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<ul><li><keyword id="997884" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Harish-Iyer">Harish Iyer</keyword> is the first openly gay person to become a politician. </li><li>Iyer on Tuesday announced that he is joining the Indian National <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword>. </li><li>India's Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in 2018 allowing Iyer's move to politics today</li></ul>Harish Iyer, who grabbed headlines after becoming the first gay person in the country to seek proposals for same-sex marriage in 2015 announced that he is joining the Indian National Congress. "I have officially joined the Congress and look forward to working with the Mumbai Congress team in weeding out homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia and the politics of hate," Harish Iyer announced on Twitter. 
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 Iyer has become the first openly gay politician in India. He has been working proactively as an Indian Equal Rights Activists and has presented his opinion on number of issues including promoting rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer (LGBTQ+) community, children, women, animals and survivors of child sexual abuse. He is also organising the gay pride parade in India to fight the rights of LGBTQ community. Iyer tweeted "So, sometimes we cannot afford sitting on the fence. Sometimes, you need to take a plunge into things with people who are working against the intent of equality and stand against the very fabric of secularism that our nation is blessed with. We need to strive to protect it.” Last year, India’s the Supreme Court struck down section 377, a landmark decision that decriminalized gay sex and turned a leaf for the country's LGBTQ community.

India's first openly gay politician joins the oldest party in the country

The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=RSS">Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS)</a> is deviating from its conservative ideologies and move is a welcome one indeed. 
 
The RSS is supporting <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=gay+sex">gay sex</a> and decriminalising of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=homosexuality">homosexual relationships</a>, saying sexual preference is not a crime as long as it does not impinge on the lives of others. 
 RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, during a conclave, said, “Why should RSS have an opinion on <keyword id="34262" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="homosexuality">homosexuality</keyword>? It is not a crime as long as it does not affect the lives of others. Sexual preferences are personal issues." 
 However, it is yet to see whether the BJP-led Indian government will echo the same sentiment or not after there are many people in the party who do not support <keyword id="45200" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gay-sex">gay sex</keyword>. 
 
The Lok Sabha did not support <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=shashi+tharoor">Congress party MP Shashi Tharoor’s</a> bill on decriminalizing homosexuality. 
 
In fact, the lower house voted twice against Tharoor's move in the last three months. 
 <keyword id="6362797" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Section-377">Section 377</keyword> criminalises homosexuality as "unnatural" sex with a maximum punishment of up to 10 years in jail even if it is between two consenting adults. 
 
But, last month, the Supreme Court agreed to a review a curative petition on the 2013 order. 
 
READ ALSO: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-77-Countries-Where-Homosexuality-Is-Now-Illegal-Map/articleshow/27225786.cms">The 77 Countries Where Homosexuality Is Now Illegal [Map]</a>

