India's top court re-instate's gay sex ban.
In 2009, the Delhi High Court ruled that the old Colonial Law prohibiting Gay Sex was abolished. The case has meandered up the India Court System, and on Wednesday the High Court ruled that the ban was re-instated.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-25329065
The argument from the Supreme Court of India was that the Legislature has the responsibility to make, and repeal laws, not the courts.
"It is up to parliament to legislate on this issue," Justice GS Singhvi, the head of the two-judge Supreme Court bench, said in Wednesday's ruling.
"The legislature must consider deleting this provision (Section 377) from law as per the recommendations of the attorney general," he added.
My opinion. My views concerning the activity of consenting adults is on record, and well known. The phrase Consenting Adults pretty much sums up that subject, but in case there is any doubt. I do not believe in criminalizing the behavior of consenting adults. I am not GLBT. I don't care who is, or isn't. I don't care what you do, and I don't care what you don't do. If you needed a phrase to explain my beliefs, the simple principle of the Wiccan's describes it most closely. As long as you harm none, do what you want.
This decision was according to the news story, a big surprise. No one expected it to come down this way, and what I found interesting was that it is a Two Judge Panel. We bemoan the idea that nine Justices can fuck up a decision like Citizens United or Florida 2k. But imagine if it was just two Judges. India is the most populace Democracy in the world, and their Supreme Court consists of just two. The ratio there is abysmal.
It may be decades before the legislature has the stones to stand up and say no more. The pressure on them must be enormous by the traditionalists, the religious, and the ignorant. Perhaps it will happen more quickly, but I doubt it. A Democracy is a bad system for implementing change, because until a significant portion of the populace is willing to accept it, then it won't happen. That significant portion could well be the majority of the people, and getting the majority to do the right thing is never an easy task, nor one that happens in a timely fashion.
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