Celina: Giving rights to gays doesn’t diminish your own

15 Jun 2009, 0000 hrs IST, TNN

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Section 377, introduced by Lord Macaulay in 1860 as a part of the IPC, reads, “Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of

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nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Bollywood actress and Miss World Celina Jaitley, a strong supporter of gay rights, is fighting for the amendment of this law. She has written three blogs on the subject in iTimes for which there have been lively feedback, both for and against. Here are some comments from bloggers about Celina's views on gays in India...

V Malhotra
Everybody has different ways of finding happiness and enjoying it. If someone is gay, does it really matter if you are not?

John Smith
To all the retards arguing that gays are normal and their being attracted to their own sex is normal, would you agree that someone attracted to kids or animals and having sex with them is normal, too!

Shreya Bhandary
Parents, forcing heterosexuality on your kids will make their lives a living torture. Instead, let them be, and if possible, support them in their quest for equal rights in society.

Alok Kumar
All so-called modern and educated youth should come forward and support Celina. Today or tomorrow there can be a gay or lesbian in your own homes. Will you kill them in the name of moral values and ethics? Think friends, think and set an example of live and let live. If people think that they have the right to laugh and make fun of gays only because they are straight, they are wrong. Please stop this harassment of gays because all these things are natural, made by God. And nobody has any right to say no to the creation of God.

Kiran Varanasi
I am a heterosexual male, but I consider this fight for gay rights to be my own fight because it is ultimately a fight for individual liberties. We should not sacrifice the freedom of the individual, and as a society, we should strive to be tolerant and accepting. If not, ultimately we will become a monolithic, conformist society with one single language and one single religion and that will be a nightmare.

Radha Krishnan
Denouncing, abusing, hurting and even killing others just because they don’t look like or behave like ‘us’ is so last century. Every such act has been justified through history by invoking God or nature. Apartheid was born thus, the caste system was perpetuated thus. And when nobody speaks out, it becomes ‘what everybody wants’, which is far from the truth.

Vinayak Kamath
My problem is not with giving them equal rights. My problem is not with accepting them as a part of society. My problem is not in socialising with them. My problem is in considering them as an oppressed class. Making them a national issue. Wasting precious time and money on them. My problem is with glorifying them.