Celina Jaitly: History owes an apology to the LGBTQ community

As someone who calls herself a lifelong ally of the LGBTQIA+ community, Celina Jaitly feels that there is still a long way to go before the community is fully emancipated.

The actor, who is United Nations Human Rights Equality Champion and has been an LGBTQIA+ activist for over two decades now says, “This Pride month, I would like to congratulate all those who fought for LGBTQIA+ rights in India. It has been a long journey and history owes an apology to the community.”

Jaitly shares that while our country has repealed its colonial-era laws that discriminated against LGBTQIA+ groups in India, many legal protections have not been provided for, “including same-sex marriage, any recognition relationship, family rights and adoption.”

“In addition, I would like to see The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, to be more progressive. The same bill was updated and reproduced as Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, which changes the definition of ‘transgender’ and does away with the criminalisation of begging. It also provides for penal provisions for crimes committed against the transgender community,” she adds.

The 39-year-old says that although flawed, the Transgender Rights Bill remains the product of one of the longest and most powerful transgender rights movements.

“Having said that, I sincerely hope to see a coalition of committed organisations, corporates and hopefully, the government too, to reach out to those with different perspectives and respectfully engage with them in promoting greater LGBTQIA+ inclusion promises and legal obligations to bring real and substantial inclusive nvironment at work for all,” the actor concludes.