New Delhi, India - In an ideal world, certainly homosexuals should marry. But the world isn't what you want it to be, the world is what it is. This issue is political and Republicans use it.
This week, just days before the Republicans seem set to lose the House of Representatives, all indications are that gay marriage is going to be one of those never-ending hot-button Roe v Wade-kind of debates in U.S. politics: drawing faultlines right through the political and judicial system, through society and religion.
Until now, this was largely a U.S. domestic debate but it's increasingly echoing across the world as well. Take 2004: the gay marriage opposition was one reason why faith-based groups were mobilized in strong numbers and we saw the coming together of "pro-family" values and "fear" (the war against terror). As religion gets factored in more and more into policy debates, it's significant to see which way this heads.
The recent rulings from state Supreme Courts in the U.S. (New Jersey, Vermont and Massachusetts) do push the discourse in a direction favoring gay marriages but that's what President Bush has seized upon, pitting "family values" against what he calls "activist courts" and then almost seamlessly moving on to defending American foreign policy on Iraq, as he did in his Seattle speech over the weekend. Watch out for this trend to hot up as Republicans try to blur the lines between faith, social policies and foreign policy.
Meanwhile, at home, in India, we are still debating whether to decriminalize homosexuality. Our Supreme Court has asked the Government to rethink its laws given that we live in a new century now. Pressure from civil rights groups seems to be working and I think it's just a matter of time before the law is amended. But homosexuals marrying in India? Well, we can wait for a while for that debate to start here.
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