RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Acceptance of LGBT Community in the Indian Society

Submitted on : 12/03/2020
Submitted by : BBA A SY
RASHMI RAYAL
AZAAN SYED
ANUSHA DESHMUKH
SNEHA CHAJJER
MARIA VARKEY
 ABSTRACT

The idea of human rights corresponds to the fact that all humans are equal. We give high
regard to our own dignity but should keep in mind that humans are to be treated as equal
irrespective of their cast, creed, color, gender, background etc. Human rights of lesbians,
gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) community are coming into light in several
countries. In India though, due to its immense diversity in terms of cultures, demographics
and ideologies, vast amounts of the population still frown upon the LGBT community. The
topic of sexuality in India is still oppressed in many households. Attitudes and beliefs change
eventually and gradually over time. Though same sex marriage has been legalized ( not in
India though), it does not really mean that the LGBT community has been given the equality
in all the corners of the society that they deserve.
INTRODUCTION

Mugisha, F. (2019, January 22). India and the Global Fight for LGBT Rights. Even though
homosexuality has been decriminalized, the more important part from the Supreme Court’s verdict
is to encourage the state to support the LGBT community and help end the wrongful stigma that had
been attached to being a member of the LGBT community. Furthermore, the Court could have
established mechanisms to resurrect perceived LGBT children with their parents. Many tend to
develop mental problems which affects there livelihood quite significantly. Several judges feel that
the government could have been more aware of the LGBT community and how they were suffering.
It has been a delayed judgement in favor of the LGBT community but the blame goes back in time to
the British colonialists. The British are said to have introduced section 377 of the Indian Penal Code
in the 1860s which imposed harsh penalties on the accused.

History of section 377

Since its inception in the 19th century, section 377 has had vile insights on homosexuality. The main
drafter of the penal code, Thomas Macaulay, termed homosexuality as “odious” and “revolting”.
Several historic incidents have proved how the society has oppressed the LGBT people with
ridiculous assumptions and unfair decisions. Inhumane names and tags have been given to people
who have opened up about their sexuality or accused of being part of the LGBT community.
Countless people have been Gang raped, blackmailed, harassed and tortured for their lifestyle not
only by the public but the police as well. In 2007, a gay man was abducted by police officials, raped
and then blackmailed by them. He was forced to sign a confession of having intimate intercourse. In
2011, two women were beaten to death by their nephew for being in an immoral relationship. The
LGBT community continuous to face such horrendous acts on a daily basis but since the removal of
section 377, things are slowly going in favour of them. The state is supportive of the LGBT
community and also is trying to help members belonging of the same to be cautiously accepted in
the workplaces, social gatherings, public events etc. Hence, removal of section 377 from the Indian
Penal Code was a huge step towards instigating acceptance of the LGBT community.

Venugopalan, A. (2019, June 26). Indian MNCs openly allying with the LGBT cause. Since the
Supreme Court of India has decriminalized homosexuality, many companies have become “allies” to
the LGBT cause. Employees are being encouraged to talk about their identity if they wish to, and as
speak about their journey of hardships they faced. Accenture allows its employees belonging to the
LGBT community to share their journey on a virtual platform. IBM’s LGBT employees have put up
video blogs on youtube to share their experiences. More and more people are becoming aware of
the lack of opportunities that is available for people belonging to the LGBT community in terms of
working, entertainment and acceptance from the rest of the society. American Express has started
panels and discussions on sexual orientation and inclusion of minorities in the workplace. Sodexo,
Godrej, Delfina are a few other companies who are promoting cultural adaptation to educate their
employees about working openly with minorities. Even though several companies are taking steps
towards inclusion of LGBT employees in their companies, there still is a long way to go in respect of
diversity inclusion and understanding.

Levin, Sam. (2019, September 3)Trump targeting the LGBT community. It is no secret that Donald
Trump targets the minorities. His speeches are irrational, discriminatory and mocked throughout the
world for its sheer absurdity. During the Obama presidency, the LGBT community were in fact
becoming “victorious” because of new policies and Acts going in favour of them which was an
essential support required for many. Under the Trump Administration, the LGBT people are losing
healthcare protection, being banned from the military, seeing rules being set against trans students
and even making it legal for businesses to deny the opportunity of LGBT people to join and work for
the company. Even if the Supreme court works towards affirmation of the LGBT community’s rights,
Donald Trump and his workforce are finding ways to legalize discrimination.

