Homosexuals and their right to “live with dignity.”
My knowledge of homosexuality started early in my life when I joined High School Panangad (now HSS) in the old Nattika Furka, between Thrikkannamathilakam and Kodungallur. I had primary and upper-primary schooling in Vellikkulangara, in the foot-hills of Kodasserymala, to the east of Kodakara and south of Chalakkudi almost equidistant. Initially I didn’t know why some boys were caressing and pressing my thighs. Then when the bolder and nastier ones explained the matter to me, I didn’t like the idea at all. Here I am, an above-average-student with upper-middle class upbringing, many of my relatives were teachers, my paternal and maternal grandfathers were powerful people; I thought it was quite demeaning to subject myself to the kind of behaviour. I was new in the school, and had no friends in the class, though my brother studied in 6th and several cousins in different classes in the same school. It was embarrassing to reveal to them my problem or canvass support. I didn’t have the guts to go to teachers or the dreaded Headmaster, Abdul Rahman Sahib. I had to handle the situation myself. Once during a class in which the teacher was absent and none came to replace him for the period, a particularly nasty fellow, Valsan, started pressing my thighs and suggesting a sexual rendezvous openly, and I forgot my puny physique, and lack of support. And fisted him with all my strength on the mouth. It was blood all over and Valsan was shaken badly. The entire class froze in silence. When Valsan recovered from the shock the lunch bell rang and all dispersed. Before leaving Valsan warned me a little incoherently through his broken/swollen lips that after lunch when he was back from home, he would make my life miserable. I was scared like hell, but managed to give a ‘couldn’t care less’ appearance. When Valsan was seen coming back, my heart was pounding like a rice-mill huller. What prompted me to move towards him menacingly, I don’t know, he moved aside and looked away. We did not talk to each other for a few days and Valsan did not seem anxious to teach me a lesson despite taunts from many boys itching to see an encounter. Then one day Valsan quietly told me it was a joke, and I said matter-of-factly with no iciness about it that as I was new to the place I failed to appreciate it. Another time, a boy who was distantly related to us, and quite pally with me all along, tried the same unpleasant act to my horror! This time I was bolder, thanks to some teachers, especially the English teacher became very kind to me following my better performance in class. I gave Shivadasan the treatment I had meted out to Valsan, and with no qualms about the consequences because he was my size. I could handle him. Nobody troubled me later in school. In Christ college, where I studied, there was a boy in our class who earned quite a lot of money from those who sodomised him. He was quite shameless about it and used to literally flaunt his fair, hairless thighs! Again, my cute looks earned me some nasty comments because of my constant companion Ramadas. Ramadas was my class-mate from Panangad High School though he was very big-built. Once, an equally big hosteller who had a Royal Enfield Bullet in those days, asked Ramadas why he was not sharing my company with others. Ramadas, who could beat uo a dozen people empty-handed thanks to his years of training in Kalarippayattu, hit this fellow on his face with the back of his right foot and he fell backwards. He got up, looked around, and mumbled an apology and vanished. Then years later, in my early thirties, I was travelling First Class in the Harbour Lane train from VT to Mankhurd in the early days of the CIDCO township Vashi. At Chembur, a middle-aged man, a complete stranger, ready to disembark, comes to my seat and invites me “to have some beer and some nice time”. I got up and gave him a quick slap that could be heard five hundred meters away. He staggered out, apologising profusely as the remaining passengers in the compartment quizzed me about the cause. I told them, and then we all roared in laughter. One man was curious why a bearded fellow like me was found attractive and I made fun of him saying that such thought indeed gave away latent homosexuality in him
I used find it intriguing and quite irritating that The New Indian Express(Thiruvanathapuram Edition), the newspaper (IE, of course) I used to read since the sixties started publishing a lot of material that would interest only the LGBT type readers. I used to tell many of my friends who also subscribed to the paper that it were giving a disproportionate space to this group. In fact that was one of the reasons for my discontinuing a habit of decades. So when a Supreme Court Bench of Mr Justice GS Singhvi and Mr Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya has taken up the case of Homosexuals’ right “to live with dignity in the country”, I was quite miffed. Of all things India that is Bharat has to attend to seriously in its tryst with destiny, it appears the sexual preferences of the LGBT groups and “human rights” involved are right at the top in priority, absurdly, if you ask me.
The SC Bench has asked the government about the latest figure on the LGBT population and their numbers inflicted with the deadly infection. The government has only contended that there were 23.9 lakh HIV affected persons in the country. It was submitted in the High Court in 2009 that eight per cent of homosexuals were HIV infected. (8%, any public health expert would maintain, is a huge risk) It is most unlikely that the present government at the Centre would clarify what percentage of LGBT group have become victims to HIV infection on account of their unhealthy sexual preference. The world over, scientific community has warned that homosexuality is a sure way of contracting the deadly infection. With its present commitment to turn the other way, in order to shore up image as a protector of human rights, and its anxiety to create yet another vote-bank the Government of India may not hazard a serious study into this aspect.
The High Court verdict has been challenged in the Supreme Court on the ground that homosexuality is illegal, immoral and against ethos of Indian culture. Apart from the Hindutva side, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which represents Islam in India and some Christian bodies like the Apostolic Churches Alliance have challenged the High Court judgmentl. The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Right, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhgam, and Yogic Guru Ramdev too have opposed the verdict.
The LGBT group argues that they are normal, and the preference is their ‘human right’. They forget that normality is a matter of statistics and irrespective of the noisy and high-profile perverts, they represent a minuscule minority in the country. It is against the order of the nature, if you ask me. The nature’s order is that a man’s genital is meant to be inserted into the female‘s biological genital for sexual gratification and reproduction when chosen. But if it is inserted in another man’s anus meant only for excretion of nitrogenous waste, it cannot be normal, or right and proper. Permitting this unnatural and immoral act can invite diseases such as AIDS as has been proven. More dangerously, if made legal and dignified, it can cause an alarming increase in pedophilia.
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