Indian minister draws flak for gay stand
Source: Agencies |
July 6, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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INDIA'S health minister has derided homosexuality as an unnatural "disease" from the West, drawing outrage yesterday from activists who said the comments set back the country's campaign for gay rights and its fight against HIV.
The comments on Monday by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at a conference on HIV/AIDS in the Indian capital New Delhi echoed a common refrain in the conservative South Asian nation that homosexuality is a Western import.
"Unfortunately this disease has come to our country too ... where a man has sex with another man, which is completely unnatural and should not happen, but does," Azad said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi and a slew of government ministers were also present at the conference. There was no immediate comment from the health ministry, and the prime minister's office refused to discuss the Azad's remarks.
Anjali Gopalan, who heads the NAZ Foundation, a rights group that works with HIV positive people and promotes equal rights for homosexuals, said Azad's comments were deeply troubling coming from the health minister of a country fighting a tough battle against HIV infections.
"These comments help no cause. It's definitely not going to help in our fight against HIV," she said.
Roughly 2.5 million Indians have HIV, making it the country with the largest number of people living with the virus in Asia.
Experts say the marginalization of gay people keeps them isolated and makes it harder for HIV/AIDS awareness messages to reach them.
In 2009, the Delhi High Court struck down a colonial era law - Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code - that made sex between people of the same gender punishable by up to 10 years in prison. While actual criminal prosecutions were rare, the law was frequently used to harass people.
Over the last decade homosexuals have slowly gained a degree of acceptance in a few parts of India, especially its big cities.
"How can the health minister say something so unscientific and irrational?" Nitin Karani, a gay rights activist said. "He needs to apologize immediately or he needs to go."
The comments on Monday by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at a conference on HIV/AIDS in the Indian capital New Delhi echoed a common refrain in the conservative South Asian nation that homosexuality is a Western import.
"Unfortunately this disease has come to our country too ... where a man has sex with another man, which is completely unnatural and should not happen, but does," Azad said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi and a slew of government ministers were also present at the conference. There was no immediate comment from the health ministry, and the prime minister's office refused to discuss the Azad's remarks.
Anjali Gopalan, who heads the NAZ Foundation, a rights group that works with HIV positive people and promotes equal rights for homosexuals, said Azad's comments were deeply troubling coming from the health minister of a country fighting a tough battle against HIV infections.
"These comments help no cause. It's definitely not going to help in our fight against HIV," she said.
Roughly 2.5 million Indians have HIV, making it the country with the largest number of people living with the virus in Asia.
Experts say the marginalization of gay people keeps them isolated and makes it harder for HIV/AIDS awareness messages to reach them.
In 2009, the Delhi High Court struck down a colonial era law - Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code - that made sex between people of the same gender punishable by up to 10 years in prison. While actual criminal prosecutions were rare, the law was frequently used to harass people.
Over the last decade homosexuals have slowly gained a degree of acceptance in a few parts of India, especially its big cities.
"How can the health minister say something so unscientific and irrational?" Nitin Karani, a gay rights activist said. "He needs to apologize immediately or he needs to go."
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