Mumbai sees record turnout for gay pride after India court re-criminalizes gay sex

MUMBAI, India — A record crowd estimated at over 5,000 participants turned out for gay pride in Mumbai on Saturday, the first pride event since the country’s supreme court reinstated a colonial-era law that criminalizes gay sex.

Now in its seventh year, Mumbai’s pride event was bigger and bolder, attracting crowds from across the globe for a festive and highly charged atmosphere, reports DNA India.

“Ideally, the march is about taking pride in what you are. But this year’s upsurge in numbers is a reflection of the community’s anger and hurt over being re-criminalized,” said Ashok Row Kavi, one of India’s leading gay rights activists.

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“If courts think they can brush us off and treat us like sub-humans they need to see how they have ended up giving the movement a shot in the arm instead. This movement will grow and succeed.”

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India’s Supreme Court ruled in December that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (unnatural sexual offenses) — a 153-year-old law that criminalizes homosexuality — was constitutionally valid, and that only lawmakers and not the courts could change the law.

The ruling struck down a 2009 lower court decision that decriminalized gay sex.

The ruling dealt a blow to gay activists who have fought for years for the chance to live openly in India’s deeply conservative society, and has drawn sharp criticism from human rights advocates worldwide.

The law, dating back to the 1860s, when Britain ruled over South Asia, states that “whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal” can be punished by up to 10 years in prison.