Back in 2013, Indian godman and product-peddling millionaire Baba Ramdev said his special brand of yoga could cure homosexuality (and other ‘queer behaviour’ we presume). Over the last three years, his views haven’t evolved very much. Quite the opposite in fact, because he runs a chain of ‘clinics’ where the practitioners are doing his ‘noble work.’ Two reporters posing as queer ventured into one of dens and were given anti-gay prescriptions. We bet that anyone on the side of sense will find this ridiculous. But just to get the point across, we asked a few of our friends in the Indian LGBTQ community how they would react if Baba tried curing them of their identities. And this what they shot back at him:
The assertions that homosexuality is a sickness, and that it needs curing are both symptoms of a deep seated fear and hatred of individual differences. They lead up to an invasion and a violation of LGBTQ people and their human rights. Just because the Supreme Court of India made the regressive decision to re-criminalize homosexuality, and just because Baba Ramdev and others use this as fuel to their homophobic fires, doesn’t mean the queer community in India is going to back down. So have a good World Yoga Day, Babaji. Because you can bend this way and that, but the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice.