.
The first organized public protest of the homosexual rights motion in India was held on 11th August, 1992 outdoors the Police Headquarters at New Delhi. It was organized by the AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (or the AIDS Anti Discrimination Movement) and was attended by over 500 enthusiastic people, together with civil liberties and democratic rights teams. The protest was organized a day after 18 individuals have been arrested from the Central Park, Connaught Place on costs that they have been allegedly about to interact in gay acts. When members of ABVA approached cops to investigate concerning the arrest, they have been advised that that they had acquired complaints from residents within the neighboring areas relating to the “menace of homosexuals” within the park through the night hours. Harassment of this type continues to be a standard apply in several elements of India even as we speak. In June this yr, a homosexual man and his pal have been crushed up by police in Delhi and subsequently arrested for hugging a trans lady. Nevertheless, with the partial striking- down of Part 377, members of the group a minimum of have authorized safety now that may assist them search redress.
The ABVA began out in 1988-1989 as a non-profit group that labored to finish all types of discrimination towards HIV/AIDS in India. Throughout its preliminary days, it comprised an eclectic mixture of members that included a leprosy affected person, a nun, a closeted homosexual individual, social staff, docs, legal professionals, non-formal schooling staff, ladies’s teams’ members and even a pavement dweller. In 1989, ABVA performed a big position in stalling the AIDS Prevention Invoice, 1989 from passing, by means of petitions within the Parliament, public conferences and protest. Had this draconian invoice been handed, then excessive danger teams can be forcibly examined for HIV by the federal government and people with constructive outcomes can be pressured into quarantine. This regulation would have massively violated the civil and democratic liberties of many.
The group is credited with publishing the primary citizen’s report on the state of homosexuals in India titled “Less Than Gay”. The report was ready by seven ABVA members, viz Arun Bhandari, Dr. J.P. Jain, Jagdish Bhardwaje, Lalitha S.A., Dr. P.S. Sahni, Shalini S.C.N. and Siddharth Gautam. The report additionally carried the Constitution of Calls for- the LGBTQ Manifesto that, for the primary time in India, articulated the demand for the repeal of Part 377 together with the related sections of the Military, Navy and Air Drive Act, 1950 that criminalized same- intercourse sexual actions. It demanded for the popularity of proper to privateness as a elementary proper for all residents of the nation. The manifesto additionally burdened on the necessity for equal civil rights and authorized protections of the LGBTQ group and in addition demanded the institution of a authorities fee to doc human rights violations of queer people in India.
In 1994, ABVA filed the primary Public Curiosity Litigation (PIL) in Delhi Excessive Courtroom difficult the constitutional validity of Part 377- this was the primary authorized protest towards the oppression of the LGBTQ group in India by authorities establishments and set the ball rolling for the homosexual rights motion in India. No queer individual volunteered to be part of the case regardless of greatest efforts made by the group. Again then; even individuals belonging to the LGBTQ group have been reluctant to brazenly help and struggle for the group for worry of public backlash and repercussions. Keep in mind, that within the 1990s, it was a lot more durable to be queer in India than it’s at the moment. The petition was dismissed in 2001, nevertheless it sowed the seeds for a battle that went on for years till it lastly noticed the glimmering mild of success. The PIL was truly filed because of a public controversy whereby ABVA activists have been refused permission by authorities of Tihar Jail once they needed to distribute condoms to the prisoners. Kiran Bedi, the then Inspector Common of Prisons, refused permission on the grounds that permitting distribution of condoms would imply admitting the existence of gay relations in Tihar and that it will encourage the follow additional.
