While the now convicted rapist Ram Rahim Singh was being sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and his followers were busy alleging that the rape charges are false, Twitter was ablaze outraging against the rapist-guru. One such tweet caught my eye and directed me to this link that confirmed that the whole of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s clan are certified homophobes.
On the Dera Sacha Sauda’s official home page there are various links to pledge forms for devotees. While the intention is apparently noble, the grammar is appalling. The forms start with devotees having to fill in their “Insan Number” and the pledge line goes on to state something like “I pledge to keep my home and nearby area neat and clean to prevent spread of diseases on this earth planet. I got this inspiration from the cleaning campaigns carried out by His Holiness Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singhji”
Well, that one was about cleanliness, but a “Quit Homosexuality” pledge would give chills to anyone who is.
While stating “I hereby undertake to give up homosexual behaviour…” the declaration proceeds to pronounce that the signee is agreeing that homophobia is “unnatural behaviour” that is “not sanctioned by religion, morality and spirituality”. It furthermore states that the person is signing up with his/her own “free consent & own will and without any undue influence or any kind of physical or mental pressure or coercion by any person or organization...”.
This is the scary part. Why do they need such an elaborate declaration? Are they covering themselves against any sort of legal implications? What would they be doing to people who sign up to “quit homosexuality”?
Every day my inbox is filled with horror stories about conversion therapy. My Sexolve Q&A’s are full of people who want to give up homosexuality. Shock therapy, sex therapy, even corrective rape are commonly known terms in every LGBTIQ person’s life. This is where most of these “so-called” gurus unite to spread the message of hate.
The Quint did a sting operation and the results were appalling:
The baba over here is the best friend of the government - Baba Ramdev, whose andh bhakts proclaim to convert homosexuals. The fact is that homosexuality has been delisted from the list of mental disorders by the World Health Organisation, the American Psychiatric Association and if all of that is videshi, our very own Indian Psychiatric Association has also delisted homosexuality from their list of mental disorders. What is not a disease cannot be cured.
Considering that Ram Rahim Singh is also convicted of rape and corrective rape is a common illegal method “administered” on LGBT people to “convert” them, it is scary to draw connections on the basis of the threads of hate that are so clearly visible.
Read this post about the corrective rape of black lesbian women in post-apartheid South Africa, to understand the issue better.
If you think South Africa is too far away, let me point you to an article by my friend Rupam Jain, where she speaks about corrective rape and its prevalence in India. The rapist who “corrects” an “errant homosexual” is usually from the family. Remember that many Dera supporters regard Ram Rahim Singh to be “pitaji” (fatherly figure). This case of a mother raping her son in Bangalore to “cure” him of being gay, made international news.
I know of hundreds of cases in which homosexuals were molested and raped by people to correct them. I know of many who have received shock therapy to “pray the gay away”. I know of mothers raping sons, and sons asked to rape sisters to “learn”.
I have been privy to first person accounts of rape cases where lesbians were raped by their fathers and brothers because it was assumed that the girls turned lesbian because they didn’t know how to have sex with men.
One such father who found his teenage school-going girl getting a little physical with her classmate in an exploratory way, told his daughter, “I don’t want people to know that you are diseased,” he further added, “you are my blood and I don’t want someone else to take advantage of you, so I am sleeping with you myself”. The father had intercourse with the daughter, while the daughter stayed immobile and stunned. He repeated the same with her on five occasions. The girl, who is now an adult and a lesbian, for the longest time believed that her father raped her to help her.
Like children are taught love, children are also taught to buy into deceit. We believe what’s most convenient and we don’t fight things when we know we are fighting a lost battle. It happened with me when I was battling my child sexual abuse, and it happens with most of us who undergo prolonged abuse. It was only recently that she, who is now in her mid twenties, called it abuse in the name of “praying the gay away”.
Homosexuality is not a disease and I repeat, what's not a disease cannot be cured. This “undertaking” form on the Dera Sacha Sauda website sends a chill down my spine. What are they putting homosexuals through? Why do they need an elaborate consent to cure? What are they doing under the garb of curing gays? We need to investigate, a can of worms might just open.
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