Hundreds of parents of LGBTQIA+ folks have written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud to demand marriage equality for their children and other queer persons.
The letter by 400 parents, part of the Sweekar - The Rainbow Parents group, comes in the midst of ongoing hearings in the Supreme Court on a clutch of petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages. A five-judge constitution bench is hearing pleas seeking the legalisation of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act, 1954. Besides Chandrachud, Justices Hima Kohli, Ravindra Bhat, PS Narasimha, and Sanjay Kishan Kaul are part of the bench.
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The group of parents of the LGBTQIA+ community wrote to the CJI saying, “We desire to see our children and children-in-law find final legal acceptance for their relationship under the Special Marriage Act in our country. We are certain that a nation as big as ours which respects its diversity and stands for the value of exclusion, will open its legal gate of marriage equality to our children too.”
They continued with the concern of their own future, saying, “We are growing old. Some of us will touch 80 soon, we hope that we will get to see the legal stamp on the rainbow marriage of our children in our lifetime.”
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The parents empathise with the criticism that this hearing is currently facing. About arguments against the pleas, the parents say they themselves were at this point in the past and had to unlearn their previous convictions and then accept their children with an open mind. The parents request those opposed to same-sex marriages to follow their lead and make the Indian marriage laws more inclusive.
