On Dec. 11, the Indian Supreme Court reinstated a ban on gay sex between consenting adults by overturning a 2009 ruling by the Delhi High Court. Goa Streets asked our readers to comment on the issue, and here is a sampling of the responses.
Going to sleep with a heavy heart for India. I have had a full life. I care and bleed about the future Indian LGBT youth who deserve respect, dignity, human and civil rights that make them proud citizens. This is a black day for my beloved country. – Wendell Rodricks
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Thinking of my friends in India who have to continue hiding who they are for fear of violence.- Roxanne Barretto
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Considering that Nature has retained homosexuality in many of her species for thousands if not millions of years, she must be having good reasons for doing so. Else the genetic and hereditary mechanisms that cause or contribute to homosexuality would have been removed from the gene pool via evolution by now. If Nature wants her creations to manifest same-sex attraction now and then, who are we to say this is unnatural? – José Lourenço
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Draconian & Unfair … INDIA will lag behind nearly all the Countries it seeks to emulate. I am not Gay, but I fully support Gay Rights, RESPECT & TOLERANCE !!! – Milton Rodrigues
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There are more serious issues to be discussed in this country. Please don’t waste your time as if those who want to continue would stop. We have children dying of hunger and cold every day. Think about them. God may just bless you – Mario Dmonty
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What does Bharat need to become a nation of the 21st Century? Modernization? Westernization? We want to make Bharat a ‘Shresht Bharat’.
Congress wants to make India ‘Homo-Secular’. Indian Nationalist late Shri Rajiv Dixit explains how this homosexuality movement in India is funded and backed by the Western countries and how it is related to clash of civilizations and economy.-Naresh Kachare
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No kissing, no holding hands, you can have sex only for procreation not otherwise, no ogling, no looking at the other gender (sex is a word not to be used), no atheism, no eating curd at night… How does one enforce such laws? Perhaps we should wear cardboard clothes and masks so one can’t make out who’s male or who’s female? – Sheela Jaywant
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Very very sad day…evolving Indian society does not need religious organisations forcing their will on our personal liberties through the judiciary.
The silver lining is the legislature has been left free to make law, so let us hope those we elect will do so by granting equal rights to LGBT and restore the spirit of the High Court judgement.- Laxmi Lobo
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Just another example of our bigotry. To hide behind the constitution is not jurisprudence. It’s judicial cowardice. I am sorry my dear gay brothers and sisters – we’re still not mature enough to accept people for who they are.– Faiz Dadarkar
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India’s Supreme Court has taken a huge backward step at a time when much of the world is moving towards a more enlightened view of sexuality. Even the new Pope, heir though he is to a centuries old Judeo-Christian tradition of hostility to homosexuality, has softened that stance to ask, “Who am I to judge?” The Supreme Court has the power to judge, but Parliament can and should change that by passing a law that decriminalizes homosexuality between consenting adults with immediate effect. –Victor Rangel-Ribeiro
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Sexuality is a very private matter and should remain so. People who are clamouring for it to be criminalised should understand that it’s the way they have been born. Sexuality is in-born and not learnt. People cannot be indoctrinated towards alternative sexuality. What would they do if their children or grandchildren in future are born that way? Would they hand them over to the police or file a case against them. – Allwyn Rodrigues
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It is a disgrace. India is moving backwards. Everybody has the right to love who they want. – Anne Lovett
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I feel every person has the right to choose their partner. It doesn’t matter if that person chooses the same sex or the opposite sex. It’s that person’s choice… That’s it. – Nagesh Parab
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If the fathers of our nation have taught us anything, it’s that we should take what is rightfully ours, no matter how hard. It’s the same Indian blood that runs through the Indian LGBT community, and I’m sure they won’t give up. – Adino Gonsalves