How universal

are human
rights?(lgbtqia+
rights)
By vanya choudhary
 The LGBTQIA+ rights

Lgbtqia+ stands for Lesbian Gay bisexual transgender queer

intersex Asexual and the ‘+ ‘represents all the other
identities and orientations.
The people who have different sexuality gender identities
and sex may like to be called the part of the Lgbtqia
community.
There are regions of the world where it is prohibited to get
engaged in sexual activities or marriages of such sort.
 Current Issues

● Homosexuality being criminalize

● Same sex marriage being illegal
● Discrimination in work field
● Forcing of binary norms
● Sexual, verbal and social abuse.
● Right to identify one’s self( gender identity/sexuality)
 Criminalization of homosexuality

In about 69 countries homosexuality is considered as a criminal

offense due to:
● Religious beliefs
● Lack of education
● Homophobia
● Lack of social awareness
History of criminalization of homosexuality in the nation
● In 1533 in india understand the British
colonization homosexuality was first time taken as ● In united Kingdom homsexuality was considered a
an offense under The Buggery Act which stated crime under sexual offences Act , in 1967 the act
that Homosexual act where against the gods will was repealed of which homosexuality was
and shall be prohibited. Thereafter under offences decriminalised.
against person Act ,1861, Homosexual were
considered equivalent to rapist and had same rules ● In 2013 the marriage act was passed in which
charged against them. same sex couples marriages got legal recognition
in England and the Whales.
● Section 377 of Indian penal code until 6th
December 2018 criminalized the same sex
intercose,the law was reapealed after years of
rallies and petition being sent to the court

● Well but the issue hasn't been resolved india is still

looking forward to getting same-sex marriage
legalized under special marriage act.
 same-sex marriage rights
Out of 195 countries only 30 countries are which would consider to have national laws which
would provide recognition to same-sex marriages.
What is the problem that lies here ? Why only half of the countries where homosexuality is
legalized, are those recognizing same-sex marriage? One of the reasons could be that it takes
time to imply any law as it's a long procedure and it's different for every legislature. Secondly
marriage is a large part of human society and it has spiritual and cultural to the people.There
are places where they wouldn't consider same-sex marriage as part of their religion because of
which they might not agree with the law being past and this could also result in conflicts.
In USA during the time when same-sex marrige law was being voted on people took out rallies
in order to protest against the law moreover they even made homophobic or anti-gay marrige
advertisment while on the other hand there were teen who protested for LGBTQ+ rights.
As of india the government does not recognize same-sex marriages yet but during the past few
years after decriminalization of article 377 people have been sending petitions regarding the
issue.
Culture and religion
In india homosexuality In ancient times was never
considered as a taboo crime.
In reference to the kamasutraHomosexual acts have
been appeared in the sculpture multiple times.
Moreover in the ancient history there is mentioning
of hatred towards queer people . In fact many of the
heroic figures had same-sex relationships . In past
there was no word for Homosexual or the sexuality,
the words used now are the translation of the English
word Homosexual.
In UK as they used to follow the Bible where
according to the people in Bible sex been two men is
prohibited and is considered unnatural.
In fact same as Indian mythology there was no word
give for same-sex attraction or relationship.
The Bible is a set f rules which describes of how to
live from the point of view of God. And as Bible is a
long book and it is written in the old English it could
be hard to interpret it and sometimes people might
even be wrong.

Well these stories and books were written centuries back and we have
evolved a lot over the time . It's better to accept the changes and move on
 Local viewpoint
In response to a survey taken in the school mostly teenagers people from age
25-45.
Most of the people were unaware about the Decriminalisation of section 377:it
is an act regarding the decriminalization of homosexuality in india . Only
28.6% of people knew about it.;out of which all were were in support of the
law .
85.7% of people had experienced or seen homophobia happening. The
incidents mention by people were regarding people getting called out for their
look and getting bullied because of the gender identity or sexuality.
A question was asked of how could we prevent or reduce homophobia and the
general answers were “ by normalizing qeer people and making the young
ones get taught about it at a early age”
 Issues faced by transgender people

● Around the world only 8 countries are there which recognize the third gender . Which is very harsh as non
binary people or gender non specific people have been there for a long time and should be allowed to
express themselves.
● At some places the intersex people are forced to go through surgeries treating them as it's a disease and
need to be cured. They would even face judgements and sexual and/or verbal harassment as well.
● In the working field as well people may not take them as employees and tend to discriminated on them.
● Sometimes it is prohibited as well for the the transgender people to not to use the washroom of their
opposite of their gender assigned at birth.
 Trans rights
In most of the countries the gender options in legal documents are limited to “M” or “F,
there have been request to put “X” as an option for the Non-binary people.Moreover
people don’t even know that non-binary gender exists at the first place.
47 members states are where it is illegal to change one's gender on the legal document, of
which in 13 of the countries are where being transgender is considered a criminal
offence.

Although india has not recognised non binary gender it has been very supportive towards
the transgender community ; in 2019 transgender person bill was passed in india under
the protection of rights law which stated that any kind of discrimination in employment
work or education field would be prohibited.moreover there are healthcare facilities and
shelter provided to the people in need by various NGOs situated in india.
 What do Peoples says ?

When asked the definition of gender 28% of people said that it was the sex that they were born with. While the others
believed it was the way one expresses or feels about themself.
Every person believed that gender identity or one's gender expression is more superior than their gender assigned at
birth.
And the people who took the survey didn't really have an issue with
solution

● Representation of lgbtq+ people in media

● Education
● Spreading awareness
● Sending petitions
● Normalizing it
 Reference
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Thank you