Daijiworld Media Network
New Delhi, Jul 5: Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday July 5 clarified that his comment on homosexuality was quoted 'out of context' and that he did not want to get into any controversy over the subject.
Earlier, he had said at a national conference on HIV/AIDS that homosexuality among men was 'unnatural' and had termed it a 'disease'.
"Some people say it's unnatural, some say natural. Some people say that there should be a law against this and others not. Many countries have laws, while others do not. I also said that I do not want to go into the controversy. That was not quoted," he told reporters.
Azad further said that he was concerned about the prevalence of high HIV rate among men having sex with men (MSM).
"As a health minister, the problem is that while we have lowered the rate among truckers, female sex workers, but in MSM, we have not been able to lower the prevalence. That is because it is difficult to target them," he said.
Azad's comment drew flak from various quarters including NGOs, gay communities and even the Bollywood.
Actor Celina Jaitley tweeted: "...the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of diseases in 1990. I'm shocked 2 hear that R health minister wld make a statement abt homosexuality calling it a 'disease'!!".
Faiza of The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community (LGBT) said that when a country is growing economically, it needs to grow spiritually as well as culturally. She termed Azad's comments as 'prehistoric'.
Prince Manvendra Gohil said, "A person at his post now needs to get back to the basics and study science. Art depicting homosexuality is present in our temples. The diagnostic statistic manual of USA states that it is not a disorder mentally or physically and is natural".
A gay activist said that the act is natural and healthy if done with protection, and any kind of sex without protection is unhealthy.
According to a surveillance data, 4.2% of sexually active males in India are believed to have sex with other men with Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Orissa reporting the highest number of such cases.
The UNAIDS report of 2010 on the epidemic found that among the high-risk group that got HIV infection in India last year — 9.2% were intravenous drug users, MSMs (7.3%) and female sex workers (4.9%).