There are Anti-LGBT groups which defame the LGBT community by publicly calling them names and
persuade people that such people are “perverts” with “filthy habits” who want to convince children
of heterosexual parents to choose and follow the “homosexual lifestyle”. A very important aspect to
bring in equality for the LGBT community is for the rest of the society to mend or change its social
attitudes towards them. Legal policies and rules would only play a crucial part in favour of the LGBT
community when people would be willing to change their attitude and accept LGBT people as they
are.

Kaoma, K. (2012, April 24). Exporting the Anti-Gay Movement. This article talks about how people in
governance have always been denied homosexual people their rights. For instance, Uganda's Anti-
Homosexuality Bill. It was introduced in 2009 imposing a death penalty for certain homosexual acts
and criminalizing human-rights advocacy on behalf of sexual minorities. They mentioned how people
were not to talk about or promote in any manner homosexuality. They also mentioned how the act
was to be recognized as abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse and that how they were to be
discouraged and avoided. After almost trying to get the bill removed, it was announced that, “We do
not accept homosexuality in Uganda. So go back home." Later, with America’s support at the time of
Obama, Uganda was given financial aid and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton linked foreign aid to
human rights, defining "human rights as gay rights and gay rights as human rights." Innokenty, &
Grekov. (2013, August 8). Russia's Anti-Gay Law, Spelled Out in Plain English Russia’s President
Vlamdir Puttin in 2013 enforced a law banning the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to
minors because it would influence them in the wrong ways. He also enforced fines of  4,000 to 5,000
rubles (120-150 USD) for individuals, 40,000 to 50,000 rubles (1,200-1,500 USD) for public officials
engaging in such propagandas. The law has also shut down websites that provide information on
such issues.

Higa, D., Hoppe, M. J., Lindhorst, T., Mincer, S., Beadnell, B., Morrison, D. M., … Mountz, S. (2012).
Negative and Positive Factors Associated With the Well-Being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,
Queer, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth. Youth & Society, 46(5), 663–687. doi:
10.1177/0044118x12449630 This paper talks about the problems or the discrimination faced by
people who have self-identified as a part of the LGBTQ community. People who participated were
either lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer/questioning and came from intersecting
backgrounds. They had focus group discussions and individual interviews and discussed about
experiences on biphobia, ace phobia, gatekeeping within the community etc. The paper focuses on
systems of oppression and discrimination. They then found out that the oppression is not just
confined to the outer world but also within the LGBTQ community. The paper is authored by three
people who identify as a part of the community and discuss their experiences while managing their
biases at the same time. They also used the technique of triangulation hence increasing the
credibility of the data collected. Issues such as gatekeeping, biphobia, ace phobia, CIS genderism or
transgenderism, conforming to stereotypical gender roles, and finally areas for growth were
discussed upon.

Drake, B. (2019, February 27). How LGBT adults see society and how the public sees them. Bruce
Drake talks about how society has become more accepting towards the LGBTQ community. He
conducts surveys on various topics such as acceptance, the experience of coming out to friends and
family, how religion is less/more inclusive, the importance of personal contact etc. The research is
more quantitative than qualitative. He points out interesting statistics like the number of Americans
who had a favorable view of gay men is a good 55%, an 18 percentage point increase compared to a
decade earlier; 58% had a favorable opinion of lesbians, a 19 percentage point increase over the
same time span. He also briefly touches upon a very important topic that knowing someone who is
lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender leads to greater social acceptance, knowing of a public figure
like Ellen DeGeneres also helps because they can use their reach to influence people for the best.

Anand, S. (n.d.). India's LGBTQ Activists Raise Their Voices. This article talks about how even after the
repeal of section 377, people are still facing problems coming out to their families, so much so that
they have to go through things like “conversion” therapy, forced marriages and “corrective” sex.
Activists are trying to create safe spaces for them but the situation only worsens in smaller towns
where people cling on to stereotypes and resist change. It also talks about the importance of having
equal inclusivity in organisations. It also mentions how there was a sensitization training to learn
how one should be around LGBQ people.

