‘IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES LIVING WITH OLD MINDSET’

LUCKNOW: Even after the historic Supreme Court judgement that decriminalised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, paving way for consensual relations among members of the LGBTQ community, experts said that the implementing agencies were yet to be made accountable or sensitised towards the issue.

Speaking at the Awadh Queer Literature Festival in Lucknow on Friday, Renu Mishra, executive director of the association for advocacy and legal initiatives trust, said, “The implementing agencies are still living with the old mindset. There is lack of societal acceptance of homosexuals despite the SC verdict.”

“Although the LGBTQ community celebrated the verdict of September 6, 2018 that decriminalised section 377 and allowed physical relations among consenting homosexuals in private, the society is yet to accept this,” she added. Freelance writer-journalist Anant Zanane said that homophobia was prevalent in organisations, so, people from the LGBTQ community often suppressed their identity. “Despite being a journalist, it took me nearly 14 years to accept my individuality as a queer,” he said. Activist Maya Sharma said that the agencies responsible for implementing laws lacked knowledge about the amendments taking place in various sections. “So, they fail to acknowledge child marriage and marital rape as offences and still consider homosexual relations a crime,” she said. The two-day festival opened here at the International Research Institute of Buddhist Studies in Gomti Nagar on Friday.