Xukia, a Guwahati based LGBTQIA+ organisation, is going to organise the 5th Queer Pride Guwahati on February 4 here as a mark of protest against Section 377 of the Indian penal Code (IPC).
Over 200 people, belonging to the LGBT community and straight are expected to join the queer pride parade to be begun near Dighalipukhuri of the city.
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The section 377 of the IPC, which came into force in 1862 during the British rule in India, criminalises sexual activities ‘against the order of nature’, arguably including homosexual sexual activities.
The Delhi High Court had in July 2009 de-criminalised consensual homosexual acts in private by declaring as unconstitutional a part of Section 377 of IPC that criminalises unnatural sex, saying “the section denies a gay person a right to full personhood…”
The Supreme Court, however, chose to reverse the verdict in December 2013. Upholding the constitutional validity of Section 377 IPC, an SC bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi (since retired), put the ball in the Parliament’s court, saying it was for the legislature to take a call on the desirability of the controversial provision.
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“Around 200 people are expected to participate at the walk. Members of a Shillong based LGBT group, Samakami, will also join us. Like every year, the pride walk will be supported by individual donations,” Abhishek Chakraborty, a member of Xukia, told Northeast Now.
Xukia, one of the first LGBTQIA+ organisations in Northeast, in 2014 for the first time organised queer pride in Guwahati. It has been successfully organising the pride walk every year since then.