The Decriminalisation of Same-Sex Intimacy: An Introduction to the role of Religious Institutions in advancing Stigma and Discrimination

The judges, as the world watch, delivered their decision, decriminalizing same sex intimacy and illustrating the kind of Decoloniality of power which should be expected from an institution such as the judiciary. The compelling decision took so many factors into consideration, including the politics of sexuality, the needs of sexually marginalized communities, as well as the power in recognition.

This decision decriminalizes the archaic law which is one of those we inherited through colonialism, and specifically the import from the 1933 Indian Penal Code, and we had failed to repeal it for decades, until the present day. Before various human rights mechanisms, who tried to hold us accountable for the continued harm caused by the presence of the laws, and the socially perceived criminalization of diverse sexuality they had, previous presidents tried to justify the impugned provisions, saying they had not, in recent times, been used to convict anybody, and that they were therefore harmless.