What’s Next for Same-Sex Marriage in India
An LGTBQ activist wearing a rainbow flag wristband outside the Supreme Court in New Delhi, India, on Oct. 17.
Photographer: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
Sign up for the India Edition newsletter by Menaka Doshi – an insider's guide to the emerging economic powerhouse, and the billionaires and businesses behind its rise, delivered weekly.
After almost a decade of rulings that affirmed equality for LGBTQ people, India’s highest court declined to legalize same-sex marriage in the country of 1.4 billion, saying it was an issue for Parliament to decide. Expanding marriage rights runs counter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s socially conservative, Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and wide swaths of the country’s Muslim community are also opposed. But across religious groups, younger Indians tend to be more accepting.