Research Gap:

Even though many countries are working towards inclusion of the LGBT community in different
sectors of the society, equality is still not wholly being achieved. In India, a big chunk of the society
lacks in accepting the LGBT community. For example, a lot of countries have legalized same sex
marriage, but in India it is still illegal. Although the majority of the population oppresses the LGBT
community, the government of India is not helpful either for the LGBT people to comfortably come
out and stand for who they are.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Do people in India accept the LGBT community? What are the society’s attitudes towards this
community?
OBJECTIVE

The major objective of this study is to understand and analyse how the society is accepting the LGBT
community and what attitudes they have towards them. Also understanding the problems faced by
the LGBT community and their struggles to gain their rights and acceptances in the society. Even
after many laws are established for supporting them, they are still kept as a marginalized group, and
tagged ‘abnormal’. They face discrimination and isolation from their own family members. Social and
communal exclusion is one chief crisis that they have to face. They are deprived of gender identity
and social identity and are subjected to constant abuse and humiliation. This further leads them into
a traumatic mental situation which may result in a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence.

HYPOTHESIS

This paper explores the fundamental issues faced by the LGBT community all over the world. India
chose the path in amending homosexual acts, providing them with the rights to freedom and
expression. But still, they are often treated brutally by the public. At present, there are many reform
activities going on in the field of LGBT community, demanding their social rights. Even though there
are worldwide reform movements, India has not yet taken much initiatives. Therefore, this subject
of research is very much relevant in the context of contemporary LGBT struggles.

METHODOLOGY

This research study is an attempt to understand the Indian society’s attitude towards the LGBT
community. The research design we have used is descriptive. The approach used for the same is
deductive approach, where we had a general theory to our topic and from that, using other methods
we reached at certain observations. We have done a study including both quantitative and
qualitative techniques. This survey incorporates descriptive and graphical representations to
understand the attitude of society towards their community.

We took surveys to understand the attitudes of the society. The first survey was specifically sent to
members of the LGBT community to understand their opinions on the topic of acceptance of the
LGBT community in India. From this survey, we took feedback from the people who submitted the
survey to make another survey which we sent to the general public to gather their opinions and
behaviour towards the LGBT community.

The operational variables used are age, income group and religion. These variables stay as the meter
for our analysis procedure.

In our analysis we have used Likert scale to analyse the interval question. Also we used excel to get
the graphs to understand the attitudes of the society towards the LGBT community.

We chose the samples according to their age group. We took 35 people from 15 – 25 and 35 people
from 36 – 60. Every other variable is assumed to not make any difference.

We had also used secondary data like The first book referred is written by Kevin Jennings titled as
Always My Child which has successfully dealt with a day to day struggles of a youth facing
identity issues This book also gives an awareness to every parents to provide comfort and support
to children who faces identity issues. This book focuses that if a child turns to be a gay, lesbian or
transgender they faces a plenty of problems within themselves. Even the society around them will
start taking advantage of their insecure feelings. Therefore this book gives a dutiful message that the
support and care given to these children by their parents is their great strength to face the outside
world. This book helps the parents to understand their LGBT children and for guiding their children
to respect themselves. Reference to another famous book which has got many remarkable
achievements in the field of literature is titled as From the Closet to the Courtroom. This book is
written by Professor Carlos. A .Bell based on sexual awareness and Gay Rights. This book is like a
case study with a narrative section which includes the victims person life such as marriage, family,
struggles, their lawyers, case and finally gives the insight of the legal journey .Yet there are still
many fights for their homosexuality rights in various countries hence the same sex marriages are
punishable and illegal. But the most sorrowful condition is that, even the countries that have passed
the laws in favour of these LGBT community are not ready to accept them completely and still they
only have a partial recognition.

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
Acceptance of the LGBT community
This questionnaire is to find more about people's attitudes towards the LGBT community.
It will not take you more than 2 minutes to fill it out. Please be ensured that your response will be
anonymous.
* Required

1. Age *
Mark only one oval.
o 15 - 25
o 26 - 35
o 36 - 60
o 60 Above

2. Annual income *
Mark only one oval.
o Less than or equal to 5,00,000
o 5,00,000 - 15,00,000
o 15,00,000 - 30,00,000
o More than or equal to 30,00,000

3. What religion do you follow? *

Mark only one oval.
o Buddhism
o Sikhism
o Islam
o Hinduism
o Christianity
o Jainism
o Atheism
o Other:

4. What is your gender? *

Mark only one oval.
o Female
o Male
o Transgender
o Queergender (questioning)
o Prefer not to say

5. What do you identify as? *

Mark only one oval.
o Heterosexual (Straight)
o Gay
o Lesbian
o Bisexual ( sexually attracted to both men and women)
o Pansexual ( attracted to people regardless of their sex or gender identity )
o Asexual ( without sexual feelings or associations )
o Other:

6. Do you think sexual orientation is a choice or something you are born with?
*
Mark only one oval.
o It is a choice
o You are born with it
o I have no opinion
o I am not sure
7. Do you know anyone who identifies as a part of the LGBT community? *
Mark only one oval.
o Yes
o No
o Maybe

