TV celebs protest against Supreme Court verdict criminalising gay sex

Yesterday’s Supreme Court verdict declaring gay sex illegal has sparked of a major row with large number of celebrities resorting to social media to express their displeasure with the apex court judgement. We spoke to some from the television industry and this is what they had to say. Shruti Seth shared, “What a dichotomy!!! While you allow marital rape, you don’t allow consensual sex between two gay men or women. Laws need to change. Hope the new government tries to address this basic human right issue. I hope society also changes its approach toward gays and lesbians. At least in the section I move around we are quite accepting of them, hope others change their view too.” Shruti further added, “It is quite sad that many people hide behind religious sanctions to prevent change. Has the govt not allowed inter-caste marriage, so why not give the same protection to gays and lesbians? Thanks to social media that people are now ready to come forward and stand up to be counted. I don’t mind earning the ire of some people as long as I am right, for at the end of the day you can’t please all.” Veteran actress and now politician Kunika Lal said, “It would not be right to comment on an apex court ruling. But yes it is good that they have left the option open to the govt to remove 377 from the statute books. I hope the current or the new govt will heed to the view of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community but sadly given the contemporary political atmosphere, I don’t think this move would be high on the agenda of the govt. But again a lot depends on the noise the gay community can create. As that might influence public opinion, here the media can play a very important role as well.” Transgender rights activist, actress and Bharatanatyam dancer Lakshmi Nayaran Tripathi (Bigg Boss 6 fame) without mincing words averred, “Very hurt with the ruling. It would be naive to expect the government to step up to the plate when other pressing issues like women’s reservation bill are still hanging in the air.” Fashion designer Rohit Verma next added, “I am very hurt by this ruling. You are talking away human right to love each other. Indian society is orthodox as compared to other more liberal societies. It is ironical that while some western nations are thinking to allow gay marriages, we want to go back to archaic laws which had been created by the British colonial rulers.” We also had a word with Bobby Darling (Bigg Boss fame), “This ruling has come as a shock to people of my community. For after the High Court took a good decision it has been overturned by the highest court of the land. We had hoped that if the apex court had upheld the earlier verdict, it might have emboldened many closeted gays and bisexuals to come out and express their sexual orientation. For this hiding creates lots of social problems. Many bisexual men people get married for fear of social rebuke and are then unable to satisfy their wives. Thus you end up not only ruining the gay’s life but also the happiness of the woman for no fault of her. However, we will not lose hope and will continue to fight for our basic rights. We have to be optimistic.” Beautiful Kritika Kamra is very upset at the judiciary washing its hand of the case saying we can’t amend laws. “It has done so many times, like just in yesterday’s laal baatti verdict. Here it’s responsibility only increases as article 377 infringes on the basic human rights. What was really appalling was that it was called against order of nature, who says so?” Kritika is very upset at certain comments which are questioning the contribution of LGTB community. “Where does the issue of contribution come? When question of basic rights is being raised. Also many straight people have done nothing toward the society, do we take away their freedom as well? These people are very creative but again, what they do does stem from their sexual orientation.” What’s your take on the verdict? Share with us in the comment section below.