India's health minister thinks “being gay is a disease” which if not cured, could further create an abnormal society which is harmful for future generation. The minister also says it is important to control and tackle this unnatural form of act, which is coming in India from foreign shores and corrupting the young minds. It's not easy to identify such people to “treat” them. The minister's remark on homosexuality until this week had not evoked a response, but now protests calls are being heard loudly from the LGBT community demanding that the health minister should withdraw his statement with an apology. But the minister has refused to acknowledge his statement saying: “The media has misconstrued my statement, twisted its meaning and presented it,” and he continued that “what I meant was the disease which spreads from such unnatural acts should be stopped.” The gay community is refusing to accept the minister's clarification and is calling the minister a “bogus health minister,” who's equally ignorant and homophobic.” These sentiments are cemented by the National AIDS Control Organization of India's (NACO) question to this minister – What's unnatural about being gay? It's a preference of sexual orientation. NACO has been supporting gays and trying very hard to give them a solid voice and a proper platform. NACO has even urged the government to eradicate certain laws for gays. A number of leading activists fear that as health minister, the statement carries weight, which could further color the policy making board, to advocate stringent laws against gay society. This fear has taken shape in the form of various voices supporting the gay community. Did the minister think before issuing such statement? As it is, gay people are struggling to form their own identity with family and peer pressure, which will just aggravate the situation, making gay community more unapproachable by getting scared to admit their preference due to societal pressure which could ruin more then one life. Various sex counselors and health activists in Mumbai are of the view that such views on homosexuality are very sad and generally there is a bias against the LGBT community from the healthcare point of view, which should be changed for good. Being gay is definitely not a matter of disgrace and has no place for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation says UNAIDS. BM
