“Homosexuality is a western disease”: We have often heard the argument, posed by some hostile and ignorant leader who tries to blame the West’s “unnatural” sexual practices for their AIDS or STI statistics.

Robert Mugabe branded homosexuals un-African. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said homosexuality did not exist in his country. Indian Minister of Health Ghulam Nabi Azad claimed that homosexuality was a disease spread to India by foreigners.

The cruel irony, pointed out to me by one of our esteemed speakers during our human rights curriculum week, is that homosexuality is not the introduced culprit. Homophobia is the true western disease.

The law that criminalized homosexuality in India, known as Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, was legislated during the British rule of India. In other words: homosexuality was not imported; the hatred was.

Advocates for the unconstitutionality of section 377 say that the Indian society, pre-British rule, was more accepting of homosexuality than their conservative Victorian colonisers. They argue that Section 377 was purely a moral imposition of the British and that it was contrary to Indian tradition and principle of inclusiveness. Section 377 was created to set behavioural standard for the colonies that they might “reform” morally.

The Delhi High Court had decriminalised consenting homosexual sex in 2009; a decision upheld in the Supreme Court this year. Surely this is a progressive triumph for LGBT rights; yet Human Rights Watch notes that more than 50 percent of the remaining homosexuality criminalization laws globally were modelled on the Indian penal law. And these laws of hatred have been entrenched into society.

Because even though the disease of homophobia might be foreign, the indoctrination with time into society has been complete. Many civil and religious organisations had opposed the decriminalization act in India on the ground that homosexuality was immoral and unnatural. To be gay is still taboo in India. Even though homosexuals can no longer be prosecuted for their sexual behaviour, they are ostracised from society. NGO’s advocating for LGBT rights in India say that there have been cases where individuals have been denied medical treatment based on their sexual orientation, as of 2012. There have been tales of suicide and disinheritance; of violence and hate speech.

The shift from the sin stigma is yet to be realized, in a society not generally open to dialogue regarding any form of sexuality. But the acknowledgement of the courts that Indian culture is an inclusive and tolerant culture that will not bear the moral imposition of “western diseases” is a progressive step in the right direction.