Tag Archives: Gautham Gayan

India’s LGBT Community Seeks Obama’s Support

While many may disagree with his politics and his policies, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, has often made headlines with his outspoken support for the United States’ LGBT community. While he originally said that he believed marriage should only be between a man and a woman, several years later he became the first in-office president to voice support for same sex marriage, he helped repeal DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell), a law which prohibited members of the military from coming out and just this week he made history by using his State of the Union speech to condemn the persecution of LGBT people.

On the other hand, you have India. Despite once decriminalising homosexuality, India repealed that decision and re-criminalised it in 2013 meaning that being gay or having same-sex intercourse could see you face lifetime imprisonment. India’s ruling party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that they would like to legalise homosexuality once more, calling it the “progressive way forward”, but unfortunately they don’t appear to be doing much about it.

That’s why India’s LGBT community is hopeful ahead of Barack Obama’s visit to the country this weekend. They are calling on him to help make a change and to help end the persecution against them.

A member of the LGBT community, Gautham Gayan, told the Times of India that:

“We decided to begin an online campaign and contacted our counterparts in other cities to coordinate. We are creating awareness and raising our voices so that the message reaches Obama and those in the Indian legislature.”

Gautham Gayan

So far that online campaign has to come to fruition as a hashtag (#ObamaForQueerIndia) and a petition. The petition, which currently has 652 signatures, says the following to Obama:

“We are not a minuscule [sic] minority. And we ask you to support us by speaking about our rights when you meet our leaders. Our voices can be ignored by our leaders, yours cannot. Help the LGBTQIA community in India get the freedom and equal rights that they so truly deserve.”

The petition and the campaign have both been garnering attention and so they will hopefully encourage Obama to speak out. The US State Department previously called on India to end the ban so it does seem likely that the president himself will follow suit.