Ruth Vanita on Love's Rite, Gender, Sexuality, and A Slight Angle
The first same-sex marriage was between Ila and Urmila in Madhya Pradesh in 1987 followed by many more in the 90s. At this time, same-sex marriage was not accepted legally anywhere in the world. The first country to legalise same-sex marriage was Netherlands in 2001. So what this means is that at least 20 years before that these young women were getting married. One thing was they were not English speaking, they had no contact with any movement, in fact there was no gay movement in India in the 80s. In a recent vodcast with NDTV's Shruti Kohli, Dr Ruth Vanita challenges modern labels recounting how ancient civilizations viewed same-sex relationships as natural variations. Ruth has been a professor at the University of Montana and has authored quite a few books on gender and sexuality.
