In a unanimous decision, India’s Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a long-standing law that made homosexual relations punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The law, Section 377, held that intercourse between members of the same sex violated the laws of nature. The court ruled that sexual orientation is a “biological phenomenon,” making discrimination on that basis a violation of fundamental rights. It also ruled that Section 377 was used as a weapon to discriminate against gay and lesbian people in India.
