Homosexuality – Complete Details you Should Know about Homosexuality

Homosexuality- Why in news?

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that colonial-era 377A law will be abolished that bans gay sex, effectively making it legal to be homosexual in the city-state.

Meaning of Homosexuality

Homosexuality is sexual attraction, orientation towards or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to people of the same sex.

The most common adjectives for homosexual people are lesbian for females and gay for males, but the term gay also commonly refers to both homosexual females and males.

Homosexuality Definition

If we read the texts of section 377 of IPC we get a textual definition of what homosexuality means. Section 377 reads as Unnatural offences: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. As per the text, it is considered to be unnatural considering that it goes against the biological constructions.

Homosexuality Section

Singapore is not the only former colony with a version of section 377 – the law continues to exist in many parts of Asia, Africa and Oceania.
It was introduced by the colonial British government in India in the 19th Century. It soon spread outside of India as the British used the Indian Penal Code as the basis for criminal law codes in other territories they controlled. Several former British colonies such as Kenya, Malaysia and Myanmar still have some version of section 377. In 2018, India’s Supreme Court abolished section 377 in a historic verdict, prompting hopes among activists that other former colonies would eventually follow suit.

In recent years, other parts of Asia have also moved to legalize gay marriage. Taiwan became the first place to do so in 2019, and in June Thailand approved draft legislation allowing same-sex unions.

Homosexuality case

Decriminalization of Homosexuality: The landmark case dealing with the question of Constitutionality of Section 377 IPC is Navtej Singh Johar v UOI. Akkai Padmashali v UOI. On September 6th 2018 a five-judge Bench unanimously decriminalises homosexuality, says history owes LGBTQ community an apology to the community. Constitution Bench declares the 156-year-old “tyranny” of Section 377 as “irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary”.
The ruling overturns a 2013 judgement that upheld a colonial-era law, known as section 377, under which gay sex is categorized as an unnatural offence.

Homosexuality in Nature

Well it is a general perception that sex between male and female is natural but one question always keep on striking human mind that is homosexuality really unnatural or does it exist in the natural world?
Actually, some same-sex birds do it. So do beetles, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, and orangutans.
Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom.

Although same-sex interactions involving genital contact have been reported in hundreds of animal species, they are routinely manifested in only a few, including humans.