Give gays a break, says Ramadoss

Moushumi Das Gupta, Hindustan Times Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday advocated that homosexuality be legalised in India. “Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalises men who have sex with men, must go,” announced the minister at the 17th International Conference on AIDS in Mexico City “Structural discrimination against those who are vulnerable to HIV such as sex workers and men having sex with men must be removed if our prevention, care and treatment programmes are to succeed,” he said at the summit. But the minister’s intentions may come to a nought if another arm of the government, the ministry responsible for implementation of the IPC, has its way. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs says the deletion of Section 377 would open floodgates of delinquent behaviour. Besides, it is also invoked to prosecute people... [read full story]