NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday kicked up a row when he said that the BJP’s position on homosexuality was that it was a genetic disorder.
“The issue is not about respect. We respect physically challenged persons. Homos are genetically handicapped,” he added.
Swamy’s response came in defence of Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda’s statement in which he reportedlysaid that the government was considering scrapping Section 377.
However, Gowda subsequently denied it saying that he had been misquoted and that he had never mentioned scrapping of the same. “It is totally misquoted. When I was asked about the judgment that was pronounced by the US Supreme Court, I said that it was not an easy task in our country. So, the people of that country might have accepted it but here it has to be widely debated. Only then can something be done. Otherwise, it is not an easy task. So, we have no idea of scrapping or doing anything about Section 377,” he said.
The Law Minister also clarified that the issue of reversing a Supreme Court ruling which had upheld same-sex marriages in India as illegal is not pending before his ministry.