8. If you were to find out that this is your friend, would you accept them? *
Mark only one oval.
o Yes
o No
o Maybe

9. If you were to find out that someone in your family, has identified as LGBT,
what would your reaction to them be? *
Mark only one oval.
o Help them open up to the rest of the family
o Distance myself from the person
o " Don't ever mention it again "
o " I'll be there for you, no matter what "
o Other:

10.If yes, how will you ensure that you create a safe space for them? *

11. Do you find yourself laughing on jokes about LGBT people?

Mark only one oval.
o Yes
o No
o Maybe

12. Do you think it is right to legalize same sex marriage in India? *

Mark only one oval.
o Yes
o No
o I don't know enough about the topic to have an opinion

13. If you do not believe same sex marriage should be legal, please select one
answer that explains why you feel this way *
Mark only one oval.
o It is against my religious views
o Marriage should be between one man and one woman
o It will weaken the institution of marriage
o Marriage is for having children
o The child should have a father and a mother
o I support same sex marriage
o Other:

14. Do you feel LGBT people currently have the same rights as heterosexual
people? *
Mark only one oval.
o Yes
o No
o I don't have an opinion on this topic

15. Do you feel that LGBT citizens are discriminated against in the workplace or
schools? *
Mark only one oval.
o Just in the workplace
o Just in schools
o Depends on the particular workplace or school
o Maybe

16. Do you think LGBT community is discriminated in public places? *

Mark only one oval.
o Yes
o No
o Maybe

17. Please select the degree to which you agree or disagree with the following
general statements about LGBT people. *
Mark only one oval per row.
Strongly Agree
Somewhat Agree
Neutral
Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree
1. LGBT people's sexual acts or gender expression are against what God intended
2. LGBT people are unnatural
 3. LGBT people are mentally sick or never grew up to be mature heterosexual men or women
4. Homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender-ism are a result of too much freedom in a country that is
losing traditional family values. are
5. There should be occupations and public places where homosexual, bisexual and transgender people
should be excluded
6. LGBT couples should have the right to adopt children
7. Students should be exposed to age appropriate lessons about LGBT historic figures in their history and
social science courses
8. Parents of students taking sex education should have the option to allow these students to learn
about heterosexuality, homosexuality and transgenderism.
9. Students should be taught about tolerance, acceptance of LGBT people to reduce bullying and
suicides among youth
10. My church, temple, mosque, spiritual leaders seldom or never speak about LGBT people
11. My church, temple, mosque, spiritual leaders accept and support LGBT people

ANALYSIS

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948
testifies that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” (United Nations, Article
1). The LGBT community has now gained worldwide recognition. Many reputed NGOs and
governmental institutions work for the welfare of this community. In India, the prevalence of Section
377 of the constitution, which was introduced during the British rule, had restricted same-sex
marriage for years stating it as against the order of nature. But on 6th September 2018, the Supreme
Court of India decriminalized LGBT by disclosing section 377 as illegitimate /unlawful. “The Bench,
led by Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra unanimously held that criminalization of private
consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex under Section 377 of the Indian Penal
Code was clearly unconstitutional” 2(Rajagopal, The Hindu). This proved to be one of India’s most
historic and progressive verdicts, and a landmark decision in the history of Indian gay rights
movements.

All over the world the LGBT are subjected to discrimination and were believed to be criminals. There
are many films, short films and advertisements which portrays this kind of relations. Yet our Indian
society had not changed a lot even though the Supreme Court had made many rules in support of
the LGBT community. In most of the rural parts of India, same sex marriages are not still accepted,
and are faced by harsh religious and communal opposition.

The majority of females of age between 15-25 have answered yes. This shows that the future
generation is comfortable with the idea of same sex marriage. The change that needs to be brought
about is talking about the concept. People should know enough about the topic and should form an
opinion about it irrespective of others’ opinions. Even now, there are large number of people who
are not ready to accept homosexual couples as their neighbours. Therefore, these group of people
leads a life of constant discrimination and fear.

