Push on to quash gay ban in India

NEW DELHI — They’re considered some of India’s brightest minds.

Now students and alumni from India’s most prestigious universities who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer are fighting to have homosexuality decriminalized in their country.

India’s Supreme Court is considering six petitions from gay rights groups seeking to overturn a colonial-era law that effectively bans gay sex.

One of the petitions comes from alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), equivalent in status to the Ivy Leagues.

Their protest is different not just because of who they are — highly skilled engineers, scientists, filmmakers and others — but also because their petition to the court adds an economic layer to the usual humanitarian and social arguments for removing a law that stigmatizes minority groups. Criminalizing gay sex isn’t only unjust, they say, it also comes at a sizable financial cost to India’s developing economy.

Landmark verdict

A five-judge bench is expected to deliver a landmark verdict in the coming weeks.

Judges decided to review Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which outlaws “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,”after a recent ruling in an unrelated case that made privacy a constitutional right.

The national government has said it will leave the decision to the “wisdom” of the court.

The IIT alumni argue in their petition that LGBTQ people were considering “settling abroad or have done so” because of “the sense of vulnerability and inability to lead a free existence, solely on account of their LGBTQ identity.”

“It’s causing a brain drain,” said Balachandran Ramaiah, one of the petitioners, referring to the gay sex ban.