Same-sex marriage hearing: Petitioners highlight forced conversion therapy, abuse by families in SC
2 min read . Updated: 25 Apr 2023, 06:32 PM IST
Premium- Same-sex marriage hearing: Petitioners have highlighted how transgenders were subjected to ‘forced conversion therapies’ by their families
The petitioners in the same-sex marriage case on Tuesday brought attention to the issue of violence and “forced conversion therapy" in the natal families against LGBTQ individuals during the Supreme Court hearing on the case of same-sex marriages. Advocate Vrinda Grover highlighted that there “seems to be an assumption that families would necessarily be supported", while the “primary source of violence is the natal family" in these situations.
The petitioner highlighted how transgenders were subjected to “forced conversion therapies" when they went back to their families during the Covid pandemic lockdown.
Forced conversion therapy: “Conversion" therapies are practices that target the LGBTQ youth, seeking to change their sexual or gender identities.
“During Covid, when trans persons went back to their home…some were subjected to forced conversion therapy and violence at the hands of their natal families. What we are canvassing before this court is a new imagination of marriage, family and love care respect is the foundation of this new concept," Advocate Vrinda Grover said.
Quoting 31 persons who testified on the violence suffered at the hands of natal families, Adv Grover said that if the same-sex marriages are recognised under the Special Marriage Act, “it will give them [LGBTQ persons] protection… due to hostility of the families…they are often into non-conjugal intimate relations."
Advocate Kirpal brought attention to the economic damage to the GDP when LGBTQ members leave the country. He said, “There are also lavender marriages... where a gay man marries a woman without revealing sexual orientation then it is the cruelty of highest form but it is permitted since they are of opposite sex.. also the issue of brain drain takes place if LGBTQ members have to leave the country. They constitute 7.5 per cent of the GDP."
During the hearing on April 19, the apex court had said the state cannot discriminate against an individual based on sexual characteristics over which the person has no control. It had asserted that the Centre has no data to back up its claim that the concept of same-sex marriage is "elitist" or "urban".