The famous Malayalam short film Ivide written and directed by Reshma Sivakumar portrays the
friendship and life of two young women who are at their teenage. The character Joe is going through
peer pressure and also finds it difficult to convey her feelings or emotions to anyone around her. Joe
finds it burdensome because she believes her love is not ‘normal’ when compared to others around
her. Usually, the society, we live in consider Heterosexuals to be straight. A man who fancies a
woman or a woman who fancies a man is normal and straight. But here Joe’s feeling will be labelled
as ‘abnormal’.
 Q 17.9
80%
70%
70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20% 17%

10% 9%

1% 3%
0%
Strongly Agree (%) Somewhat Agree (%) Neutral (%) Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree (%)
(%)

The majority strongly agrees but there is also a good 9% that is neutral towards this. This is worse
than strongly disagreeing as implicit bias is worse than explicit bias. Hence, this should be taken into
control and preventive measures to be put to action.

Everyone in neither this world nor the society have a complete awareness about their surroundings.
In a society an individual's existence is more significant when compared to the other social factors.To
express oneself one never has to feel hesitate rather he or she should be proud to choose their
identity whether if they are heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual. Nowadays people are bolder and
more confident to open up their feelings just like teenagers of this term exhibit their identity
through their styles and haircuts. Similarly, to express one’s feeling is not a hurdle in this modern
world; rather, it is a factor of self-respect.

Thus, the society should understand that sexuality of an individual is his/her private life and personal
choice, and it is not a sin to choose a partner from the same gender. .Accepting Homosexuals as one
among us is not a sin .Through such a great action actually we are giving every individual the
freedom to express themselves. Homosexual relations depicted in a normal way can be taken as the
best examples to promote LGBT rights. Theadvertisement of Myntra, ANOUK: Bold is Beautiful – The
Visit depicts Homosexual relation in a well and respectable manner. All the three videos, which came
under the category of advertisement: ‘Bold is Beautiful’ deals with idea of single parenting and
celebrating singleness and homosexuality. ‘TheVisit’ which is a small video which comes under this
ad directed by Shamik Sen Gupta depicts a lesbian relationship in a simple and normal way. The two
women presented in this ad decide to express their relation to their parents. One of them is really
worried about the other woman’s family because she belongs to the south India and they are too
traditional about the customs and concept of marriage. The video does not show what happens
later, or the reaction of their families, but still it creates a kind of positive thought in the minds of the
viewers. The idea of togetherness and choice of life is depicted naturally through that ad. Their
relation is depicted in such a way which triggers only positive aspects about homosexuality.
From the graph, it can be concluded that majority of people from the Christian religion feel that
LGBT peoples sexual acts or gender expression are against what God intended. Also, majority of
Hindu and Atheist responses strongly disagree to this statement.

Our society has a set of rules and concepts about different matter and we are not supposed to break
those rules and when someone tries to change these rules society starts to criticize and underrate
them. If personally individuals are able to change the way we view certain things then most of the
subjects that we consider as taboo will be disappeared from our society.

The public are ready to accept only the idea of heterosexuality and consider all other relations apart
from these aspects as abnormal. The matter of how society will watch us this comes as a major
concern in many cases and it’s the main reason lesbian couples are mainly facing struggles during
the time to open up to their parents, They fear about the reactions and they try to suppress
themselves and it can even cause both physical and mental illness.

Amongst Hindus and Christians, there is evenly distributed answers regarding whether their holy
places/ leaders seldom or never talk about the LGBT community. The Sikh respondents somewhat
agree to this statement whereas the Muslim respondent states that this statement is somewhat
untrue. ( keeping in mind there is quite few respondents belonging to Skihism and Islam )

From the graph, it is known that people of different religions all have mixed views whether their
holy places/ leaders accept and support the LGBT community. Although, the Islamic respondent
disagrees to this statement to an extent. Majority in other religions feel there is a neutral
perspective towards the LGBT community.

Q 17.8
50%
46%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20% 20%
20%
15%
10%
10%
4%
5%
0%
Strongly Agree Somewhat Neutral (%) Somewhat Strongly
(%) Agree (%) disagree (%) disagree (%)

The majority strongly agrees with this statement hence making way for future generations to talk
about sex openly as even that is considered as taboo in India.
 Q 17.7
60%
53%
50%

40%

30%

20% 19% 17%

10% 7%
4%
0%
Strongly Agree Somewhat Neutral (%) Somewhat Strongly
(%) Agree (%) disagree (%) disagree (%)

Even though only 4% have strongly disagreed to this point, this brings to attention that the people in
power are the ones who make all the decisions. Hence, if they are not thinking about education and
empowerment, the younger generation cannot learn from them and move ahead.