RSS deviates from its conservative views, says gay sex is not a crime

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil became <a href="https://www.insider.com/indias-first-openly-gay-prince-conversion-therapy-lgbtq-community-2022-4">India's first openly gay prince</a> when he came out to the public in 2006.</li><li>In October, India's top court rejected same-sex marriage, but Gohil said he remains optimistic about the future of LGBTQ+ rights in the country.</li></ul>This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who became India's first openly gay prince when he came out in 2006. He is now an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights in India and the founder of <a href="https://www.lakshya-trust.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lakshya Trust</a>, a nonprofit organization dedicated to HIV/AIDS education and prevention. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.When I was growing up, there was no chance for me to find out my sexuality because we didn't have a counselor in school. I didn't have anywhere to go and talk about my behavior or this kind of feeling that I had.There was also absolutely no sex education in school, and parents felt shy to talk about sex. So children often grew up in confusion, not knowing about their sexuality. That was completely missing.But there's been a significant change in the mindset of the people. We've created a lot of allies: The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SweekarTheRainbowParents/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rainbow Parents</a> association comprises of 200-plus parents from all over India who have accepted their children. The Indian Psychiatric Society <a href="https://indianpsychiatricsociety.org/ips-position-statement-regarding-lgbtq/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolved</a> that homosexuality should not be treated as a mental disorder, and has been working to ensure that mental health practitioners and doctors don't indulge in malpractice or unethical issues.<div type="image" title="Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil as a child" height="870" width="1161" msid="104627812" hostid="261" sizebytes="22888"></div>Bollywood and the media has changed a lot, too. The media used to use derogatory terms like calling LGBTQ+ people "unnatural," "abnormal," or "criminal," but that language has changed. Bollywood used to portray us as comical characters and jokers, but now, there are serious films about the issues we face.A major change is in the youth population — and the youth population of India is the largest in the world. There has been a lot of awareness and curiosity among students. They want to know a lot about us. I've already done 18 TED Talks in India, and they're all student-driven.Because students have become an ally, I have hope for India. They are the future of our country. If we are able to change their mindset and get them to understand our issues, then we can expect a bright future.<h2>On the Supreme Court's ruling rejecting gay unions</h2>Recently, India's Supreme Court <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/world/asia/india-same-sex-marriage.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rejected same-sex marriage</a>. There has no doubt been disappointment around the ruling, but there have also been positive steps taken to ensure LGBTQ+ rights.<div type="image" title="Members of the Student Federation of India (SFI) along with LGBT activist hold placards and shout slogans during a protest march against India's Supreme Court verdict on same-sex marriage, in New Delhi on October 18, 2023." height="2862" width="3816" msid="104627815" hostid="261" sizebytes="598536"></div>The government's stance has long been that legalizing same-sex unions will affect the culture of the country, but that stance has softened to an extent when the government agreed that same-sex couples have been deprived of certain benefits that heterosexual couples enjoy.In 2018, <a href="https://www.insider.com/indias-supreme-court-legalized-gay-relations-2018-9">homosexuality was unanimously decriminalized in India</a>. In that case, they found that there were four fundamental rights in the constitution that were being violated. In this case, there were again five judges on the bench. Two were supportive to the LGBTQ+ community, and three were not. The majority won. But they did rule that transgender men and women have the right to marry.They also said that anyone who wishes to live together as a couple can legally do so without any stigma, discrimination, or violence against them. Many times, parents have used force to keep their gay children from living with their partners, and now the judgment has said that the state will protect couples from forced separation.The government also suggested to the Supreme Court that a committee be formed that can help look into issues that same-sex couples face, like setting up bank accounts, joint properties, inheritances and wills. That committee will be formed of government officials, mental health practitioners, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.<div type="image" title="Holy Hindu Saints and United Hindu Front stages agitation against the petition before same-sex marriage in Supreme Court , at Jantar Mantar on April 27, 2023 in New Delhi, India." height="4015" width="5354" msid="104627817" hostid="261" sizebytes="1216150"></div><h2>Solutions to work toward</h2>I am optimistic about the future of LGBTQ+ rights in India. I've worked with political representatives and parliamentarians, and we have created allies. I'm proud to say that I have an ally in each and every political party in India.For me, one ally is enough to make the change. I'm not a political person. I don't plan to run for elections or anything. But I do plan to continue making others realize our value, and that's how we win them over and get them on our side.Because there have been so many petitioners and advocates fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, the government has become more educated. So although the Supreme Court rejected the petition for same-sex unions, it's not a rejection without a solution.See, when you're rejecting something and not giving a solution, then that is a major disappointment. But there is a solution, and we should work on that solution. It's our duty to work on it.

