State of LGBTQ+ rights: 'India does not have anti-discrimination code'
The Constitution was conceived by India’s founding fathers as a beacon of fundamental rights but the queer community is still a stigmatized and invisible minority.
Challenges faced by sexual minorities
- Lack of political will in providing rights: The Union of India has recently opposed any move to accord legal sanction to same sex marriages in India stating that the decriminalisation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code does not automatically translate into a fundamental right for same sex couples to marry.
- Lack of social sensitization towards gender orientation: Heteronormativity is the belief that heterosexuality is the only natural expression of sexuality in our society.
- This belief system can be harmful to sexual minorities because it creates a hierarchy among sexual practices that can reinforce heterosexism and homophobia.
- High incidents of conflict and rejections: The fear of rejection and serious negative reactions kept many LGB adults from openly sharing their lives.
- Problems of Homelessness: The myriad problems facing LGBTQ people who are homeless include a lack of housing and services that meet their specific needs.
- Frequent hate crimes aimed at LGBTQ: The LGBTQ people experience stigma and discrimination across their life spans, and are targets of sexual and physical assault, harassment and hate crimes.
- Legal Injustice: The specific groups within the LGBTQ community are disproportionately affected by violence and discrimination, sometimes at the hands of law enforcement officials.
Impact of discrimination on sexual minorities
- Unwilling to continue work at workplaces: The existence of discriminatory language and behavior toward sexual and gender minorities in the workplace has a negative effect on willingness to continue working.
- Exclusion across all spheres of life: The LGBT people face tremendous difficulties growing up in a society where heterosexuality is often presented as the only acceptable orientation and homosexuality is regarded as deviant.
- The exclusion and discrimination have major impacts on the lives of lesbian, gay and transgender persons such as dropping out of school earlier, leaving Home and Family, unable to find regular jobs, etc.
- Hiding gender orientation identity: In the labour market, a majority of LGBT people continue to hide their sexual orientation or to endure harassment out of fear of losing their job.
- Psychological Distress: The LGBT people face considerable levels of stigmatization, discrimination and harassment in their daily lives.
- This had a negative impact on their mental health, leading to significant levels of psychological distress, self-harm and suicidality.
- Drug Addiction of LGBT people: The LGBTQ people are more likely to use alcohol, tobacco and other drugs than the general population.
Measures to be adopted against sexual minorities’ discrimination
- Expansion of grounds of non-discrimination: Article 15 secures the citizens from every sort of discrimination by the state, on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth or any of them.
- Article 15 should state that the government may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
- Sensitization towards gender orientation: The Government needs to sensitise the general public and officials, including police officials, to reduce and finally eliminate the stigma associated with LGBTQ+ community through the mass media and the official channels.
- Schools and teacher education programmes: The school and university students should be sensitised about the diversity of sexuality to deconstruct the myth of heteronormativity.
- The schools can implement the following policies and practices to help promote health and safety among LGBT youth:
- Encourage respect for all students and prohibit bullying, harassment, and violence against all students;
- Identify safe spaces such as counselors’ offices, designated classrooms, or student organizations, where LGBTQ youth can receive support from administrators, teachers, or other school staff;
- Encourage student-led and student-organized school clubs that promote a safe, welcoming, and accepting school environment; and
- Ensure that health curricula or educational materials include HIV, other STD, or pregnancy prevention information that is relevant to LGBTQ youth
- Establishment of new international human rights standards: The legal obligations of States to safeguard the human rights of LGBT people are well established in international human rights law on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently agreed international human rights treaties.
- Reforming the Medical Establishment: The Medical Council of India should issue guidelines to ensure that discrimination in medical treatment of sexuality minorities, which would include refusal to treat a person on the basis of his/her sexual orientation, is treated as professional misconduct.
- Interventions by Civil Society: The human rights and social action organizations should take up the issues of sexuality minorities as a part of their mandate for social change.
Road ahead
- It is clear that LGBT individuals who basically have different sexual orientation, face discrimination, exclusion from the society, and meet with obstacles to satisfy their needs.
- The LGBTQ organizers and groups are increasingly drawing connections between the movement for LGBTQ rights and the movement for economic and racial justice.
- The core legal obligations of States with respect to protecting the human rights of LGBTQ people include obligations to:
- Protect individuals from homophobic and transphobic violence;
- Prevent torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment;
- Repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality;
- Prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; and
- Safeguard freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly for all LGBTQ people
- The LGBTQ people belonging to minority and indigenous communities may finally begin to receive greater recognition within their own communities and from society at large as the barriers begin to lower with a recognition of their shared challenges.
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