Tamil sexual minorities are Tamil people who do not conform to heterosexual gender norms. They may identify as LGBTQIA. It has been estimated that India has a population of 2.5 million homosexuals, though not all of them are Tamil, and not all Tamils live in India.
There are currently laws that criminalize homosexual sex implemented in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Mauritius, all of which have Tamil as an official or recognized language, and have referenced Section 377 of the British penal code as far back as colonial times. Sri Lanka and Mauritius have implemented anti-discrimination laws, whereas Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu provide support to transgender people. The law in Sri Lanka is legally dormant.
The entire political spectrum of Tamil Nadu supports transgender and third gender people. A Buddhist movement and the INC both openly support reforming the colonial law criminalizing gay sex, but the remaining parties have been silent on the issue. Nevertheless, a number of politicians from across the spectrum have taken part in events to support the welfare of the LGBTQ+ community.
History
Pre-colonial
A festival for the deity Aravan, worshiped by transgender and third gender people, descends from folklore established prior to the advent of the Tamil-Brahmi script and is celebrated at Kuvagam. The story behind the festival is often heard in modern times through the Hindu epic Mahabharata, but more commonly as a separate folklore in Tamil culture.
Several religious statues created during this period, such as at Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam, some of which depict explicit homosexual acts, are attributed to the Chola era. The temple at Brihadisvara also has examples of religious references to transgender people and third genders through depictions of Ardhanarishvarar, a half-male, half-female deity.
Buddhism has no significant history of condemnation of homosexual acts. The Manimekalai, a literary work written by Buddhist poet Satthanar, tells the story of how Buddha would show compassion to people of a city, and includes a man cross-dressing and a Jain monk as main characters.
A number of artwork and records exist that can attest to the freedoms enjoyed by homosexuals prior to colonialism, including religious statues such as at Tanjore.
Homosexuals are catered for in the Kama Sutra and other Hindu medical books. The Kama Sutra was written around the 2nd century AD by Vātsyāyana, and it says that homosexual sex "is to be engaged in and enjoyed for its own sake as one of the arts" and devotes a chapter to describing the acts of homosexual and third gender sex.
European colonialism (1500+ CE) British Empire and British East India Company
It was during this era of British colonial rule that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was implemented by the British Raj. Ruth Vanita defines the nineteenth century as ‘a crucial period of transition when a minor strand of pre-colonial homophobia became the dominant voice in colonial and post-colonial mainstream discourses’, and the CERA explains that the set of laws were part of colonial efforts to impose its values on its colony.
Indigenous customs suffered during this era. Ethnomusicologist Anna Morcom points out how 'modernity, nationalism, and colonial and bourgeois morality' supplanting existing performing arts throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, clashing with existing norms such as such as erotic dancing and gender fluidity.
Estado da Índia Portuguese India had territorial control over only certain parts of modern-day India's western coast and the island of Lanka, with the remaining being settlements in Southern India (including Tamil Nadu), with these settlements and the island of Lanka being captured (or transferred) to the British later on.
Upon arrival to the island of Sri Lanka, the Portuguese invaders painted the local population as "backwards" and "sinful", explaining that the "horror" of homosexuality was present on the island, characterizing the island's king as being frightening for allowing the act of sodomy on the island, and even accounting that the king himself partook in gay sex.
Établissements français dans l'Inde French establishments in Tamil Nadu included Pondichéry, Karikal and Yanaon on the Coromandel Coast. The act of homosexual sex was decriminalized in France during the late 18th century as part of the Napoleonic Code's view on the privacy of people and state intervention, which applied in the French colonies of India at the time.
Recent history
Chennai-born Anjali Gopalan, whose father was a Tamil Hindu and mother was a Sikh, was one of South Asia's pioneers in providing support for sexual minorities. She established the Naz Foundation in the early 1990s in order to help sufferers deal with HIV, and also to act as a vehicle to lobby for sexual minorities. The organization would later go on to become a major force in Indian politics, persuading the Supreme Court of India to decriminalize gay sex.
Transgender people had long been afforded acceptance in Tamil Nadu, and by 2008 both transgender people and third genders had been recognized by the state. The majority of dominant political parties in Tamil Nadu have contested elections with transgender politicians.
The Tamil Nadu High Court has complained to the Centre that sexual minorities are not being provided their basic rights, suggesting that the law criminalizing gay sex should be reformed and that sexual minorities should be a reserved group. There have also been several politicians from the Tamil BJP and RSS attending and supporting the welfare of sexual minorities.
