NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 27, 2008: A proposal to modify Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (which criminalizes sex between persons of the same gender) has come under fire in a government affidavit, becoming a heated matter of discussion in the last few weeks between the Delhi High Court and different branches of the government with opposing views.
A government report called homosexuality a “social vice” and “a reflection of a perverse mind.”
[HPI note: India’s law on homosexuality was framed in by Lord Macaulay in 1860, but English law no longer criminalizes it. Hindu scriptures neither condone nor condemn birth control, sterilization, masturbation, homosexuality, petting, polygamy or pornography.]