I'm India's first openly gay prince. Even though the country's Supreme Court denied same-sex marriage, I'm optimistic about the future of LGBTQ+ rights.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6583337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Queer">Queer</keyword> <keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword> users are pointing out which countries have yet to legalize same-sex marriage.</li><li>The new trend has gotten criticism from queer TikTokers who say it is ahistorical and racist.</li><li>Experts say using same-sex marriage as a gauge for attitudes towards queer people abroad is inaccurate.</li></ul>In the last few weeks, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@deeeyen/video/6842393186778860806?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowHq1DJhj46xqxBtGtRhEfiVBm2Hk07VoEKXP%2B06Rxd58tYCqPAyUa7l%2FJtREZU1XPGgA%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAABf2iKECwTp1znMm7m_6HBnPao7ETin_yBIMgnIvCwPjPtGPp4b7EuF7T1RCIe4q4&amp;share_item_id=6842393186778860806&amp;share_link_id=BD54C4D6-8F4D-40D2-A795-D3F883562F6D&amp;timestamp=1616680603&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=daf49ei3khc2i4&amp;user_id=6786094170500187141&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">LGBTQ TikTok users have posted </a>videos labeling some nations as homophobic - and others as progressive - based on the legal status of gay marriage in the country.The videos <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@cropttopboi/video/6942224406244527366?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowzlCf3GLJzVeG52ovFlv33o3cd0pnbyq4uS2R5PK8syYas%2Bu9N%2B888AqAzIvOwINLGgA%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAABf2iKECwTp1znMm7m_6HBnPao7ETin_yBIMgnIvCwPjPtGPp4b7EuF7T1RCIe4q4&amp;share_item_id=6942224406244527366&amp;share_link_id=7C5F478C-D5AC-433A-935B-103C7A088BBB&amp;timestamp=1616680763&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=daf49ei3khc2i4&amp;user_id=6786094170500187141&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">showcase queer people, moving to the beat of </a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pOFKmk7ytU">Yakko's "Nations of the World,"</a> standing under two banners. One that reads "countries where gay marriage is legal" and another that reads "countries where gay marriage is illegal." Though gay marriage has long been considered the barometer for evaluating a country's attitudes towards queer people, experts say it doesn't accurately gauge the daily lives of LGBTQ people. For example in the US, gay marriage is legal but there are <a href="https://www.insider.com/over-half-of-us-states-tried-passing-anti-trans-bills-2021-3">anti-LGBTQ bills being voted on</a> across the country, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/adoption-agency-should-be-able-reject-gay-couples-trump-administration-n1224911">including limitations to queer adoption.</a>"Anyone who uses same-sex marriage as the only metric is missing the full picture of LGBTQ people's lives," Jean Freedberg, Human Rights Campaign Director of Global Partnerships, told Insider. Continuing, "There are many rights that the LGBTQ community is fighting for every day in every country in order to be able to live our lives as who we are, free from violence and discrimination."<h2>Gay marriage rights don't guarantee safety for queer people</h2>Freedberg told Insider the legalization of same-sex marriage doesn't necessarily mean queer and <keyword id="6516408" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trans">trans</keyword> people are treated fairly. In the United States, queer people have been able to get legally married since 2015, but<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-rules-that-title-vii-applies-to-lgbtq-people-2020-6"> they weren't legally protected</a> from workplace discrimination until recently. Currently, trans people are facing an unprecedented onslaught of legislative attacks <a href="https://www.insider.com/over-half-of-us-states-tried-passing-anti-trans-bills-2021-3">across 28 US states</a> as well as increased rates of violence, particularly <a href="https://www.insider.com/30-transgender-people-have-been-killed-in-2020-highest-record-2020-10">towards trans women of color. </a>While gay marriage is not recognized in Thailand, trans people have been able to access gender-affirming procedures since 1975, and the country is seen as a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-10-26/how-thailand-became-a-global-gender-change-destination">global destination for gender-affirming</a> surgeries. "We have to look holistically at the specifics of each country and each LGBTQ community, and gauge what legal rights that community has - or does not have - and how those protect them from the social, cultural, religious, economic exclusion that they face," Freedberg told Insider. <h2>In some countries, societal homophobia can be linked to <keyword id="768239" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="colonization">colonization</keyword></h2>Many of the countries called out in the TikTok videos for their antiquated LGBTQ marriage policies are located in the Global South. Countries like India, Peru, and Botswana have legacies of homophobia and transphobia tied to their colonization history.For example, <a href="http://hs.umt.edu/ssea/faculty.php?s=Vanita">Professor Ruth Vanita</a>, an expert on Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Montana, told Insider same-sex relationships were not seen as abnormal in India prior to British colonization. "Before full-fledged colonization began, with Queen Victoria taking over the rule of India in 1857, same-sex sexuality was openly practiced and openly written about by many people, including rulers, courtiers, poets, courtesans, and ordinary people," Vanita told Insider. According to Vanita, Britain passed anti-sodomy laws in colonized countries across the globe as a means of outlawing queerness and imposing Christian colonial values. "The same anti-sodomy law, in almost the same words, was introduced into all colonized countries, from America and Canada, to India, Pakistan, Malaysia, etc," Vanita said."Apart from India, Nepal, and Thailand, very few countries in Asia and Africa have gotten rid of this law. In fact, most of their leaders and people mistakenly believe that the law springs from their indigenous cultures." In addition to same-sex relationships, indigenous cultures outside of the west, like <a href="https://matadornetwork.com/life/gender-diversity-around-world/">Quariwarmi in Peru</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/17/style/india-third-gender-hijras-transgender.html">Hijra of India, </a>recognized genders outside of the western binary prior to colonization. Tickles2900, a TikTok user with 2,375 followers, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tickles2900/video/6942995260456946950?