An activist waves a rainbow flag LGBT pride flag after the Supreme Court verdict which decriminalises consensual gay sex outside the Supreme Court. (Photo | PTI)
An activist waves a rainbow flag LGBT pride flag after the Supreme Court verdict which decriminalises consensual gay sex outside the Supreme Court. (Photo | PTI)

Homosexuality is against nature: Religious groups

Various religious groups are up in arms with some of them planning to approach the top court for seeking a review of the historic section 377 verdict.

NEW DELHI: Unhappy with the Supreme Court decriminalising homosexuality, various religious groups are up in arms with some of them planning to approach the top court for seeking a review of the historic verdict.

“We will obey the Supreme Court’s decision as of now, but we do not agree with unnatural things like homosexuality. Deliberations are on. We are looking to approach the top court with a review petition. More than anything, we are unhappy with the stand that the Centre has taken on the whole issue. We demand that the Centre should reconsider its stand and would be happier if its file a review plea in the apex court,” Munna Kumar Sharma, national general secretary, Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha said in a statement.

The apex court had declared Section 377 of the IPC to be unconstitutional as it criminalises consensual sexual acts between adults, whether homosexual or heterosexual.

Dr Imam Umer Ahmed Illyasi of the All India Organisation of Imam of Mosques said when a similar incident had happened during one of the Prophet’s time, the people were “punished with rain of stones”.
“Homosexuality is against nature. Whichever country has legalised it, there is a rise of suffering and diseases like AIDS. The SC should have consulted the heads of all religions before taking a decision. According to nature, it is the ‘job’ of women to produce progeny,” he claimed.

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India secretary Fr. Stephen Fernandes said though homosexuality was not a civil crime anymore, it continues to be a moral one. “That homosexuality is now not a crime in the IPC does not mean that homosexual acts or behaviour is morally acceptable or justified,” he said.  

“What is legal is not equal to moral acceptability. The Catholic Church hold that homosexual behaviour is morally unacceptable because it violates the purpose of human sexuality, which is procreation and union of love fulfilled in the loving union of man and woman in marriage. In Catholic moral perspective, homosexual acts or behaviour is morally unacceptable.”

What the Supreme Court said
‘Individual has sovereignty over his or her body and can surrender autonomy wilfully to another individual and their intimacy in privacy is a matter of their choice, and such concept of identity is not only sacred but is also in recognition of the quintessential facet of humanity in a person’s nature’

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