Alongside ABVA, Humsafar Belief was one other NGO that pioneered the reason for LGBT rights in India. Its preliminary focus was on offering HIV/AIDS well being providers to homosexual males, however quickly it expanded to offer steerage, checkups, counseling and outreach for the whole LGBTQ group. The founding father of this group, Ashok Row Kavi, is claimed to have written the primary “coming out” story in India that was revealed in 1986 in Savvy journal. At the moment, Kavi didn’t understand the influence his story would have on his personal life and on the lives of different individuals. In an interview afterward, Kavi admitted he had no concept that his story would trigger such controversy. “When you come out in India, [your] gay identity becomes your primary identity… All the other identities- being a good journalist, for instance- become backups. When I came out in 1984, I didn’t realize it would create such a ruckus, but I nearly lost my job. My boss stood by me, though. Fortunately, I had come out to him before I had accepted the job,” Kavi had said.
2001 noticed sure landmark occasions within the wrestle for LGBTQ rights in India. Alongside the PIL filed by the Naz Basis and Legal professionals Collective, queer people in Mumbai staged a silent protest outdoors the well-known Flora Fountain, ushering in a brand new tradition of protest for the motion. The protest was in response to the arrests made in July 2001 by Lucknow Police. They arrested a gaggle of males from an area park on the grounds of suspected homosexuality. One among them was a employee with an NGO referred to as the Bharosa Belief; the police raided their workplace and confiscated safe- intercourse aids, like condoms, lubricants, educational movies and dildos. This information was reported with a lot sensationalism by the mainstream media, since journalism round homosexual rights then was severely uninformed and had a bent for sensationalizing incidents surrounding this problem.
The lengthy wrestle of LGBTQ activism in India is one that’s peppered with each victories and losses. In 1987, the wedding of Leela and Urmila, two policewomen from Madhya Pradesh, turned the primary recognized case of similar intercourse marriage in India. The two of them ultimately misplaced their jobs. In 2002, Kali turned the primary hijra individual to face for elections in Bihar and was elected a ward councilor. In 2004, Pushkin Chandra and his companion Kuldeep Singh have been each murdered in chilly blood. This incident delivered to mild the homophobic violence within the nation and it was solely in 2010 that the murderers have been awarded life sentences. In 2010, the Delhi Excessive Courtroom handed a landmark judgment granting equal rights to “sexual minorities”. The Supreme Courtroom in 2013 overturned this judgment, stating that issues pertaining to the repealing or amending of Part 377 must be left to the Parliament, not the judiciary. In January 2018, the Supreme Courtroom agreed to listen to a petition to revisit the 2013 Naz Basis judgment.
What this lesson in historical past teaches us is that the struggle isn’t actually over. There’s nonetheless a lot work left to be executed. A number of legal professionals, activists, NGOs and people spent their lives struggling in order that we might stay in a greater world; and our obligation in the direction of them is to create extra accepting and protected areas for many who come after us. We should educate ourselves and people round us, unfold consciousness towards homophobia, maintain establishments of energy accountable for his or her insurance policies and actions, help and shield those that want it probably the most, and promise to not get complacent on this current victory.
Featured picture supply: Instagram 
Abstract
Article Identify
A Brief History Of The Gay Rights Movement In India
Writer
Sanjukta Bose
Description
This is every thing you want to know concerning the Gay Rights Movement in India. Let there be delight with out prejudice!
Courtesy: Herald Magazine. link: https://visprfashions.com/a-brief-history-of-the-gay-rights-movement-in-india/
This article has been reproduced for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Friday, 21 September 2018

