New Delhi: Gay rights' activists might be calling the Delhi High Court order decriminalising homosexuality as one of the most progressive in recent times but majority of Indians still feel LGBTs don't deserve legal status.
A State of the Nation survey conducted by GfK mode for CNN-IBN and Hindustan Times in 16 cities between July 19 and 23 reveals that same sex relations are still consider “queer” for a majority of Indians.
The survey reveals as many as 70 per cent of Indians feel homosexuality must be considered as illegal as opposed to 17 per cent who support legal rights for LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders).
Shockingly, three out of five Indians feel being gay or lesbian is a disease and almost a same percentage of those surveyed says it can be “cured”.
Nearly 83 per cent say being gay or lesbian is against Indian culture and as opposed to a little over 10 per cent who feel that homosexuality has nothing to do with culture or morality.
Not surprisingly, four out of five people are against gay and lesbian marriages.
It's not just society, the survey findings reveal LGBTs have to struggle for acceptance in own their families.
Eighty per cent Indians say they will have a problem if they have a homosexual in their family and 18 percent of these Indians would disown their gay or lesbian family member.
While seven out of ten respondents said they would counsel and help them, only 11 per cent of those surveyed said they would accept any sexual orientation of their family member.
So even with the community's legal victory, LGBTs are still far from getting wider acceptance in Indian society.
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