Same Sex Marriage Petition

As some of you might be aware, a few individuals and collectives have been working together for the last couple of months to file an intervention in the “same sex marriage case” currently in the Supreme Court. To share a happy news with all of you, the petition was filed on behalf of a few individuals, trans and queer couples, working with LBT folx for the last 30 years. 

Unlike some of the other petitions, such pleas are essentially based on the extent of violence that queer and trans folx face from their natal/assigned at birth families and the fact that these violences continue even as queer trans* people try to build their lives away from their natal families. The arguments are built on the enormous experience of familial violence and these people are looking intently at the SC to understand this and to give these people some rights to lessen the control that these families have over them, even as adults.

Besides marriage, the pleas are also for the removal of the mandatory notice period that exists in the Special Marriage Act as of now, but more crucially, asking for the court to recognise that those people who choose to be / are single, or do not wish to marry, also need the right to appoint person/s of choice who can act on their behalf when the need arises, instead of their assigned families, who often choose to ignore individual wishes when they assume control, in times of need. 

This petition has been possible due to the collective experiences and the consultations over time that individuals as well as collectives have had especially as LBI women and trans persons.