Talking Equality, To a Conservative Society

Talking Equality, To a Conservative Society

A LANDMARK JUDICIAL VERDICT DE-CRIMINALISING HOMOSEXUALITY EXTENDS FRONTIERS ON PERSONAL RIGHTS IN INDIA
by Harsh Kapoor19 September
Version imprimable de cet article Version imprimable
articles du meme auteur other articles by the author
Art work by Katerina Gribkoff
http://www.rawartists.org/katerinagribkoff
In four separate and combined judgments on September 6, 2018, in the Navtej Singh Johar case a constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled that the section 377 of Indian Penal Code (a colonial era provision from 1860) was discriminatory to the extent that it penalised consensual sex between adults [1]. Chief Justice Dipak Misra introduced the verdict saying "vanish, prejudice and embrace inclusion and ensure equal rights" . . . "Any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation violates fundamental rights". This ruling also overturned the retrogressive judicial error of 2013 in Suresh Kumar Koushal case [2], that had struck down a fine 2009 judgment of the Delhi High Court reading down Section 377. The ruling also said the Supreme Court had earlier recognized the right to choose a partner and the partner can also be a same sex partner.
This court verdict recognises homosexuality, the right freely conduct one’s sexual life and stands up for equality of all citizens as enshrined in the constitution and gives hope for new jurisprudence challenging the thousand and one discriminations and exclusions that shape the realities of everyday life in India.
ABVA organizes the first ever gay rights protest in India at Police Head Quarters, New Delhi; 11 August, 1992
Photo credits: Shobha Aggarwal /ABVA
This victory in the courts has been possible through long sustained work over the past two and half decades by a rare tribe of socially committed cosmopolitan lawyers [3] and a movement challenging compulsory heterosexuality and homophobia and organising people facing discrimination due to their sexual orientation, resisting violence, arrests and by creating and sustaining LGBT groups and organisations in a very conservative social environment [4]. Thousands of gay, lesbian, citizens remain in the closet for fear of the society and their own families.
But, hang on, there is a considerable social distance between the court decision and real world societal norms. While the LGBT groups celebrate, they also need to now open up (they too like much in India have been marked by a flourishing ’identitarian’ logic) and work with other movements on common issues of secular citizenship.
Burly men of the Muslim, Christian, Hindu right wing have already sounded the alarm, and they do call the shots among large numbers in India. Hindu Mahasabha says the court verdict was a threat to society and national interest calling for Parliament to intervene [5]. Big guns of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and some ulema types from Deoband say "Homosexuality is dirty, filthy and against nature". And the Apostolic Churches Alliance says "Homosexuality is an abomination as per the Bible". So here is another kind of Indian style ’Sarva Dharma Sambhava (all religions possible) masala’ secular alliance against our sinful, personal freedoms as citizens. These reactionaries have consistently stood together on this question for a long while [6]
These chaps are no aliens, they echo and amplify widespread prejudicial societal behaviour towards people with a different sexual orientation and all manner of moral policing for social ’deviation’. We run the risk all the time of being mowed down by our own people and from the left right and center (and now the new fashionable shoot at sight naming shaming anonymous internet list makers) for having chosen to go against the grain, to not be forced in marriage, to have the right to love and to show affection (holding hands) [7], to be able to dress, eat, write without offending someone, to have sex and to talk freely about it, to mock at society, to show irreverence, have the right to drop out of religion, caste, ethnicity and all manner of identity; without fear of binaries of majority, minority, national, foreign.
Taboos and social and moral tightness
Independent India has long had a deafening taboo on sex and sexuality — on all things that went against dominant sexual mores, The censor board used to decide whether you could show a kiss on the screen. There are schools that can expel someone from school if a student hugs a person of another sex. We remain a rigid and conservative place.
Even the progressive circles of the left reflected that dominant sensibility, there have been exceptions in their midst the progressive writers Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chughtai who had been both charged with obscenity in pre-independence days for their sensitive writings on the taboos of speaking of sexuality also had much trouble with their comrades of the left who classified such writing as bawdy.
The political elites and all mainstream political parties have failed us to bring safeguards and equal protections on matters of sexuality and private lives of citizens and education in schools and outside towards open-minded society with a healthy sexuality and a non-authoritarian culture.
There was a large social silence all around on sex, sexuality, sexual orientation.
In 1977 India’s famous math wizard Shakuntla Devi in her book ’The World of Homosexuals’ said that "rather than pretending that homosexuals don’t exist. it was time we face the facts squarely in the eye and find room for [homosexual people]."
Its important to recall the AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan from the early 1990s - first AIDS activist movement in India that published Less Than Gay a pioneering citizens report on the status of homosexuality (http://www.sacw.net/article10497.html)
The reaction from official circles then was that homosexuality doesn’t exist in India. They went on with this for many years.
1n 1994 Vimla Farooqi the vice president of progressive National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) wrote to the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to stop a gay men’s conference in Bombay. Even in 2000 NFIW found it difficult to include the issue of lesbian rights on the agenda of the International Women’s rights day. The left had been a very timid, puritanical and conventional [8] on the question of sexual orientation and private life for long time and rejected LGBT struggles as petty bourgeois / bourgeois reactionary fashionable behaviour coming from the west. In the past 15 years the old left has changed track caught up with times and supported the struggles for rights of Lesbian, Gay, Trans-sexual citizens at least in their public statements, though they still continue to shy away from taking ’personal is political’ to their constituency of the working classes where too misogyny, homophobia and conservative tradition, prejudice of all shape rules. It is a pleasure to see that NFIW has now stood up and supported the court ruling decriminalising section 377 and the All India Democratic Women’s Association associated with CPI(M) has welcomed the 6 Sept ruling [9]. The CPI(M) has also welcomed scrapping of section 377 [10]
In the 21st century Its time the people of left embraced personal rights / personal or private sphere in the wider agenda for social emancipation. Sexual violence is only going to grow in this country with a declining sex ratio, its time to challenge it not through more repressive laws and punishment. We are a violent and under-developed society, here rape passes for sex, there is no privacy for most, there is no choice, society leaves you no space to choose, caste, religion, community shape arranged marriages - people lack the ability to choose or to challenge imposed marriages, strangers get married and are clueless about sex or sexuality, those who do try to have partnerships on their own hide in parks when dating, they book hotel rooms under false names, they have no sexual education, they access porn secretively. The progressive organisations don’t talk sexual pleasure. How do you challenge moral policing of the right-wing and by the state. It has to be challenged in very real terms by creating places for it within social movements and in society. It is time to promote an open and healthy sexual culture and work for a sexual enlightenment. A sexually repressed society will inevitably be a violent place [11]. The state should not have a place in our beds but the lumpen mobs armed with ’moral social sanction of a halal / kosher / holy’ that roam freely to check ’sin’ should be shown their place too.
Break free, Break the convention, Break the silence, Break the taboo.
(The author is the founder and editor South Asia Citizen’s Web - sacw.net)


