Mumbai non-profit working for queer community files substantial, number-crunching, data-heavy petition in Supreme Court
(From left) Gautam Yadav and Yashwinder Singh from Humsafar Trust, and lawyer Suraj Sanap
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Ashok Row Kavi, India's first person to publicly come out as gay in 1984, and still one of the foremost flag bearers of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movement, has approached the Supreme Court, along with three other gay men and The Humsafar Trust (HST), to push for the decriminalisation of same sex relations. The petition was filed on April 30 and it was admitted on May 1. Kavi says, "I am pleasantly surprised at the speed at which it was admitted. Yet, this petition has been now been clubbed with various other petitions and will come up for hearing in July." The others who have filed the petition along with Kavi are Vivek Anand, chief executive officer, HST, and Gautam Yadav and Yashwinder Singh, who also work with HST.
Ashok Row Kavi
Petition claims
The petition has claimed that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code deprives LGBTQ persons of equality before the law, freedom of expression, personal autonomy and right to dignity in direct violation of Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The petition has urged the apex court to restrain the authorities from enforcing Section 377 with regard to consensual, sexual conduct between adults in private. A Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Dipak Mishra, Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice A M Khanwilkar on Tuesday issued notice to the Union government, asking it to respond with its view on the petition.
Double lives
Kavi says that he has witnessed, "the negative, impact of the law under Section 377 on the lives of LGBTQI persons both physically and emotionally, as a result of which they live double lives. The criminalisation of their core being has a devastating impact on their psyche." Kavi is also the founder and chairperson of HST, a non-profit set up 24 years ago, working to empower and de-stigmatise the lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community.
Street violence
Kavi says the petition has, "innumerable studies and numbers that cite the intimidation and harassment because we, at Humsafar, started collecting data and doing studies with numbers about what the community was facing. For example, from 2016 to 2018, HST's crisis response team attended to 83 crises cases in Mumbai. Of these, six cases involved an adult, homosexual male being blackmailed by the police under the fear of Section 377. In 12 cases, adult, homosexual males were threatened with false accusations under Section 377 and victims of extortion by ordinary people, sometimes up to Rs 1 lakh."
Waiting game
Kavi agrees that, "the community seems demoralised. I do at times think that this law [Sec 377] will be abolished but like a lot of the others, we have to ask when? And till then, we will continue to be beaten, threatened and in extreme cases, even killed."
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