LGBTQ activists have termed a survey on homosexuality by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated organisation as &qu♈ot;dangerous" and "misleading".
The activis෴t🐷s also accused the RSS-affiliated organisation of "spreading disinformation".
The reactions come after Samwardhini Nyas, an affiliate of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, said its survey found that many doctors and allied medical professionals believe that homosexuality is "a disorder" and it will increase fꦛurther in so🐎ciety if same-sex marriage is legalised.
The Rashtra Sevika Samiti is the women's organisation along the lines of RSS. Just like RSS is an all-male organisation, the Rashtra Sevika Samiti is an all-female or🉐ganisation, a women's version or wing of RSS.
Author and equality advocate Sh꧂arif Rangnekar said licences of such medical 🌠professionals should be cancelled. Rangnekar cited medical bodies and said that they don't treat homosexuality as a disease.
Rangnekar said, "Such a study is dangerous and misleading for a society that is unaware. It goes against basic d꧂ignity and amounts to defamation. Who are these doctors who have respondents in the survey? Their licences should be cancelled. Be it The Yoga Institute which was founded in 1918 or the Indian Psychiatric Society, both have maintained that homosexuality is legitimate and normal, it is natural, inborn and choiceless."
Activist Harish Iyer said that psychiatric bodies from across the world and India have mainta♈ined that homosexuality is not an "aberration but a variation". It is beyond any reasonable doubt, he said.
He said, "No religion that claims to be a proctor of humanity can also support this labelling of LGBTQIA+ individuals as deviants. It is against the ethos of our nation a🍷nd also against the very grain of the belief of every religion that is based on the principle of love and acceptance.
"If you believe that your God created all of humankind. Then God made me𓆉 too. And staꩵnding up against LGBTQIA+ individuals is akin to working against the intent of your God. God made me this way."
Iyer also ജappealed to the government to raise awareness on the issue.
He said, "In keeping with the ruling on the Section 377, the government's responsibility is to creღate awareness to ensure more acceptance and no misinformation. I would appeal to the government of the day to step in and stand against such blatant disinformation."
Q Manivannan, a queer scholarඣ and PhD candidate, University of St Andrews, too refers to ancie🦂nt mythology in debunking the results of the survey.
He said, "The RSS forgets, when convenient, that homosexuality is rife in mythology too. Same sex unions of many kinds, compa🔜nionships and homoeroticism, much like tౠransgender themes, feature in the Ramayana, in the Mahabharata, and the Upanishads."
Activist and CPI-M leader S♛ubhashini Ali also attacked the survey.
"It w🤡as "idiotic unscientific, inhuman,"𒉰; she tweeted.
The survey has been conducted by the Samwardhini Nyas aജgainst the backdrop of a five-ꦍjudge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, hearing arguments on a batch of pleas seeking legal sanction for same-sex marriage.
A senior functionary of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti had said the findings of the survey are based on 318 ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚresponses collected across the country covering medical practitioners from eight different pathies of treatment from modern science to Ayurveda.
In their response to the survey, according to Samwardhini Nyas, nearly 70 per cent of the doctors and allied medical professionals stated 🌊th💙at "homosexuality is a disorder" while 83 per cent of them "confirmed transmission of sexual disease in homosexual relations".
In the Supreme Court, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has opposed the legal recognition of same-sex marriages.
(With PTI inputs)
