Why call homosexuals 'queer', LGBTQIA+ couples have right to form a family: HC

The Madras High Court has said that same-sex couples have the right to form families despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that homosexual marriages are not legal in India.

The court said, “Marriage is not the sole mode to find a family. The concept of a ‘chosen family’ is now well settled and acknowledged in LGBTQIA+ jurisprudence.”

The comments were made as the court heard the case of a 25-year-old lesbian woman who was forcefully separated from her partner and subjected to harassment by her family.

A division bench comprising Justices G R Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan said, “Not every parent is like Justice Leila Seth. She could acknowledge and accept her son’s sexual orientation. The mother of the detenue is no Leila Seth. We could understand her feelings and temperament. She wants her daughter to be like any other normal, heterosexual woman, get married and settle down in life. We endeavoured in vain to impress upon her that her daughter, being an adult, is entitled to choose a life of her own.”

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The court also noted that the word “queer” is “depricating” to identify homosexial individuals. The bench said, “We feel a certain discomfort in employing the expression ‘queer’. Any standard dictionary defines this word as meaning strange or odd.”

“Queering one’s pitch means spoiling the show.” To a homosexual individual, his/her/their sexual orientation must be perfectly natural and normal. There is nothing strange or odd about such inclinations. Why then should they be called queer?” they said.