Of Section 377 and Valentine's Day

So Valentine's Day finally ends, with happy endings for some people, and some people left saying "मैं आत्महत्या करना चाहता हूँ। " How ever it might have gone for people, their stories of love, either requited or unrequited, it was the same - girl loves boy, boy loves girl, yada yada. But amidst all the gooey stuff, not to mention the lust, we've forgotten that Valentine's Day is meant for celebrating the love that you share with your lover. When Section 377 was reimposed, it didn't just prohibit sex between people of the same genre. It meant that two people of the same gender who love each other deeply, now shy away from public displays of affection, even communication with each other. This is not only hurtful to the people concerned, it is 'against the order of nature', as gay or lesbian sex is purported to be. If two people love each other, then there is nobody who humanly has a right to separate the two. So homosexuality is against Indian culture? Then do tell that from whence some of the sculptures found in the Khajuraho temples, as well as some verses of the Kama Sutra sprung forth? Unless moral policing is stopped, ignorance is wiped clean off the slate that is India, homosexual lovers can't live without fear. And where lovers can't live without fear of death by the state, Valentine's Day is incomplete.
On a slightly unrelated note, one may quote Rabindranath Tagore:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high 

Where knowledge is free 

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments 

By narrow domestic walls 

Where words come out from the depth of truth 

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection 

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way 

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit 

Where the mind is led forward by thee 

Into ever-widening thought and action 

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake 

The father of our nation would be turning in his grave now, had something called the soul existed in the first place, and immortality of the soul would be a given. Not such a free land anymore, eh Gandhiji?

Confessions of the Damned: Section 377 and India

The following confession (which is purely fictional) provides much of the background for the point that I'm trying to get across:

Hi, I'm Ramesh. I'm a teen, like many of you here. I've been interested in girls since my childhood. When I hit puberty, my raging hormones turned me into a horny, hopeless pervert, who was always turned down by girls. I took to a not-so-prevalent practice in my school: masturbation. This one day I read something about gay rights, and I was intrigued. Once I was at my good friend Suresh's place, really in the mood for some sexual stimulation. I shut the door and started masturbating right in front of him! He was really cute, and he turned me on for some reason. I went home fighting with myself, trying to control my emotions and my hormones. Finally, later that day when he showed me his dick, I coerced him to let me give him a blowjob. It felt so special, some sort of magic! Unknown to both of us, the fate of our damned community was being decided. In 2009, finally one High Court overturned Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). We were both overjoyed! Of course, I was still struggling with my sexuality as well as my morbid preoccupation with big-breasted females. Over time, I started fantasising about some of my other peers too, since my sadistic partner and I were not able to meet so frequently anymore. It felt so wrong, and yet it helped me when I was masturbating. And then the 2013 Supreme Court ruling came, and my entire world was shattered. All this while I had hidden my sexual orientation from everyone around me, furtively having sex in private. But this new ruling meant that I could be persecuted at any time for something that I had so gotten used to. The Supreme Court contends that under Section 337, anyone caught having sex 'against the laws of nature', will be sentenced to imprisonment for who knows how many years. It puts homosexuality on the same footing as bestiality. My partner grew cold to my sexual advances. Over time, our relationship became a dysfunctional one. My gay fantasies had been thrown into the drain and my sexual frustration has since been bottling up. I don't know what to do.

Like our friend Ramesh, many members of the LGBT community, throughout India, were disheartened by the Supreme Court's ruling. Countless review petitions were signed, but to no avail, but the Supreme Court remains cold. If you're a homosexual, bisexual or transgendered, then by their criteria, you don't have the right to lead a normal life. This is totally wrong and even politically incorrect. For one thing, some of the most gifted minds that ever took birth on this earth have been homosexuals. The great and multitalented Leonardo Da Vinci  was gay. The late mathematician Alan Turing was also a homosexual. Even our beloved actor Neil Patrick Harris is one. By imprisoning such individuals, our country is potentially throwing away a great human resource. Second, love, inherently is not a crime. A democratic government does not have the right to dictate whom to love and whom not to. I know some of you might not agree with me, but I know this: Several champions of gay rights will rise up with me against this oppressive ruling. If my words moved you, I have succeeded in my mission. If not, I guess I'm just not a good orator. Däsvidänia.