Q 17.6
70%
64%
60%

50%

40%

30%

20%
13% 14%
10% 7%
1%
0%
Strongly Agree Somewhat Neutral (%) Somewhat Strongly
(%) Agree (%) disagree (%) disagree (%)

The majority has strongly agreed but this also brings to light the fact that people are still not ready
for LGBT couples adopting. This also tells that people still want to protect their children from the
community in fears of them getting influenced.
 Q 17.5
80%
70%
70%

60%

50%

40%

30%
21%
20%

10% 6%
1% 1%
0%
Strongly Agree Somewhat Neutral (%) Somewhat Strongly
(%) Agree (%) disagree (%) disagree (%)

Many people strongly disagree to this as now a days workplaces are becoming more and more
inclusive and are trying to add as much diversity to the organisation as it only helps in the future.

Q 17.4
70%

60% 59%

50%

40%

30%
20%
20%

10% 7% 9%
6%

0%
Strongly Agree Somewhat Neutral (%) Somewhat Strongly
(%) Agree (%) disagree (%) disagree (%)

Although 59% people strongly disagree with this statement, there are people who think otherwise.
Most parents think of protecting their children rather than educating them about the facts of the
issue.
 Q 17.2
70% 66%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20% 17%

10% 6% 7%
4%
0%
Strongly Agree Somewhat Neutral (%) Somewhat Strongly
(%) Agree (%) disagree (%) disagree (%)

LGBT people are unnatural: The majority of people have strongly disagreed to the fact that LGBT
people are unnatural. 17% of people have said that they are neutral to the opinion hence showing
that they are indifferent. This can also be due to the fact that in India a lot adults have seen people
use it as a means to make money, hence they have stopped believing in it now.

Q 17.3
80%
69%
70%

60%

50%

40%

30%
20%
20%

10% 7%
1% 3%
0%
Strongly Agree Somewhat Neutral (%) Somewhat Strongly
(%) Agree (%) disagree (%) disagree (%)

66% people have said that they strongly disagree with this statement hence confirming that they are
empathetic towards the community. People who have said otherwise show that they do not
empathize well, it might be because of lack of information or biased opinions.
CONCLUSION

This research was an attempt to understand, interpret and analyse how accepting is the Indian
society towards the LGBT community. It is quite clear that unlike several other countries, India still
has shortcomings when the topic of equality of minorities is discussed and put into light. Our study
consists relevant information about the history and background of the LGBT community, how much
support they receive from the state and the private sector, policies and rules for or against the LGBT
community which in turn significantly is impacting the lives of members of the LGBT community.
From our survey, we can deduce that people belonging to a younger age group ( 15-25 years old )
are clearly more accepting and supportive of equal liberty to be provided towards the LGBT
community. Since more and more people in the current generation are becoming comfortable to
talk about their sexuality, the rest of the people of today’s generation are encouraging the LGBT
members to speak the truth. Youth does not feel this is something “abnormal” and there is no need
to oppress people who want to choose their sexuality freely without the consent of others. Although
the opinions and attitudes of older generations remain quite implicit. Responses from people in the
age bracket of 26-60 somewhat seem to be in favour of the LGBT community but it is not very clear
and explicit. Older people would choose to not socialise with the LGBT members but would support
them to have equality like normal human beings. It can be said that they would tend to stay away
from the LGBT people because of discomfort and preconceived notions due to the lessons they were
taught in their childhood.

REFERENCES
 Venugopalan, A. (2019, June 26). Indian MNCs openly allying with the LGBT cause. Retrieved
from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/indian-mncs-
openly-allying-with-the-lgbt-cause/articleshow/69951140.cms
 Mugisha, F. (2019, January 22). India and the Global Fight for LGBT Rights. Retrieved from
https://foreignpolicy.com/gt-essay/india-and-the-global-fight-for-lgbt-rights/
 Kaoma, K. (2012, April 24). Exporting the Anti-Gay Movement. Retrieved from
https://prospect.org/world/exporting-anti-gay-movement/
 Innokenty, & Grekov. (2013, August 8). Russia's Anti-Gay Law, Spelled Out in Plain English.
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plain-english
 Higa, D., Hoppe, M. J., Lindhorst, T., Mincer, S., Beadnell, B., Morrison, D. M., … Mountz, S.
(2012). Negative and Positive Factors Associated With the Well-Being of Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth. Youth & Society, 46(5), 663–
687. doi: 10.1177/0044118x12449630
 Drake, B. (2019, February 27). How LGBT adults see society and how the public sees them.
Retrieved from http://lesbianworlds.com/how-lgbt-adults-see-society-and-how-the-public-
sees-them
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