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowF%2F%2BfiOtPXoTrkj%2BnTKFGdeCxNEPIi7y%2BFP4cWd%2B34%2FPjYYKXdQOY2ij3bPZCTu%2FdGgA%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAABf2iKECwTp1znMm7m_6HBnPao7ETin_yBIMgnIvCwPjPtGPp4b7EuF7T1RCIe4q4&amp;share_item_id=6942995260456946950&amp;share_link_id=4448E58A-2807-4313-97A3-164775935E8A&amp;timestamp=1616681351&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=daf49ei3khc2i4&amp;user_id=6786094170500187141&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">posted a video</a> pointing out the irony of queer people from Western nations trivializing homophobia in formerly colonized nations. The video, which has amassed 26,600 likes, was even <a href="https://twitter.com/angelicaross/status/1374822406238388228">shared by "Pose" star Angelica Love Ross</a>. "These countries were not always like this, they had their own <keyword id="24504" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="culture">culture</keyword>, traditions, and ideas on gender and sexuality but the west came into them, stole their resources, destabilized them, forced Christianity onto them, and left," Tickles2900 said. "These queer people that you're mocking are suffering the consequences of actions that the west - the west that you are so proud to be legal in - took." <h2>TikTok creators living in countries where gay marriage is banned want to speak for themselves</h2><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@miojogio/video/6855288449822461189?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowEt%2BmsnkAikP1Kv6anOUuLl5Hz%2Fr9NQgQkD%2BCkt5BWBK4m6rusuvCxTfCBtU1K9iYGgA%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAABf2iKECwTp1znMm7m_6HBnPao7ETin_yBIMgnIvCwPjPtGPp4b7EuF7T1RCIe4q4&amp;share_item_id=6855288449822461189&amp;share_link_id=953C4A88-4D30-4251-A03E-B4BB207C87AB&amp;timestamp=1617035739&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=daf49ei3khc2i4&amp;user_id=6786094170500187141&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">Some creators</a> from countries where same-sex marriage is not legal have used the trend to raise awareness about the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@juancruz_blanco/video/6843525895722929414?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgow0R7Ij%2FwCTNfI%2BwVXcZxbn7%2BiUs7BD45hqCtn4m00%2FKtfIinbY5a5nvE%2Bn8p3RusNGgA%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAABf2iKECwTp1znMm7m_6HBnPao7ETin_yBIMgnIvCwPjPtGPp4b7EuF7T1RCIe4q4&amp;share_item_id=6843525895722929414&amp;share_link_id=923D9BB2-C081-4B2A-96F0-85E2286DE1D3&amp;timestamp=1617035825&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=daf49ei3khc2i4&amp;user_id=6786094170500187141&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">fight for marriage equality</a> abroad. What many creators, like <a href="https://twitter.com/josnotreal/status/1374902966663012352">Batcavefreak,</a> take issue with is the trend being used by queer people in the US to casually mention they would be "illegal" in certain countries, without taking into consideration what that means for queer people who actually live there. "Still illegal in my country, and it's frustrating," wrote one TikTok user from Kenya. "The 'I'm illegal in 72 countries' jokes come off as insensitive when it's an actual lived experience that we're having to fight against every single day."Discothem, a TikTok creator from India, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@discothem/video/6944765577323908357?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowhtxkc8ePuycHoY7D5TUEQU7kjSdzCWwkGdrHf9ubjceIJGr3kWsaQFsW1MFnUXR5GgA%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAABf2iKECwTp1znMm7m_6HBnPao7ETin_yBIMgnIvCwPjPtGPp4b7EuF7T1RCIe4q4&amp;share_item_id=6944765577323908357&amp;share_link_id=35D5286B-F200-4636-BE34-E09738029482&amp;timestamp=1616958438&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=daf49ei3khc2i4&amp;user_id=6786094170500187141&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">responded to the trend</a> in multiple videos, only to have their content deleted for bullying."As somebody that's from a country that only recently decriminalized homosexuality and in which same-sex marriage is still not legal, I feel really frustrated when I see these videos by white gay Americans because they don't get it," <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@discothem/video/6944765577323908357?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowhtxkc8ePuycHoY7D5TUEQU7kjSdzCWwkGdrHf9ubjceIJGr3kWsaQFsW1MFnUXR5GgA%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAABf2iKECwTp1znMm7m_6HBnPao7ETin_yBIMgnIvCwPjPtGPp4b7EuF7T1RCIe4q4&amp;share_item_id=6944765577323908357&amp;share_link_id=35D5286B-F200-4636-BE34-E09738029482&amp;timestamp=1616958438&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=daf49ei3khc2i4&amp;user_id=6786094170500187141&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">they said in their most recent TikTok. </a>"They don't know what I go through on a day-to-day basis."Vanita said while some countries have homophobia imposed by extreme religious groups, like the Taliban, many formerly colonized countries have held on to anti-LGBTQ laws and sentiments - like those banning sodomy."In colonized countries in Africa and other parts of Asia (both Christian-majority and Muslim-majority countries), such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where there was no such law before colonialism, we now see an unfortunate and ironic governmental and popular embrace of the law as moral and as representing their own cultures," Vanita said.

