After a long-standing battle for gay rights, the U.S Supreme Court finally ruled in favour of same sex marriage, legalizing it in the 13 remaining states in the USA that continued to ban it. This is being considered a long-sought victory of human rights and liberal activists all over the country.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who has championed gay rights in the Supreme Court for a while, finally managed to get a majority vote, stating “No longer may this liberty be denied”. Kennedy also added that the plaintiffs sought ‘equal dignity in the eyes of the law’.

It isn’t as if the US Supreme Court unanimously decided to uphold gay rights. The Conservative wing continued to cry bitter tears, as they chose to consider the constitution to be engulfed by rainbow coloured flames. There’s still a large conservative lobby in the USA which considers homosexuality unnatural, unconstitutional and unnerving. This adds greater weight to the victory enjoyed by the not inconsiderable percentage of gay people who have, in the past, suffered greatly.

Speaking of human dignity, it wasn’t too long ago that the Indian Supreme court chose to uphold Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which essentially seeks to imprison anyone who has participated in intercourse with a member of the same sex, let alone permitting them to marry. The section had been deemed unconstitutional in 2009 by the High Court of Delhi, but the decision was overturned in 2013 following a ruling by the Indian Supreme Court, which was wholeheartedly supported by a myriad of religious and political leaders, who thus far hadn’t shared consensus on their favourite type of dal, let alone such a vital aspect of democracy.

Our resident lifestyle maven, Baba Ramdev, pioneer of stone-age chic, expertly snuck some product placement into the issue, claiming to have concocted a cure for this ‘terribly addictive’ ailment. While no incarcerations have been made on the basis of the law, it has proved to be a huge impediment in HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and easing the lives of commercial sex workers in the country.