After Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda was quoted as saying that Section 377 may be scrapped, only to backtrack and issue a clarification that he had been misquoted, BJP MP and member of its National Executive Subramanian Swamy has gone a step further and said that “our party position has been that homosexuality is a genetic disorder”.
I think the law minister was misquoted,our party position has been that homosexuality is a genetic disorder-Subramanian Swamy,BJP
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 30, 2015
He didn’t stop at that and later on twitter also claimed that gays are “genetically handicapped”. While replying to a twitter user who pointed out that homosexuality is at best a genetic variation, not disorder, Swamy tweeted: “Issue is not respect. We respect handicapped persons. Homos are genetically handicapped.”
@GentleGawker : Issue is not respect. We respect handicapped persons. Homos are genetically handicapped — Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 30, 2015
Swamy’s tweets have since drawn widespread criticism on twitter, where Section 377 became a trending topic. This is not the first time though that Swamy has made derogatory remarks against LGBTs or called homosexuality as a mental disorder. However, this is the first time, since joining BJP, that he has stated that this is also BJP’s official position.
@ANI_news @Swamy39 it is not a ‘disorder’. It’s ‘disordered’ to be bigoted and small-minded like you are though.
— Anuradha Santhanam (@anumccartney) June 30, 2015
Dear Sir, Does compulsive small minded archaic bigotry qualify as a handicap also? Asking with respect of course… https://t.co/gD4a0G6tDw
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) June 30, 2015
@Satyapriyan Genetically handicapped? Guess @Swamy39 should watch ‘The Imitation Game’ based on the work of Alan Turing. @GentleGawker — द ट्रोल किलर (@_TheTrollKiller) June 30, 2015
Look forward to that day in India when the Right to Love becomes a voting issue & parties forced to #TakeAStand on 377. Its an abiding shame — barkha dutt (@BDUTT) June 30, 2015
We must consider people with red hair, blue eyes, pale skin or those left-handed also as genetically handicapped. 🙂 @Swamy39 @GentleGawker — Satyapriyan T V (@Satyapriyan) June 30, 2015