Nanette, and 377a
So I have just watched Hannah Gadsby's Nanette on Netflix (after delightfully getting my brother's account).
What was so wonderful about it was that even though I've already gotten snippets of it through Tumblr GIFs, it still remains so powerful, so tear- and thought-provoking.
Now, India's passed a ruling to banish the colonial-era Section 377a from its laws. 377a criminalises sex between two men. And this country that I live in now, and have already been for something like ten years before I fucked off to London for a degree, has 377a as well, you know, courtesy of the Brits in the last two centuries. India's ruling, together with other catalysts, reignited debate about it - because guess what, for a country that firmly believes itself a first-world country (even though a Certain Interesting Association refuses to recognise it as such), 377a is very much in our books still.
The government does its wishy-washy thing where they say, "Oh, but it's not reinforced!" while refusing to put it down in black-and-white.
(Finding out which country this is is just a google away, fellow friends.)
Certain religious groups have furiously maintained that the law should remain - and I believe judging by the percentages of certain religious groups here, the odds are in their favour, if things should go to a vote. Not that things will go to a public vote anyway. I have never heard of a referendum held here in this part of the world. Weird. Power is all held by old men, usually Chinese and sometimes Indian, in this part of the world.
And it's so... I'm just so tired of the debate. And the opacity of the system. And things are never truly democratic here, even though we are being brainwashed to think we are. There is a pretty large petition going on to repeal 377a. I wish it all the best, even though hopes and wishes are all I can give the petition and my people.
And even then, it's not about a democratic vote here. As Hannah said, it's about not soaking a child in shame. It's about dignity and self-worth. It's about a person's right to be themselves, without harming others.
Thank you, Hannah.
