A deep change of attitudes to Gays and Lesbians is slowly percolating through the Indian subcontinent. Now helped on by the new UN gay rights declaration.

In 2009, British colonial law dating back more than 150 years ago that held same-sex relationships as ‘unnatural’, was overturned by the Delhi High Court, responding to a clamour for change from gay rights activists and members of civil society.

“A level of dialogue around sexuality began after the Delhi High Court ruling,” Magdalene Jeyarathnam, founder-director of the Centre For Counselling in southern Chennai city, told IPS. “There has been a surge in the number of young people who have come out over the past couple of years.”

“I see this movement gaining power, strength and momentum with each passing day,” she added. Pawan Dhall, director of the Kolkata-based NGO ‘Solidarity and Action Against the HIV Infection in India’ which pioneered a sensitisation movement on gay rights in the late 1990s, said the country’s top campuses are in fact leading gay rights activism.
In Kolkata, a group called ‘Students against Campus Homophobia’ is active in the city’s Jadavpur University (JU), well known for its liberal ambience as well as academic excellence. JU already offers ‘Queer Studies’ as an optional subject at the post-graduate level in its English department.

Kolkata also hosted the first Gay parade in India in 2003. The ‘Rainbow Walk’ is now an annual feature and other metros like New Delhi and Mumbai have followed.

Gay rights activism and awareness followed the AIDS awareness campaigns that were launched in the country in the 1990s and quickly caught the imagination of the country’s vibrant media.
“We have been fighting for a rights-based approach and inclusiveness from the 1990s. Today, it is heartening to see some change coming our way,” says Malobika, founder-member of ‘Sappho’, a forum for lesbians in Kolkata. She had to flee the town with her partner in the 90s under family pressure.

Read Full IPS article HERE http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104983

UN finally supports Gay and Lesbian Rights

GENEVA – The United Nations endorsed the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people for the first time ever Friday, passing a resolution hailed as historic by the U.S. and other backers and decried by African and Islamic countries.

The declaration was cautiously worded, expressing “grave concern” about abuses suffered by people because of their sexual orientation, and commissioning a global report on discrimination of gays. But activists called it a remarkable shift on an issue that has divided the global body for decades, and credited the Obama administration’s push for gay rights at home and abroad with helping win support for the resolution.

“This represents a historic moment to highlight the human rights abuses and violations that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people face around the world based solely on who they are and whom they love,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement.

Following tense negotiations, members of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council narrowly voted in favor of the declaration put forward by South Africa, with 23 votes in favor and 19 against.

Backers included the United States, the European Union, Brazil and other Latin American countries.

Those against included Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Pakistan.

China, Burkina Faso and Zambia abstained, Kyrgyzstan didn’t vote