Friday, July 20, 2012

Why so much fuss about Gays and Lesbians?


Recently I read a few posts about this subject (gays and lesbians) at Speaking Tree, a forum on the web edition of Times of India that deals with spirituality and related subjects. Even today, homosexuality is considered a taboo subject in India. Not only homosexuality but anything associated with sexuality or human sexual behavior is rarely discussed in any open forum in India or even within a family. Things are slowly changing since the globalization of the Indian economy. People are becoming more aware of these issues, and sections of society that were suppressed for centuries are now becoming more vocal about their rights and are demanding fair treatment in society. Movements started by homosexuals and transgenders are examples of this. I think in India it's a really hot topic nowadays because of so many things. This issue came into the news recently when various courts made some judgments in favor of gay or lesbian couples. This generated fierce debate among people at various levels mainly at online forums and social media. The discussion everywhere is about the validity of these types of relationships and many also believe that it's all because of Western influence. I am surprised to see very primitive thinking about this subject. I discussed this thing briefly in my post about marriage, I personally believe that marriage is a legal pact between two individuals who want to enter into a legal relationship and these two individuals can be from the same or different sex (note that traditionally it was people from different sex, male and female). I came to know about this issue (about gays and lesbians) or this type of sexual orientation very late in my life (only when I came to the USA) but when I came to know about this, I studied this subject in detail and tried to understand this issue and related things. I was lucky to meet some people from this community and all people I met till now are wonderful human beings. I didn’t feel in any way that they are a threat to our society or culture, I wonder why people think like that.

I also see people projecting gayism as some type of disease or addiction like drug addiction or something. Really? I am still trying to find out on what basis people say that. There is a lot of information available about what factors dictate sexual orientation in humans and there is a lot of research material available to read. None of them project it as a disease or addiction. Many people who criticize this type of sexual orientation have a feeling that they are doing some service to humans by trying to eliminate this group. It is the same mentality that makes people think that it’s their duty to convert people from other religions into their own religion as they totally believe that their own religion is the ONLY right way to live human life. Human sexual orientation or behavior is a very complex subject and I don’t think any religion or scripture deals with this subject, so using these books as a reference to deal with these types of issues is totally wrong. It’s like using a physics book to solve some complex biology problem.

We all need to respect and tolerate each other's opinions as well as choices. Whatever is allowed by law of land should be respected and followed. In a democracy, everyone has the right to express their opinion but stereotyping any community without any reason or targeting them for no fault of theirs is wrong. I hope people will get over this prejudice against certain sections of society and learn to live in harmony. After all, we all are different and have different likes and dislikes. Let's live and let others live.

Thanks for reading and please share your views.

Reference:

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)  

No comments:

Post a Comment