Dear friends,
Two Indian Supreme Court judges just decided that gay sex is illegal. ILLEGAL!! But if we act fast we can help reverse this crazy backwards ruling.  Men and women in India now face police harassment and life imprisonment. This hateful decision is being met with outrage, and if we now show India that outlawing love is making them an international embarrassment we can get the Indian Parliament to fast track passing a law that the judges have to respect.

ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SIGN THE PETITION BELOW AND (IF YOU CAN) FORWARD THIS POST TO OTHERS YOU THINK WILL SIGN IT TOO.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/indias_gay_outrage_loc

Sign now to help love conquer fear in India. When we reach 1 million we’ll get all our names written on hundreds of giant hearts ringing the Indian parliament, then place prominent ads showing that the world will no longer accept making love illegal.[hr]

Did you know…..

• Section 377 I.P.C – which is the law which makes homosexuality illegal,is  a 153-year-old colonial-era law, defining homosexuality as  “unnatural offenses” and punishable by a 10-year jail term. India has been independent for sixty-six years.
• In 2009, a lower court in India had ruled that a colonial-era law making gay sex illegal violated the Indian Constitution. Most people expected the Indian Supreme Court to uphold that ruling. Instead, they reversed it, endorsing the medieval argument that gay sex is “unnatural, immoral and a reflection of a perverse mind.”
• In most of the world, gay rights have gone through a watershed decade. People everywhere are realizing, if they hadn’t already, that love is love and deserves respect and protection. But this didn’t happen by accident — it happened because of conscientious communities like ours who called out injustice wherever we saw it. India is now the next frontier — let’s join with those in India to stand up for love.
• Indian culture has never limited itself to the binary boxes of “masculine” or “feminine.” Indian culture has  gods/goddesses who are both male and female like the Ardhanareshwara. Many of their languages, like Bengali, often didn’t even have “he” or “she”.
• We know today that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, are living out real, authentic lives. Yet they continue to be denied employment or a promotion, or are fired, simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender at best, or face physical assault with no legal protection at worst. In fact, many members of the LGBT community are trafficked and sold for sex, simply because of vulnerabilities caused by homelessness or workplace discrimination. They are bravely speaking up about their sexual orientation and gender and asking not to be punished for either. Those lives should be celebrated, not questioned.They are part of the full human continuum of identity and expression.
• Indian lawyers are already preparing to challenge the decision in further legal proceedings, but the Indian Court essentially said this is an issue for the Indian Parliament to decide. The Indian government suggested they could take it to Parliament but that they likely won’t have the votes to change the law and that doing so could take a very long time. But if we make India an international scandal for outlawing gay sex, we can help swing votes and speed the process.

It’s time that law passed.