Footnotes

[1Text of Judgment by The Supreme Court of India - Striking down section 377 (6 Sept 2018) https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article24880700.ece/binary/Sec377judgment.pdf
[2Supreme Court says gay sex is a criminal offence, activists to seek review https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/supreme-court-says-gay-sex-is-a-criminal-offence-activists-to-seek-review-544125
[3The lawyers fighting to change India’s law on homosexuality http://www.atimes.com/article/the-lawyers-fighting-for-indias-right-to-sexual-identity-and-freedom/
[4India: Reminiscing ABVA’s Struggle for Gay Rights in the Twentieth Century – A Brief History of That Time by Shobha Aggarwal http://www.sacw.net/article13888.html
[5India: "verdict was a threat to society and national interest" statement by Hindu Mahasabha against the Supreme Court Judgment striking down section 377 https://communalism.blogspot.com/2018/09/india-verdict-was-threat-to-society-and.html ; Sects unite to save Section 377 https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/sects-unite-to-save-section-377-1282317-2018-07-11
[6Joint Statement of Religious Leaders On “Supreme Court order on Section 377” (Dec 2013) http://jamaateislamihind.org/eng/joint-statement-of-religious-leaders-on-supreme-court-order-on-article-377/
[10Scrapping Section 377 Welcome - CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on September 7, 2018 https://peoplesdemocracy.in/2018/0916_pd/scrapping-section-377-welcome
[11Listen, Little Man! - Wilhelm Reich http://www.wilhelmreichtrust.org/listen_little_man.pdf

[This article is reproduced from South Asia Citizen’s Web - sacw.net for educational and non commercial purposes.]

Friday, 14 September 2018

The first fight against #Section377 started with AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan -ABVA #Repost @lgbthistoryindia

