India's LGBT community outraged over government-planned re-education centers in Goa
'We will have a center for them ... like Alcoholics Anonymous centers,' state-level minister of Goa's BJP government says.
By DPA | Jan. 13, 2015 | 10:05 AM
India's
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community Tuesday
expressed outrage over government-planned re-education centers.
"We
will make LGBT youth normal," said Ramesh Tawadkar, a state-level
minister of Goa's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, NDTV news
channel reported.
"We will have a center for them ... like Alcoholics Anonymous centers. We will train them and [give them] medicines too."
Tawadkar,
who holds the sports and youth affairs portfolio, was speaking Monday
on the sidelines of an event in Goa capital Panaji to launch a policy
document on youth.
The document lists "stigmatized" LGBT youth as one of the target groups requiring "focused" attention.
Activists
and community leaders said centers providing counselling and other help
to LGBT youth were welcome but Tawadkar's proposal was shocking.
"It
is unfortunate that a minister is making such a reprehensible comment,"
Delhi-based lawyer and LGBT rights activist Anand Grover said.
"This is ridiculous. It's like we're moving backwards," LGBT rights activist Rituparna Borah said.
"A
minister should know that homosexuality is not a disease, that it is
not abnormal," Revat Mishra, a medical doctor and activist said.
Goa's
opposition Congress party spokesman Durgadas Kamat said he was reminded
of yoga guru Ramdev's 2013 offer to "cure" homosexuality.
"Everyone has a right to live their life the way they want to," he was quoted as saying by IANS news agency.
India's LGBT community faces stigma from conservative society and colonial-era legislation outlawing gay sex.
Efforts to drop the law have been opposed by leaders of the Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities.
Leaders
of the Hindu nationalist BJP, now in power at federal level as well as
in Goa, have not spoken out much on homosexuality or gay rights.
"There
has to be someone from the BJP who speaks up on this," gay rights
activist Harish Iyer was quoted as saying by NDTV after Tawadkar's
comments.
"When you are silent about someone making such an irresponsible statement, you are actually admitting support."
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