“It’s not about marriage. It’s about equality. Everybody should have the same right because that’s what our constitution says,” stated Noor Enayat, one of many volunteers organizing this 12 months’s occasion.

Earlier this 12 months, the Supreme Court’s five-judge bench heard 21 petitions that sought to legalize same-sex marriage in India.

The justices referred to as for steps to lift consciousness among the many public about LGBTQ+ id and to ascertain hotlines and protected homes for these in the neighborhood who’re going through violence. They additionally urged the state to verify same-sex {couples} don’t face harassment or discrimination in accessing primary wants, like opening a joint checking account, however stopped wanting granting authorized recognition to same-sex unions.

Legal rights for LGBTQ+ individuals in India have been increasing over the previous decade, principally because of the Supreme Court’s intervention.

In 2018, the highest courtroom struck down a colonial-era legislation that had made homosexual intercourse punishable by as much as 10 years in jail and expanded constitutional rights for the homosexual group. The determination was seen as a historic victory for LGBTQ+ rights.

Despite this progress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist authorities resisted the authorized recognition of same-sex marriage and rejected a number of petitions in favor. Some spiritual teams, too, had opposed same-sex unions, saying they went towards Indian tradition.

Homosexuality has lengthy carried a stigma in India’s conventional society, despite the fact that there was a shift in attitudes towards same-sex {couples} in recent times. India now has brazenly homosexual celebrities and a few high-profile Bollywood movies have handled homosexual points.

According to a Pew survey, acceptance of homosexuality in India elevated by 22 share factors to 37% between 2013 and 2019. But same-sex {couples} usually face harassment in lots of Indian communities, whether or not Hindu, Muslim or Christian.