Asia Rising

Yesterday, an Indian court struck down an old colonial law that criminalises buggery, or consensual sex between two men. This criminal offence – derived from an 1861 British Victorian statute – has also been invalidated in Hong Kong and Fiji. Last year, the Supreme Court in Nepal ordered its legislature to review laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation. A wind of change is moving swiftly across Asia.

The trend of these court decisions is irresistible. Former British colonies are now emphatically saying that criminalising consensual same sex activity violates the individual’s right to privacy and ability to live free from discrimination. Liberal approaches towards homosexuality can no longer be dismissed as reflecting only European or North American attitudes. Here are “traditional” societies that have considered taboo sex and found room for accommodation within their cultures.

All these developments tee up a debate in the rest of the developing world, especially in Africa and the Caribbean. It is becoming harder for the likes of Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding to argue that buggery laws are necessary to protect intrinsic national values. Recent Asian happenings rebut this point of view and encourage tolerance over historical prejudice. An important argument is being won.