A Relentless March Towards Pride: Asserting Equal Marriage Rights

A Relentless March Towards Pride: Asserting Equal Marriage Rights

Sangeetha Sriraam, Simhanjana Gopikrishna Sumathi
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 29
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5568-5.ch001
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Abstract

Consensual homosexual activities were decriminalized by the Indian Supreme Court in 2018. This paved way for several judicial interventions to protect LGBTQ+ persons. From recognizing the marriage of a transwoman to banning infant IGM surgeries, the judiciary has contributed immensely. Unfortunately, the legislature has not fallen in line, and the community continues to be deprived of indispensable rights such as the right to marry. This chapter traces the importance of equal marriage rights and its intrinsic role in protecting other rights including healthcare, adoption, inheritance, etc. The authors will analyze the judicial breakthroughs that have taken place in the last decade and in doing so critique the statutory framework constraints that the judiciary faces. The chapter will outlay an overview of equal marriage rights from across the world. Finally, the way forward for guaranteeing the rights of the community as enshrined under India's ‘transformative' constitution is discussed.
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“Nobody is dying because they don’t have a marriage certificate.”

-Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India

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History

Though the acronym LGBTQ+ is relatively recent, neither the community nor its individuals were alien to ancient India. Stories of sexual transformation and gender metamorphosis, characters who broke free from the binary heterosexual mold are all over Indian history and mythology, especially the Hindu lore. Not just ancient India, several civilizations such as Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, and Japan, to name a few, have recorded the existence of gender non-binary individuals and sexual identities in its myriad forms. As recorded by Mark (2021) shows that same-sex relationships were quite clearly traditionally accepted, respected, and even revered for over 2,000 years.

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