Gays and lesbians in India are about a half an hour away from hearing the results of their Lawrence v. Texas: the Delhi High Court is about to rule on a constitutional challenge to a law imposed by the British during colonial rule that made gay sex a crime punishable by 10 years in prison. India is the world's most populous nation after China, home to more than 17% of humanity. This morning Rex Wockner—who has been writing a weekly roundup of international gay news for more than twenty years—asked: Will 17% of the world's gays be decriminalized tomorrow? We're about to find out.

UPDATE: And here we have a familiar and unholy and non-sensical coupling of two anti-gay arguments popular with religious bigots:

Muslim organisations in India have said that making homosexuality legal in the country would be anti-Islamic. “Homosexuality is an offence under Sharia Law and haram (prohibited) in Islam,” deputy vice chancellor Abdul Khalik Madrasi from the Darul Uloom Deoband Maulana group said.... They appealed to the government to avoid the “decadent trends of the Western culture” and not to give in to the demands of a “minuscule minority.”

“The section should stay as its repealing would result in sexual anarchy in the society. Those opposing the section are influenced by Western culture. Those who argue for independence do not realise that independence should have its limits,” a spokesman for one of the groups, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, told the Times of India.

Gays and lesbians are at tiny minority and the law shouldn't be changed to appease such a small group of people... and if the law is changed then there's gonna be sexual anarchy because everyone in India is going to be having gay sex once its legal.... which means that gays weren't really a tiny minority at all. In actual fact everyone in India—and everywhere else—is either gay or wants to be gay and it's just that some folks—we call them "straights"—are reluctant to have all the gay sex they really want because they're afraid of running afoul of the law.

See how that works?

UPDATE 2:

That's legal now. (Suck it, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind.) Writes Rex in an email...

Just off the phone with Delhi.

The Delhi High Court has "read down" Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code so that it no longer applies to adult consensual gay sex.

Much more to come, including what all it means right away and what happens now.

Check Rex's blog, WocknerWire, for updates.

UPDATE 3: The full text of the press release issued by India's Queer Media Collective after the jump.

Queer Media Collective (India)
2 July 2009

Press Release

QMC Welcomes Delhi High Court Verdict on Section 377 IPC

The Queer Media Collective welcomes the Delhi High Court's decision, in the Public Interest Litigation filed by Naz India and Voices Against 377, to read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code so that it no longer applies to consenting adults.

Section 377 has been used to criminalise homosexuals in India, and by removing consenting adults from its purview the Delhi High Court has made a powerful statement on the importance of respecting basic human rights of queer people in India.

By making this decision the Delhi High Court has also acted to correct a historical injustice. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was imposed by the British on the historically tolerant attitudes to sexuality that have always existed in India. The law has continued to exist in India long after the British changed their laws in the UK.

Because this law continued to exist in India thousands of people have suffered harassment, discrimination and blackmail simply because they chose to love someone of their same sex. Lesbian couples have been forced to commit suicide, gay men have been blackmailed and forced into marriages that damage both themselves and their wives, and transgendered people have suffered continual violence - for none of which they have had recourse because under Section 377 they all were criminals just for being who they were.

Across the world countries that value tolerance, diversity and the importance of the freedom to lead one's life without harming others have stopped treating homosexuals as criminals. In India people from all walks of life, including legal scholars, intellectuals like Amartya Sen, Vikram Seth and Swami Agnivesh (who signed a letter supporting this case), media and Bollywood personalities and politicians like Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss have all affirmed the need to change this law.

Now with this decision of the Delhi High Court India has taken the first step towards this much needed change. We call on the Indian government to support this decision. We call on other courts to take note of this judgement. We call on the police to stop any harassment of queer people. And we call on all people, in India and abroad, to welcome this verdict as a victory for basic common sense and basic human rights.