#Repost @lgbthistoryindia
・・・
The first fight against #Section377 started with AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan -ABVA(AIDS Discrimination Movement) back in 1990. Dr P S Sahni, a doctor by profession, started a group in 1991 when they used to meet at Delhis Indian Coffee House with their agendas. As Dr Sahni says, "It was a bizzare group of 18 people. We had a christian nun who was distributing free condoms at GB road in Delhi". In most of the cases they were abused by women in the coffee house as "Sodomisers" but they never bothered about it. They planned not to reveal their sexuality. Later when HIV was at peak in India, they requested Kiran Bedi, the governor of Pondicherry, who was a police officer back then to distribute condoms at Tihar Jail, Delhi. @kiranbediofficial refused that proposal saying "Distribution of condoms might progress Homosexuality inside the jail". ABVA gained recognition after publishing the first ever study on homosexuality in India. They wrote a report "Less than Gay: A Citizen Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India", in November 1991. The Sunday Magazine called it pornographic but later it appeared on #BombayDost, the first gay magazine by @thehumsafartrustofficial of India. The ABVA group vehemently protested the jailing of men who were routinely picked up from parks on the suspicion of being gay. When 18 people were arrested in 1992, they planned the first protest outside the Police Headquarters in Delhi. Many people joined them at the protest irrespective of HIV status, sexuality and gender. Later the national gay rights movement gained national attention because of prisoners of Tihar Jail.
#Section377 #LgbthistoryIndia #Gayrights #Queer #HIV #Haveprideinhistory #TheAIDSMemorial #LGBTIndia
11 tags and 3 profiles in description#Repost @lgbthistoryindia ・・・ The first fight against #Section377 started with AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan -ABVA(AIDS Discrimination Movement) back in 1990. Dr P S Sahni, a doctor by profession, started a group in 1991 when they used to meet at Delhi's Indian Coffee House with their agendas. As Dr Sahni says, "It was a bizzare group of 18 people. We had a christian nun who was distributing free condoms at GB road in Delhi". In most of the cases they were abused by women in the coffee house as "Sodomisers" but they never bothered about it. They planned not to reveal their sexuality. Later when HIV was at peak in India, they requested Kiran Bedi, the governor of Pondicherry, who was a police officer back then to distribute condoms at Tihar Jail, Delhi. @kiranbediofficial refused that proposal saying "Distribution of condoms might progress Homosexuality inside the jail". ABVA gained recognition after publishing the first ever study on homosexuality in India. They wrote a report "Less than Gay: A Citizen Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India", in November 1991. The Sunday Magazine called it pornographic but later it appeared on #BombayDost , the first gay magazine by @thehumsafartrustofficial of India. The ABVA group vehemently protested the jailing of men who were routinely picked up from parks on the suspicion of being gay. When 18 people were arrested in 1992, they planned the first protest outside the Police Headquarters in Delhi. Many people joined them at the protest irrespective of HIV status, sexuality and gender. Later the national gay rights movement gained national attention because of prisoners of Tihar Jail.#Section377 #LgbthistoryIndia #Gayrights #Queer #HIV#Haveprideinhistory #TheAIDSMemorial #LGBTIndia

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

Gay abandon over ruling at SC lawns (New Indian Express 07/09/2018)


Gay abandon over ruling at SC lawns
Once news of the apex court’s judgement decriminalising gay sex spread, the optimistic mood palpable since morning turned euphoric.
Published: 07th September 2018 05:37 AM  |   Last Updated: 07th September 2018 05:37 AM  |  A+A A-
Express News Service
NEW DELHI: An excited 67-year-old P S Sahni reached the lawns of the Supreme Court early on Thursday to “feel the moment after 30 years”.  Associated with AIDS Bhed Bhav Virodhi Andolan which took the battle against AIDS to the streets in late 1980s, he said, “Gays were called sodomisers back then. Hope the tag doesn’t stay.”
In 2018, sexuality should be celebrated and courts should speak of sexuality, he added as he waited for the verdict along with hundreds of others.
Once news of the apex court’s judgement decriminalising gay sex spread, the optimistic mood palpable since morning turned euphoric. Activists, students, LGBTQI community members and supporters cheered, held banners and showed victory signs to celebrate what they called the watershed moment. Some reflected quietly, saying it was an “overwhelming and emotional” moment.
Two Delhi University students standing quietly in the shade opened up after the verdict.  “The first thought was we are not criminals anymore. It took a while for me to absorb the news,” said the MA student requesting anonymity. Her coming out to her parents would be easier now she hoped.
For Bhavya, a member of Nazariya - a collective advocating for LGBTQI rights, the news brought a sense of peace. “This is how it should have been from the beginning. It feels correct, dignified and there is a sense of security.”  This view was echoed by LGBTQI activist Noor Enayat. “It’s relief, it’s joy but there is also an element of disbelief. More than that, there is the element of getting back one’s dignity, a sense of being allowed to love.”
As a transgender student at DU, Raabiya hoped the judgement would pave the way for civil liberties.
Social activist Swami Agnivesh who reached the grounds soon after the judgement said he welcomed the verdict.

