Hindu body ‘celebrates’ decision

Only 55 per cent of Hindus in the U.S. support same-sex marriages, says poll.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling affirming marriage equality this week has spurred further debate on how different religious communities view LGBT rights and social surveys on this subject underscore a wide variation in views across religions.

Shortly after the ruling was announced the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) released a statement saying that it “celebrated” the decision, especially as the organisation had, over the past few years, joined numerous amicus briefs at the Supreme Court and lower court levels supporting marriage equality.

“HAF’s work on this issue is consistent with our view that Hinduism provides no spiritual basis to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” noted Swaminathan Venkataraman, a member of the group’s Executive Council and an author of its policy paper on “Hinduism and Homosexuality.”

However not all Hindus extend this sort of approach to marriage equality for the LGBT community.

In April this year a poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute, which surveyed 40,000 people across the U.S. in 2014, came up with the finding that only 55 per cent of Hindus in the U.S. supported same-sex marriages, compared to 56 per cent for Orthodox Christians, 60 per cent for Catholics, 62 per cent for mainline Protestants, 77 per cent for Jewish Americans, and a whopping 82 per cent for Buddhists.

Muslims and White Evangelical Christians, however, ranked lower than Hindus in their support, at 42 and 28 per cent respectively.

Jindal slams court These results appeared to find voice in the reactions of some political leaders to the ruling, including of Indian-American Governor of Louisiana, Piyush “Bobby” Jindal.

Mr. Jindal, who is a convert from Hinduism to Evangelical Christianity and this week announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential race, wrote on his website, “Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that,” in the process also lashing out at the highest court in the land because it apparently “follows public opinion polls, and tramples on States’ rights that were once protected by the 10th Amendment of the Constitution.”

In India, Section 377 of the Penal Code criminalises acts of homosexual sex and the administration of Narendra Modi has not taken actions to take forward the debate on this colonial-era law.