A benchmark statement surrounding
section 377 has been given by the apex court that undertones support for the homosexual community. The
Supreme Court has said that it is not homosexual relationships that contribute to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) but a Victorian-era morality, living in denial and sexual prohibitions.
For the court, the prohibitions put on homosexuality and prostitution are what lead to STDs and not the sexual intercourse, per say. "If you licence prostitution, you control it. If you shove it under the carpet, owing to some Victorian-era morality, it will only lead to health concerns," the court said.
"The cause of sexually transmitted diseases is not sexual intercourse. But unprotected sexual intercourse. A village woman may get the disease from a husband who is a migrant worker. This way you would want to make sexual intercourse itself a crime. " the bench said.
What do the numbers say?
Studies show that even oral sex can lead to multiples STIs, such as chlamydia,
syphilis and
gonorrhea. Now, contrary to the belief that gay men only have anal sex, a study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine showed that only a third of them (37.3 per cent) had anal sex. However, 72.7 per cent of them were having oral sex.
Now, because anal sex is touted as the
STD carrier, what about heterosexual couples? Surprisingly, 44 percent of straight men and 36 percent of straight women had engaged in anal sex at least once in the span of their lives! In case you didn't notice, it averages out to be higher than gay men's.
Now, contrary to the above, a report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed an alarming rise in STDs among gay men. "Men who have sex with men (MSM) account for 83 percent of male cases (of primary and secondary syphilis) where the sex partner is known."
On a similar note, a 2005 study in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections showed that more than half of the new
HIV cases in the US were among gay men. Also, every fifth gay man living in the country was HIV positive.
However, whether the high incidence occurs in gay men more than straight men due to the prohibition, like the apex court says, is yet to be studied. Much of the data above belongs to places where people, even if in a legal relationship, are struggling with social stereotypes and othering.
That what the court said will be true remains a very high possibility as when even kissing can lead to an STD, imagine what lack of sexual awareness can do. All one needs is the right kind of knowledge and a social openness to such subjects. After all, like the court said, you can't criminalize sex, can you?
