Lgbt News

India's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community has hit the airwaves with Q-Radio, the first dedicated radio channel for the community. Q-Radio (Q for queer), which launched in Bangalore recently, is a part of the online portal Radiowalla.in. The channel is about providing a mainstream media platform to the community, said founder Anil Srivatsa.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the decision of the Delhi high court, which had in 2009 decriminalised sexual relation between a couple belonging to same sex. The apex court upheld the constitutional validity of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code that makes anal sex a punishable offence. Only, parliament is authorised to remove Section 377, the court added.

Disappointed with the Supreme Court verdict on gay rights, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday asked the Parliament to amend Section 377 of the Constitution. "I hope that Parliament will address this issue and uphold the constitutional guarantee of life and liberty to all citizens of India, including those directly affected by this judgment," she added.

Expressing a disappointment over Supreme court's verdict on gay rights, AAP on Thursday said, "This not only violates the human rights of such individuals, but goes against the liberal values of our constitution and the spirit of our times." The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, refrained from taking sides on the SC's judgment.

Responding to a query on whether the government would issue an ordinance on gay rights issue, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said, "Not now. Our (Congress) vice-president and president have already spoken on the issue". Taking a clear stand, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, had earlier vented their disappointment over SC verdict criminalizing gay sex.

Putting an end to BJP's equivocation over gay sex, party chief Rajnath Singh on Saturday said - "Gay sex is not natural and we cannot support something which is unnatural." "By that yardstick, we should be allowing prostitution also because it also represents consent among adults," said a source close to the BJP chief.

Expressing the view on gay sex, RSS spokesman Ram Madhav on Monday said - "We support the verdict of the Supreme Court and oppose any move to abrogate Section 377. We agree with the view of BJP president Rajnath Singh." He added - "There is no violation of fundamental rights. Nor do we consider gay sex to be natural sex."

A survey conducted by China's largest dating and marriage website, Jiayuan.com, shows that one out of 20 (5.57%) university students in China have had a same sex relationship. Moreover, the poll also revealed that 10% of respondents did not have any relationship. The survey, which is the first on gay relationship in China, covered 8,894 respondents in 36 cities.