Clarity needed on LGBT

There has been a standoff between the government and the Supreme Court, and the ones suffering in the middle are the LGBT community. India abstained from a vote at the UN Human Rights Council to appoint an independent expert to help end discrimination based on sexual orientation on the pedantic grounds of the matter being sub judice. Had the government been serious about upholding the just cause of preventing discrimination it should have voted with the other nations to create the office regardless of how the top court may rule in the cases pending before it, including in the major debate over whether the antiquated Section 377 of the IPC deserves to be a statute. The nation has to be seen standing up for the rights of its people.

The deadlock seems to have stemmed from the government not acting on court orders to treat transgenders as the “third sex” and allow them reservations and other benefits. Instead, the government sought a clarification, which does not seem to have gone down well with the court. What the country is losing amid the legal complications is that people are people, regardless of sexual orientation, and they deserve to live with dignity. As a democracy upholding some of the finest traditions of treating people as equals, India must be seen doing the right thing with regard to LGBTQ people. For its part, the top court, too, would do well to examine the fundamentals and rule soon so that the national stand on the matter can also be clear.