B-Town reacts to SC’s verdict against same-sex marriage

Many Bollywood celebrities turned to their social media handles to express their dismay following the Supreme Court of India’s refusal to grant legal recognition for same-sex marriages in the country.

Bhumi Pednekar, who portrayed a lesbian character in her film ‘Badhaai Do’ and has previously voiced her support for same-sex marriage, shared screenshots of the court’s decision. She accompanied these images with a message stating, “Equality for all because love is love,” followed by an LGBTQ rainbow flag.

Filmmaker Onir, known for his work on LGBTQ subjects in films like ‘My Brother Nikhil’ and ‘Pine Cone’, voiced his disappointment at the court’s ruling. In a post, he expressed, ‘Disappointed. The cis-gendered world failed to be better humans’. In another post, he said, “Words are hollow when not followed by action” and used the hashtags ‘SupremeCourtofIndia’ and ‘MarriageEquality’.

Celina Jaitly also conveyed her disappointment with the Supreme Court’s verdict. In a conversation with a leading media house, she expressed, “The marriage ruling (Supreme Court) is definitely a disappointment. Something that I have said in my journey as an LGBT activist for the past 20 years is that the LGBT community is not asking for a different subset of rights. They are only asking for rights that every other citizen of India has. The right to marriage and a family is the most important right that a human being can possess. So, I sincerely hope that the Parliament will upgrade the Special Marriages Act and make it gender-neutral.”

The Supreme Court declined to legally recognise same-sex marriages in India, with a 3-2 majority against such recognition. However, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul were among the five judges advocating for the recognition of civil unions.