377 Lawyers Bat For Same-Sex Marriage

Brut India

In 2018, they helped decriminalise homosexuality in India, and even came out as a couple. Now they have taken up a new challenge. Special thanks to The Oxford Union.

Transcript

00:00Young people in India, gay or straight, different religions, different castes, different classes,

00:08when you speak to them, they all aspire for one thing in common, which is a long-term

00:16partnership which is premised on marriage.

00:18Not only did they want to live life without a criminal law, but they wanted to live in

00:22India, they wanted to live wherever they wanted in India, not to have to choose life in metropolitan

00:27centers where their sexuality might find greater acceptance.

00:33Because we are not a country that recognizes girlfriends and boyfriends or dating.

00:37We're a country that sanctifies one kind of relationship, and that is marriage.

00:43We are not simply a family society, we are also a marriage society, and we are also a

00:51people of 1.7 billion people who are deeply enmeshed in a social fabric where one of the

00:57biggest determiners of that social fabric is marriage and family.

01:02So in that country, whether we are called the global south, whether we are called the

01:07world's largest constitutional democracy, whether we are called a secular country, the

01:14reality of that country is that gay people and straight people and left-handed people

01:19and right-handed people all aspire for one thing in common, to find love.

01:24One of the biggest gains of this judgment have been the number of parents who've met us.

01:32The number of parents who've had their children introduce their partners to them after the

01:38judgment.

01:39The number of parents who have now embraced their same-sex, I want to say the partner

01:46of their child who happens to be same-sex, into their families.

01:51We are not simply a family society, we are also a marriage society.

01:57Our petitioners were much younger.

02:00They were between the age of, I mean the median age was 24, and what really struck us was

02:07the sense of aspiration that they had as to what they wanted from their lives.

02:11Not only did they want to live life without a criminal law, but they wanted to live in

02:16India, they wanted to live wherever they wanted in India, not to have to choose life

02:19in metropolitan centers where their sexuality might find greater acceptance, not to have

02:25to choose jobs in fields that they thought were more liberal, where their sexuality might

02:29again find greater acceptance.

02:31But most importantly for what we're talking about today, they wanted to be able to have

02:37the relationships that they felt they were entitled to and that they aspired to in India.

02:42They didn't want to have to think about life outside of the country if they wanted to get

02:47married, they didn't want to have to think about life outside of the country if they

02:50wanted something as simple as insurance for their partners, or to have their partner's

02:55name on their passport.

02:57Young people in India, gay or straight, different religions, different castes, different classes,

03:04when you speak to them, they all aspire for one thing in common, which is a long-term

03:12partnership which is premised on marriage.

03:15And what we find with younger gay people in India is that they want to be part of that

03:21social and legal project as well.

03:24And that is what we have learned from our clients, our younger clients.

03:28Part of those aspirations of occupational success includes the aspiration of personal

03:34happiness, and a core part of that personal happiness that they see for the rest of their

03:38lives is having someone to love that the law recognizes that they can in turn take home

03:46to their families.

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