(Image source from: Is India ready to accept homosexuality?)
The Supreme Court of India is in the eye of storm again - this time for banning gay sex and criminalizing it as a punishable offense, a decision that has been booed down as 'archaic and repressive' by all and sundry. Not just the country's top leaders and United Nations, but whole of India seems unanimous in their standing on the issue - legalize gay sex.
While there is a big hullabaloo being made on legalizing gay sex after the Supreme Court's decision, the question is “Is our society ready to accept gay sex?” “Are our brains wired to think of it as normal?”
Just last Sunday, on the “Koffee with Karan” show, when actor Ranbir Kapoor was asked on his parents' take on his new girlfriend, he quipped: 'My parents are happy with any choice as long as she is a GIRL! (emphasized here)'. The show doesn't have automated laughter sounds by imaginary audience, but if there was one such provision, this moment definitely warranted one.
His answer raised eyebrows as one could clearly see the undertones of proud acceptance in his voice, without a twinge of irony. But who needs to worry. I am sure there are many who have stopped bothering about audacious discrimination, crude gender stereotyping and ignominious remarks being regularly made on people's sexual preferences. After all, It is so rampant and so much more a socially accepted practice to crack a nasty joke at people who 'can't think straight'.
While people don't take Karan Johar's couch that seriously, they do value the decisions of country's highest legislative body far more seriously. Hence, some progressive souls are shocked to find that what has always been mentioned under wraps of derogatory joke found resonance among the keepers of law. But what we are missing here is that India is, after all, a single country: in spite of the stark divisions among regressive, politically-willed-retrogressive, and ambitious-to-become-progressive.
Long back, I have come to terms with the fact that I live in a country where the majority live in deeply brewed hypocrisy, ignorance, manipulative interest, and convenient morality in the name of 'culture' and 'norms'. And let's admit, Section 377 of IPC could never be a decider in changing that mindset. If you are the one who want to change that mindset, respect 'individuality' and encourage others to do the same.
Remember: a court can't reform a plagued society, people can.
AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury
