SC verdict on same-sex marriage: Ordinance fear haunts Queer activists

KOLKATA: While expecting a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court on the issue of same-sex marriage, a fear of an ordinance by the Centre to negate the apex court order seems to haunting the Queer rights activists to a great extent.

The apprehension was expressed by the participants at an interactive panel discussion on 'Marriage Equality: Legalising Same-sex Marriage', organised by the West Bengal chapter of All India Professional's Congress (AIPC) on Sunday.

According to them, the apprehension on this count arose after the recent ordinance by the Union government to negate the apex court's order handing over the control of service of bureaucrats in the national capital to Delhi government.

In that eventuality, activists feel, another prolonged battle will start from them involving Queer-friendly political parties to achieve the final goal of getting the right to certificate for marriage for same-sex couples.

According to Kingshuk Banerjee, the state coordinator of the AIPC's gender and diversity group in West Bengal, in the eventuality of on ordinance to negate a possible favourable verdict from the apex court, the fresh journey of struggle will be in developing a bigger movement, involving like-minded politicians, intellectuals, academicians, social rights groups and most importantly the common.

"The people from the Queer community form a substantial chunk of voters in the country and we have to make the government realize that," he said.

Same sex-couple, Suchandra Das and Shree Mukherjee, who participated in the panel discussion, said that during the course of hearing on the matter at the Supreme Court, while the Queer people received support from the bigger civil society an attempt to build up a counter-narrative has also started describing a the same-sex marriage as an "urban- elitist" affair.

"But the reality is while the urban-elitist same-sex couple can continue living together without the certificate of marriage by virtue of financial backup, the same is not possible for the urban poor. Without a proper marriage certificate, one cannot really make his or her partner nominees for provident fund, bank accounts, insurance schemes and even making a joint loan application," said Mukherjee, a digital marketing professional.

Another panellist Pawan Dhal, a pioneer of the LGBTQ rights movement in the city and the founding trustee of Varta Trust, which runs a pan-India support service provider to the people from the Queer community, whether anyone will exercise the right to have the certificate of marriage or not should be left to that individual. "But the right to have that certificate should prevail always," he said.

Panelist and counsel of the Calcutta High Court, Sreemoyee Mukherjee deliberated on the requirement of bringing about parallel amendments in certain other acts like adoption, custodian and succession.