In 2018, they helped decriminalise homosexuality in India, and even came out as a couple. Now they have taken up a new challenge.
Special thanks to The Oxford Union.
Special thanks to The Oxford Union.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Young people in India, gay or straight, different religions, different castes, different classes,
00:08when you speak to them, they all aspire for one thing in common, which is a long-term
00:16partnership which is premised on marriage.
00:18Not only did they want to live life without a criminal law, but they wanted to live in
00:22India, they wanted to live wherever they wanted in India, not to have to choose life in metropolitan
00:27centers where their sexuality might find greater acceptance.
00:33Because we are not a country that recognizes girlfriends and boyfriends or dating.
00:37We're a country that sanctifies one kind of relationship, and that is marriage.
00:43We are not simply a family society, we are also a marriage society, and we are also a
00:51people of 1.7 billion people who are deeply enmeshed in a social fabric where one of the
00:57biggest determiners of that social fabric is marriage and family.
01:02So in that country, whether we are called the global south, whether we are called the
01:07world's largest constitutional democracy, whether we are called a secular country, the
01:14reality of that country is that gay people and straight people and left-handed people
01:19and right-handed people all aspire for one thing in common, to find love.
01:24One of the biggest gains of this judgment have been the number of parents who've met us.
01:32The number of parents who've had their children introduce their partners to them after the
01:38judgment.
01:39The number of parents who have now embraced their same-sex, I want to say the partner
01:46of their child who happens to be same-sex, into their families.
01:51We are not simply a family society, we are also a marriage society.
01:57Our petitioners were much younger.
02:00They were between the age of, I mean the median age was 24, and what really struck us was
02:07the sense of aspiration that they had as to what they wanted from their lives.
02:11Not only did they want to live life without a criminal law, but they wanted to live in
02:16India, they wanted to live wherever they wanted in India, not to have to choose life
02:19in metropolitan centers where their sexuality might find greater acceptance, not to have
02:25to choose jobs in fields that they thought were more liberal, where their sexuality might
02:29again find greater acceptance.
02:31But most importantly for what we're talking about today, they wanted to be able to have
02:37the relationships that they felt they were entitled to and that they aspired to in India.
02:42They didn't want to have to think about life outside of the country if they wanted to get
02:47married, they didn't want to have to think about life outside of the country if they
02:50wanted something as simple as insurance for their partners, or to have their partner's
02:55name on their passport.
02:57Young people in India, gay or straight, different religions, different castes, different classes,
03:04when you speak to them, they all aspire for one thing in common, which is a long-term
03:12partnership which is premised on marriage.
03:15And what we find with younger gay people in India is that they want to be part of that
03:21social and legal project as well.
03:24And that is what we have learned from our clients, our younger clients.
03:28Part of those aspirations of occupational success includes the aspiration of personal
03:34happiness, and a core part of that personal happiness that they see for the rest of their
03:38lives is having someone to love that the law recognizes that they can in turn take home
03:46to their families.