The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Forum questions laws against sexuality minorities

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Thursday, Jun 25, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Forum questions laws against sexuality minorities

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: “Can laws criminalising sexuality minorities be justified any longer?” asked Mayur Suresh, a lawyer and panellist at a discussion on “Laws that Terrorise.”

More than 80 countries the world over make consensual homosexual sex between adults a crime, and more than half of these countries have these laws because they used to be British colonies.

“This Alien Legacy: The Origins of ‘Sodomy’ laws in British Colonialism” a Human Rights Watch Report looks at ‘sodomy’ laws that condemn people to outlaw status because of how they look or whom they love, by looking at the history and origins of these laws, and the victim subjects they create.

The report was launched as a part of the Karnataka Queer Habba here on Tuesday, a week-long celebration that will culminate in the Pride March on Sunday.

The launch was followed by a panel discussion consisting of Hasan Mansoor, President of PUCL, Karnataka, Dipika Nath of Human Rights Watch, Tripti Tandon of Lawyers Collective, and lawyers B.T. Venkatesh, Jawahar Raja, and Mayur Suresh.

The discussion broadened the issue of discriminatory laws against sexuality minorities and dealt with “Laws that terrorise; whether in order to target political dissent, the sex you choose to identify with, intravenous drug usage or commercial sex work,” said moderator Arvind Narrain of Alternative Law Forum.

Jawahar Raja spoke about how the State quells any form of dissent through special laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, which violate basic legal principles of fairness and justice and were most often used only against Muslims and other minority communities.

B.T. Venkatesh spoke about how minority communities like Hijras and Muslims were discriminated against even through general laws like the penal laws by being booked under false charges, being harassed and tortured in custody and so on.

Tripti Tandon spoke.

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