Key events
1862: the current colonial law criminalizing homosexual sex is implemented by Lord Thomas Macaulay through the Indian Penal Code in British India and the Straits Settlements. 1990: Tamil Nadu government forcibly tested several hundred sex workers and then locked up 800 infected women for several months. 2008: a transgender welfare board is established by the Government of Tamil Nadu. 2009: a gay wedding is held in South Africa according to Hindu rites. 2009: the High Court of Delhi removed the colonial-era law banning homosexuality 2009: the Hindu Council of Britain announced that Hinduism did not condemn homosexuality. 2013: the Supreme Court of India rules that constitutional law relating to a ban on gay sex should be required to be subject to a constitutional reform procedures unless superseded by higher law, and restores the colonial era law banned gay sex. Gopi Shankar Madurai, a 25 years old gender activist made a bid to contest as one of the youngest candidates in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election and also the first openly intersex and genderqueer person to do so. Ze secured 14th place out of 21 candidates by securing 1% vote. A Hindu gay wedding in Bali, Indonesia, is investigated by Indonesian police. 2017 Autumn: The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka proclaims that it would be inappropriate to impose custodial sentences in a situation where two parties have consensual sex even went criminalized by law. 2018: The Supreme Court of India proclaims that Section 377A should not cover homosexual sex between two consenting adults. 2019: On 22 April 2019 the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) passed a landmark judgment upholding the marriage rights of trans women & intersex women under Hindu Marriage Law and issued direction to ban sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants.
note: bold typeface indicates that the event is widely considered to be most significant and landmark.
Etymology
The terms and are widely used in the Tamil language. The term refers to third-gender people, whereas the term refers to homosexuals. (see also: Kothi (gender)) refers to 'effeminate/transgender homosexuals' and is similar to the more famous term used in Thailand.
According to Ottilingam Somasundaram, in pre-colonial Tamil culture, "The male were described to have many effeminate features such as gait, other bodily movements, high-pitched voice, prudery, lacking virility, beauty and fine feelings. The female were said to have prominent secondary sexual characters of females along with marked hirsutism, with the features of completely feminine stride, pestering, murmuring music, being fed-up, blessing, or cursing."
The term is also used widely as a catch-all term for sexual minorities, but it can also include those which would be labelled as leaning towards disabled in western lexicon. The term is officially used to describe the community of transgender and third gender people.
Table of rights
CountryTamil NaduMalaysiaSri LankaSingaporeCanadaUKSouth AfricaNumber of Tamils55,000,0001,800,0002,270,924250,000300,000300,000200,000SexAnti-Discrimination LawsTranssexualsMilitary ServiceThird GenderBlood Donations The High Court of Madras has proclaimed that sexual minorities are not being protected as required by the constitution - something that signals its displeasure at the laws discriminating against homosexuals in Tamil Nadu, whereas the Government of Sri Lanka is looking at allowing homosexuals to serve in the military and donate blood.
Transgender rights in Tamil Nadu
There are an estimated 30,000 transgender people in Tamil Nadu. were historically discriminated against in employment in Indian culture, forcing them into begging or prostitution.
The government has been implementing reforms to legal and governmental institutions in order to integrate and support this transgender population, including providing legal rights and welfare schemes. It has been accompanied by a large increase in presence for transsexual and third gender people in the highly self-sufficient Tamil media industry. It is regarded as the leader of transgender welfare in Tamil Nadu.
can access sex reassignment surgery (SRS), accommodation, various identity documents, education, social security, and support for job/income seeking, and the state was also the first in India to introduce a Welfare Board with participants from the transgender community.
Recent developments in Sri Lanka In November 2017, General Nerin Pulle, the Deputy Solicitor of Sri Lanka, has stated that the government 'remains committed to law reform and guaranteeing non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity', and that the government has vowed to repel the colonial era law criminalizing homosexual sex during its periodic review of governmental affairs.
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has stated that consensual sex between adults should not be policed by the state and that "imposing custodial sentences would be inappropriate in cases where the impugned acts were between consenting adults" even when mandated by the law, thereby legally setting the law dormant.
Supreme Court of India's verdict on Section 377
After making homosexuality illegal in 2013, the Supreme Court proclaimed by a 5-0 unanimous verdict homosexual sex between consenting adults should not be covered under Section 377. It said that the law violated the LGBT community's right to equality, dignity and privacy, under the Constitution of India.
Politics
Tamil Nadu is one of the few states in India where activists have been seeking to attack anti-homosexuality laws at a state level. This is due to the nationalist climate of Tamil Nadu, the State's history of supporting reformation in favor of sexual minorities, and its diverging interpretation of the Hindu Marriage Act. But movement has yet to have been made in Tamil Nadu as of yet.
Major parties The AIADMK and DMK have both held back from openly speaking out in favor of reforming colonial laws criminalizing homosexual sex, but several politicians from both parties have attended meetings and events in support of homosexuals, and neither party has formally voiced support for the law in the manner that many federal parties have.