angelophile | India's ban on gay sex overturned after 150 years

Good news out of India as they today the Delhi high court overturned a colonial-era law banning same-sex sexual relations between consenting adults, according to the BBC.

The High Court's decision to overturn the 145-year-old colonial ban sets a milestone as first time ever that an Indian court went on record to say that sexual minorities are not second-class citizens, and that they cannot be discriminated against. Under Section 377 of the Indian penal code, gay relations were considered as an "unnatural offense" and was punishable by a 10-year prison sentence. While actual criminal prosecutions were few, the law had frequently been used to harass people.

The move to overturn the law had been opposed by India's religious leaders. For example Reverend Dominic Emmanuel, spokesperson of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, said the Catholic church has nothing against gays per se, he stressed, "We strongly believe that sex between same sex partners is immoral, unnatural and unethical." The Catholic Church's stance has been that the removal of the law will encourage pedophilia and shield pedophiles from justice.

Yes, you read that right - the Catholic Church in India is against shielding pedophiles from justice and claimed that keeping gay relationships illegal would ensure that.

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Sometimes I think Henry VIII was our greatest monarch.

Although, of course, it's Victorian imperialism that gave India the law in the first place, but after we got kicked out, I would expect people to do a little bit of redecorating.