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"There is no absolute concept of a man or an absolute concept of a woman at all" – this was said by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud during the ongoing marriage equality hearing in the Supreme Court.
This one statement has since been translated and reproduced in multiple languages by the media and has caused a significant population of India to shift in their seats over the last few days.
At present, marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognised in 34 countries across the world. In many of these nations, this legalisation was achieved after staunch arguments, counter-arguments, critique, and public discourse.
It has exactly been half a century since homosexuality has been removed as a 'disorder' from the diagnostic classifications in medicine. Active awareness-building about gender-fluidity and the normalcy of homosexuality has been going on for decades.
And yet, the concept of a child having same-sex parents makes a major chunk of our population uneasy.
Though research in this field is still nascent, a handful of studies that have compared the upbringing, behavioural issues, and well-being of children of same-sex parents with that of heterosexual parents have found that the former fares at least as well as the latter group.
However, they do face higher societal stigma, bullying, prejudice, and negative feedback from their friends, families, and society.
Research shows that the financial, psychological, and physical well-being of queer individuals are enhanced through marriage, and that the children of same-sex parents benefit from being raised by couples within a marital union, which is recognised by law and supported by societal institutions.
Research also indicates that the exclusion of gay people from marriage stigmatises and invites public discrimination against them. It also repudiates the notion that civilisations and viable social orders are dependent upon restricting same-sex marriage.
It also provides them legal protections, such as inheritance and hospital visitation rights.
We would like to point out here that being a 'mother' or a 'father' is independent of the biological sex, as we can see with single parents.
It depends rather on the emotional bonding, understanding, and marital dynamics between the couple – be it same-sex or opposite. Hence, raising a child is independent of the sexual orientation or the gender of the parents.
It can be vouched from a mental health perspective that normalising same-sex relationships, marriages, and eventual child upbringing might help in broadening the society's outlook towards these family units and allow it to be more aware and accepting towards them.
This would not only reduce the external stigma experienced by these families, but also ease their own internalised sense of guilt, isolation, incapacity, and loneliness.
Even the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), the largest professional body of psychiatrists in India, in press release, reiterated how homosexuality is not a disorder and that LGBTQIA+ individuals should have as much right as any other citizen of India to marry, adopt, and get education and employment.
The press release also clarified the absolute lack of evidence that same-sex parents are inept in adopting or parenting their children.
Laws have always played an important role in maintaining a societal structure, preventing disruptions, and allowing a sense of equality and unity. But laws also need to be dynamic, and get altered, removed, added, and forgotten as the society moves on.
Those laws that move slower than the speed at which society is evolving tends to form a bottleneck, which causes clashes, inequalities, and tears in the societal fabric. So, timely upgradation of law to suit societal requirements is essential.
The stress of keeping one's gender or sexual identity hidden, or the worries of parents of children who have been attempting to live a normal life after they "come out of the closet" can be reduced remarkably simply by normalising the existence of homosexuality and giving the LGBTQIA+ community the same rights and social and legal recognition of their love.
The positive mental health consequences of having legal rights to marry, adopt, and have a family will be significant, not only for just the two individuals, but also to their family members, who have to suffer from significant discriminations, too.
If a couple decides to spend their lives together following the societal institution of marriage, who are we to build artificial barriers?
(Dr Debanjan Banerjee is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Sexologist, APOLLO Multispecialty Hospitals, Kolkata. Dr Chandrima Naskar is a Fellow in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, PGIMER, Chandigarh. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the authors' own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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