Homosexuality is not a crime in India anymore. In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday, overturned a 2013 judgement, which had upheld the 157-year-old colonial-era law, criminalizing gay sex. In a unanimous verdict, a five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra, scrapped Section 377, on a bunch of petitions filed by five celebrities. "Right to Privacy is part of the right to life for the LGBT community. No one can escape from their individuality," said the Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
"Not for nothing, the great German thinker, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had said, I am what I am, so take me as I am"
"LGBT Community has same rights as of any ordinary citizen. Respect for each other's rights, and others are supreme humanity. Criminalising gay sex is irrational and indefensible"
"The identity is pivotal to one's being... Identity is equivalent to divinity...Destruction of individual identity would tantamount to crushing of intrinsic dignity that cumulatively encapsulates the values of privacy, choice, freedom of speech and other expressions."
"Look for the rainbow in every-crowd... Equality and liberty and this freedom can only be fulfilled when each one of us realizes LGBT community has same rights as other citizens"
"Denial of self-expression is inviting death. Irreplaceability of individuality and identity is grant of respect to self. This realization is one's signature and self-determined design. One defines oneself. That is the glorious form of individuality."
