Section 377: Thank you SC for letting us all come out

The Alternative Law Forum (ALF), a lawyers' collective in Bangalore, posted a video to mark the first anniversary of the Supreme Court judgment that recriminalised gay sex. That judgment came on December 11 last year, and set aside the 2009 judgement of the Delhi High Court that had questioned the legal validity of Section 377, which criminalises sexual acts "against the order of nature". The SC, in its judgement, put the ball in Parliament's court, saying that it was for the legislature to repeal the law if it so desired.

The video posted by ALF showcases the many protests that happened in various parts of the country in the wake of the SC judgement. For one, activists gathered in what is a period of bitter cold in Delhi to sing anthems to human rights and democracy. Watching the video, one feels a sense of the immense possibilities of the gay rights movement and the thrill of community occasioned by it. One might even credit the judgement, if that were possible, for bringing together again the myriad voices that make the queer umbrella-gays, lesbians, transgenders, hijra, kothi and so on. There is a palpable awareness that we might be on the cusp of something new, that a world devoid of discrimination might someday come into place.

That alone is cause for celebration. For the longest time, being gay was about private joys contrasted with the chariness of coming out publicly. Due to the discussion engendered in the media and among civil society by the Delhi High Court and SC judgements, gayness has been brought out in the open. Today we know, all of us, what being gay means, even though we cannot, unless we are gay, fully comprehend what living as one entails. We are, of course, not helped in that department by the representations of gay people in popular culture, saddled as they are with a bunch of stereotypes, but that is the subject of another column. 

Visibility, any visibility is a good thing, because it paves the ground for whatever comes next. When Aamir Khan is slapped with a lawsuit for "promoting homosexuality" on his show Satyamev Jayate, we react only partly with distaste at the shocking mix of arrogance and ignorance on the part of those who filed the claim. The deeper, stronger emotion is of preparing for the battles ahead, for all us queer people, each hammering away at the gates of freedom. And for that, we have the eminent, if not quite likeable, jurors of the SC to thank.

In 2012, Tablet, an American magazine with a focus on Jewish culture, profiled Faygele ben Miriam, a pioneering gay rights activist who made history by being the first American citizen to petition for gay marriage. In 1971, Miriam, then known as John Singer, appealed to the King Country marriage licence office in Seattle that his alliance with Paul Barwick, his lover, be recognised as marriage. Of course, nothing of the sort happened, and when the case reached the Washington State Court of Appeals, the two men were laughed out of court. 

Gratifyingly, the man who had refused to grant Miriam a marriage licence, Lloyd Hara, went on to champion the cause of gay marriage. He gave away his eldest daughter's hand in marriage to another woman in Vermont where gay marriage has been legal since September 2009. Now the King County Assessor, Hara was quoted in the Tablet piece as hoping that "parents will be able to do that [marry off their gay/lesbian child] right here in Washington state". Now they can. Same sex marriage has been legal in Washington since December 2012.

All these nuggets make up the delightful history of the gay rights movement in the US. Years from now, when gay marriage will be just another normal, unburdened of the trials and pulls of today, this history will be properly recorded and men like Miriam will be acknowledged for their courage and perseverance. Here in India too, as we live through our own unfolding history we would be remiss in not acknowledging the highs and lows, the tonal variations, if you will, of our tentative freedoms and the state's inevitable pushback.

While we have miles to go before we come anywhere close to where the US stands on gay equality, we can be assured in the knowledge that our curve of progress would be steeper. Buoyed by technology and the changing attitudes towards homosexuality, Indians can draw strength from the fact that their country will not have to wait four decades before it gives its own Miriams the right to marry. In the meanwhile they can do worse than take up the cudgels on behalf of their queer compatriots.