Some parties seek LGBT vote as most Indians disapprove of homosexuality

Election manifestos of Congress and CPM promise stronger legal protections for the community

Most Indians still do not support homosexuality amid a push by some political parties to take a progressive stance seven years after the Supreme Court decriminalised same sex relationships.

Almost 57 per cent of respondents in India told the World Value Survey that homosexuality is never justified. (chart 1). The research looked at societal attitudes on key issues in 120 countries. Its data showed that attitudes on homosexuality have improved in India since the 1990s, but many still do not want people of the community in their neighbourhood.

The Congress party, India’s main opposition, promised in its election manifesto that if it wins power it will have a new law to cover civil unions for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA) community.

“We will expand Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of ‘disability’, ‘impairment’ or ‘sexual orientation… After wide consultation, Congress will bring a law to recognize civil unions between couples belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community,” it said.

The Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPM), which too sits in the opposition, supports same sex unions. Its manifesto promised amendments to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 to address that community’s concerns, an anti-discrimination bill, reservation in education and employment. It promised that crimes against LGBTQ+ would be addressed.

“Measures to address bullying, violence and harassment of gender nonconforming and LGBTQ+ students, staff and teachers in educational spaces; enforcement of UGC anti-ragging policy amendment (2016) that addresses ragging based on sexual orientation and gender identity, ensuring accessible and safe bathrooms for trans, intersex and gender non-conforming students, staff and faculty… Sex change surgeries of LGBTQI should not be done without their informed consent,” said the CPM manifesto.

The share of people who believe homosexuality is never justified is lower in advanced economies. It is less than 25 per cent in Japan and the United States of America, and under 10 per cent in Sweden.

While the numbers suggest that more people have become accepting of homosexuality than before, the responses to other questions suggest that the trend is nuanced.

The World Value Survey also asked if people are comfortable with having members of the homosexual community as their neighbours. The share of people who had an objection was over 90 per cent in 1991. It hit a low of 28.8 per cent in 2001 but increased to 72.4 per cent in 2022, the latest year for which survey data is available (chart 2).

Global research suggests that legal steps can pave the way for improving societal attitudes. Many countries in which the British Empire instituted discriminatory legal provisions had worse attitudes than elsewhere, according to the 2017 study ‘Norms and Reform: Legalizing Homosexuality Improves Attitudes’ by authors Charles Kenny of the Center for Global Development and Harvard University’s Dev Patel.

“Legalizing homosexuality improves how individuals view the tone of their communities. Third, we provide further evidence supporting a legal origins argument by examining former colonies. Countries that were colonized by the British Empire have significantly worse legal rights for same-sex couples than those under other colonial powers. We conclude that adopting legal reform can improve societal attitudes,” said the study.