LGBT community hopes for apology from Goa Minister

The Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is hoping that Goa's Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Ramesh Tawadkar apologises for his controversial statement.

Gautam, a member of the LGBT community said, "He said that he wants to give medicines and he wants to make them normal. This is primarily an act of high ignorance. This is not the first time that politicians have shown so much ignorance. We had Ghulam Nabi Azad also saying that it's an unnatural disease which comes from other countries and it just feels like a repetition of that."

"The community needs to do lot more to sensitise and make these politicians aware of the fact that it is not anything abnormal," he added.

He further said that he was hoping for an apology or a backtracking of the statement by the Goa minister.

Darshana, a lawyer working with the Alternative Law Forum, said there was a need to humanise the movement.

"It's very surprising after all that has happened in the country, the number of pride marches have happened, and we still think that LGBT people are not normal. I think that's questionable. I agree that there's a need to humanise the movement except that the movement has already been humanised to a great extent," she said.

According to reports, the Goa minister said that the LGBT youth would be trained and administered medicine in order to make them 'normal'.

According to an affidavit filed by the Government in 2012, India has an estimated 25 gay population. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code states that any unnatural sexual activity is illegal.