Delhi Queer Pride entered its 10th year on 12th November, 2017. And on 13th November, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar delivered the 13th Nehru Memorial Lecture at JNU during the day and another lecture in the evening, where he took questions from the audience. You might be thinking how are these two separate events linked?

Let me tell you.

In a session where Sri Sri was responding to questions by students, one student had a specific problem. He asked how he should deal with ill-treatment by his friends and family over his sexual orientation. For the record, the student told Sri Sri that he is gay.

Now this is what Sri Sri said in response, “You treat yourself better, doesn’t matter how others treat you. You don’t think you are sick or something’s wrong with you. If you stand up, nobody can insult you… But if you feel weak and meek, and if you feel bad about yourself, nobody can make you feel better.”

I was just getting ready to clap. But, wait for — he has more to say,

“This is your tendency now. Just acknowledge it and accept it, and know that this tendency is not a permanent thing. It may change. I’ve seen many men, who were gay, later on turn into heterosexuals, and there are those who are normal – what are called straight people – end up being gay later in life.”

Shree Sri Sri ji, being gay is not abnormal and being straight isn’t being normal, it’s just being who you are.

And kya shuruat thi, I almost hoped that it was going to end well. But alas, that was not to be so.So I decided to compile this quick, pointers based informative article for him, and others who think he is right. Here you go.First, let us look at what Oxford English Dictionary say about ‘tendency’ and ‘homosexuality’.

Tendency

Noun

[often with infinitive] An inclination towards a particular characteristic or type of behaviour.

Homosexual

Noun

Mass Noun

The quality or characteristic of being sexually attracted solely to people of one’s own sex.

Now, let’s not use a lot of fancy terms. The first understanding of what it means to be gay can be taken from this person here :

All right, now that that has been established by a person who is gay, there is nothing more left to say, technically. But still, I want to make an attempt to tell respected Sri Sri a few things:

1. Sexual preference and sexual orientation are two different things. I may like to sleep with both men and women, but I will prefer over the other. Sexual orientation on the other hand is one’s sexual interest towards members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, dictated by physiology rather than what society wants one to do.

2. Being gay is not a sexual preference, but sexual orientation.

Two men kissingTwo men kissing

3. No one ‘ends up’ being something, not in terms of sexual orientation at least. One might have forced oneself to have heterosexual relationships because of the kind of way people in our society often views homosexuality.

4. Yes, also, 377 is still on in India, which means ‘unnatural sex’ or homosexuality is illegal.

377 is still an IPC in India377 is still an IPC in India

5. Comes as no surprise that people discover, or come to terms with their sexual orientation late in life.

6. Straight is in no way ‘normal’, or homosexuality ‘abnormal’- these adjectives used to brand sexual orientations that we are somehow incapable of understanding or accepting.{

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Hope this was helpful.

https://www.oddnaari.in/news/story/being-homosexual-is-a-tendency-and-not-permanent-says-sri-sri-ravi-shankar-126695-2017-11-14