In yet another blow to the LGBTQ+ community of India, and the country’s integrity as a whole, many lost hope as same-sex marriage was deemed unfit to be part of Indian culture –– taking away a large population’s wish for acceptance and happiness.
The Centre replied to the Delhi High Court in response to three petitions seeking legalisation of same-sex marriage, and justified it as follows:
“...not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children, which necessarily presuppose a biological man as a ‘husband’ a biological woman as a ‘wife’ and the children born out of the union between the two,” according to the Times Of India.
They also stated that there exists a ‘legitimate State interest’ in the recognition of marriage of people of opposite sexes and that living together as consenting partners, or being married to each other does not sit well with the ‘Indian family unit concept’.
All points put forth here ignore the very mindset young and modern India is trying to change.
Firstly, that marriage is about love and consenting adults –– no matter the gender or sex. There shouldn’t exist any other (State) interest apart from those partaking in the marriage.
Secondly, that same-sex marriage doesn’t fit the Indian family concept –– rather, Indian culture is incapable of accepting love as love.
There is very little value of ‘development’ if, in essence, we are only regressing to a space where individuals cannot be individuals and have to exist as dictated. There have never been Indian ‘morals, ethics, and values’ etched into India’s integrity that oppose what the LGBTQ+ community stands for –– in 2021, they exist powerfully enough to overcome the freedom and fundamental right of a whole community to be themselves.
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