Same sex NGO organises film festival on AIDS awareness in West Bengal

A same sex NGO called Northern Black Rose organised a film festival to create AIDS awareness in Siliguri on Sunday.

Northern Black Rose came into being some 10 years back, having 160 members with 34 organizations from different regions of the North Bengal plains.

The members of the organization are either gays or lesbians.

The NGO is working towards scrapping the archaic Indian Penal Code Article 377, IPC-377, which prohibits same sex relationships.

"I can share my bed with anybody, but with IPC-377 in regulation, there is an investigation as to whom I am sharing my bed with. This should not happen. Everybody should have their rights. If a boy has a boyfriend it's nice as in other countries gay marriage is legalised, so why not we? India sets examples for others, India does not walk on the examples set by others, thus IPC-377 should be abolished," said Alo Chatterjee, Secretary of Northern Black Rose.

In a landmark judgment last year the Delhi High Court scrapped IPC-377 in same sex relations between consensual adults.

The ruling boosted an increasingly vocal pro-gay lobby in India that says the British-era law was a violation of human rights.