I never thought I would live to see this day: Queer activist on 377 verdict, (The Indian Express 06/09/2018)

I never thought I would live to see this day: Queer activist on 377 verdict

“I never thought I will live to see this day,” says Sahni, who was a member of AIDS Bhedbhav Vidroh Andolan (ABVA), the first organisation to file a petition asking for Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality, to be struck down.

Written by Premankur Biswas | New Delhi | Updated: September 6, 2018 8:40:27 pm
I never thought I would live to see this day: Queer activist on 377 verdict
X
A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises consensual unnatural sex, saying it violated the rights to equality. (Express File Photo by Abhinav Saha/File)
P Sahni cuts a lonely figure against the grand edifice of Supreme Court of India. Even as mediapersons scramble for bytes of petitioners, lawyers and activists at the lawns of the highest court of India, Sahni, in her 60s, looks at the structure like he is a pilgrim waiting for deliverance. His jhola stuffed with documents, his kurta drenched with sweat, Sahni is a picture of genteel resistance.
“I never thought I will live to see this day,” says Sahni, who was a member of AIDS Bhedbhav Vidroh Andolan (ABVA), the first organisation to file a petition asking for Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality, to be struck down. Today, his eyes are welling up. He remembers a similar day close to two decades ago outside the Delhi Hight Court. “In 2001, our petition against section 377 was struck down. But we saw that coming. We knew that our time had not arrived then,” says Sahni.
Today, that day has come. And Sahni is understandably overwhelmed. “I cried all night. I know that the time is ripe now, but many of us have aligned all our lives, all our relationships on the basis of this. Many of our friends have left the country. Many of us couldn’t make it this far. I am remembering those friends,” says Sahni.
Sahni remembers the time in the early 1990s, when he would meet with his fellow ABVA members every Wednesday at India Coffee House. “We were taunted as the G Group, after a Hindi expletive for sodomiser by fellow patrons of the Coffee House. But we didn’t care. We grew a thick skin,” he says.
The stocks were stacked against the queer community of the country then, but this time around, the buzz was very positive. Yet, many queer activists of the country were keeping their fingers crossed. A few paces away from Sahni, Sukhdeep Singh, a queer activist who runs an independent gay webzine, talks about his apprehensions. “The shock of the 2013 verdict was almost physical. That day, we were sure section 377 will be struck down. But the opposite happened,” says Singh.
In December 2013, the Supreme Court overturned the 2009 Delhi High Court verdict that had decriminalised consensual sex among adult homosexual men.
Many queer activists remember that fateful day of December 2013 as a day of “reality checks”. “Till then we were buoyed by the 2009 verdict. We were enveloped by this false sense of well-being. We needed that jolt,” says Malobika, of Saphho For Equality, a Kolkata-based organisation for queer women. That day, Malobika organised a rally at Kolkata’s Nandan cinema complex.
“We needed to tell the people of the community that we need to stand by each other. We needed to tell ourselves that we have no option but to soldier on,” says Malobika.
Yashwinder Singh, who is one of the victorious petitioners from the Humsafar Trust, is clearly dressed for the occasion. With a rainbow silk scarf, draped casually over his kurta, Yashwinder is fielding a volley of questions from reporters. Did he not anticipate a victory? “In 2013, I clearly remember that the verdict came a day after international human rights day. The irony was not lost on us,” says Singh.
Rituparna Borah, a queer feminist activist, echoes that very sentiment. “This verdict should have been given way before. We have been denied it all along. We have been fighting for our basic rights. Today we stand vindicated,” says Borah.
Perhaps this is exactly what Justice Indu Malhotra was addressing when she said “history owes the LGBT community an apology for their sufferings.”
Sahni has finally got his apology. A few decades too late maybe. But an apology nonetheless.