‘We (LGBTQ) are the segment of society that has no rights’

Keshav Suri, 33, executive director of The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, which owns The Lalit hotel, filed a petition in the Supreme Court last week against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises all forms of non-penile vaginal intercourse.

On April 23, the court directed the Centre to respond to Suri’s plea to tackle discrimination against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) and intersex people within a week. The Lalit is one of the 83 global firms that support the United Nations Standards of Conduct for Business, released in October 2017. In an interview with

Suri said the discrimination brought about by Section

377 does not only threaten the dignity of LGBTQ people but also hurts the country economically.

Dhamini Ratnam,

people dead, many of whom were gay] that hit me. You could say it was my personal awakening. There were so many people who grieved for [the victims] openly in the US, and I wondered, what if something like that were to happen here? Would people say we deserved to be shot because they are gay? We’re that segment of society that has no rights. It was also my professional awakening to bring about change in my own company. I wanted to create safe spaces for the LGBTQ community. As per World Bank estimates, discrimination against LGBTQ community costs the country billions of dollars [a 2014 interim report estimated the Indian economy lost the equivalent of anywhere between 0.1 and 1.7% of its GDP.] It’s time to stop ignoring this. At the same time, there is also a high spending community that does not come to the country because of Section 377. The tourism of this country is taking a big hit. It’s a matter of the pink

dollar.