Queer TikTok users are joking about being 'illegal' in countries where gay marriage is banned. Experts say that's a superficial way to gauge homophobia.

<ul><li>The world’s largest <keyword id="6354914" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="democracy">democracy</keyword> finally decriminalised homosexual intercourse yesterday and scrapped the controversial <keyword id="6362797" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="section-377">Section 377</keyword>. </li><li>While this decision by the country’s highest court is certainly significant, there needs to be more of an impetus for social change and removing ignorance from society. </li><li>After decriminalisation, the focus should be on implementing LGTBQ rights in marriage, inheritance, adoption and surrogacy. </li></ul>In a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/section-377-verdict-indias-top-court-decriminalises-homosexuality-in-landmark-verdict/articleshow/65697010.cms">landmark decision</a> by the <keyword id="75952" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Supreme-Court-of-India">Supreme Court of India</keyword>, Section 377 was finally scrapped from the <keyword id="75223" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Penal-Code">Indian Penal Code</keyword>. A part of Indian law since 1861, Section 377 deemed sexual intercourse ‘against the order of nature’ leading to imprisonment of 10 years up to life, as well as a fine. The removal of this section ties into the basic civil right of privacy, freedom and equality. Any individual has the right to choose how they wish to live their life without being discriminated against in society. That being said, while the removal of Section 377 takes a huge step in that direction, there's still a lot more that has to be done for true equality to be implemented on the ground level. Battling the stigma As Justice Rohinton Nariman’s <a href="https://www.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2016/14961/14961_2016_Judgement_06-Sep-2018.pdf">verdict</a> states, “We further declare that such groups are entitled to the protection of equal laws, and are entitled to be treated in society as human beings without any stigma being attached to any of them.” Despite that, prominent public figures in India have issued statements in the past that range from being ignorant to plain abuse. While one can hope that the removal of Section 377 will change their minds, various debates on the subject across multiple news channels exhibit otherwise. There needs to be a campaign to not only to raise awareness but to educate people on what <keyword id="34262" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="homosexuality">homosexuality</keyword> is. According to <keyword id="6833354" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="justice-nariman">Justice Nariman</keyword> the government should conduct programmes to end the stigma around homosexuality and individuals employed with the government should receive workshops to sensitise them to subject. That being said, the initiative would a long way if it was implemented in the school system and workplace as well. In a country where basic sex education isn’t even implemented in schools, awareness against judgement and prejudice is all the more important. The path forward The next step of the Indian government after decriminalizing homosexuality is to allow for same-sex marriages. It will take time to happen, but like in other countries around the world, it could be brought in as an interim measure. Civil partnerships should be recognised as binding across all sectors some which include insurance, inheritance, surrogacy, adoption or childbirth. Currently, there's no law in place to battle discrimination at that level. More than addressing discrimination, it’s also about the realisation of fundamental <keyword id="52767" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Human-rights">human rights</keyword>. For instance, the current law on rape is inadequate to address non-consensual sex between same-sex individuals. And, the same follow through when it comes to sexual harrassment. There’s a lot of <a href="https://qz.com/india/1380947/section-377-the-former-british-colonies-with-laws-against-gay-people/">conversation</a> about how Section 377 the legacy of the British rule in India. But even the United Kingdom, excluding Northern Ireland, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-26793127">passed</a> the legislation allowing for <keyword id="393963" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="same-sex-marriage">same-sex marriage</keyword> back in 2013.

Section 377 verdict: What’s next for India?

Associated PressVice President Mike Pence speaks to the Holy City Church of God In Christ congregation.<ul class="summary-list"><li>US Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a church service Sunday where the pastor claimed that same-sex attraction was caused by "the devil," <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/pence-attends-homophobic-sermon-streamed-white-house-youtube-channel-n1119621">NBC News</a> reported.</li><li>The homophobic sermon was live-streamed by the White House from Holy City Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tennessee.</li><li>A video of it remains on the White House YouTube page. </li><li>LGBTQ rights groups say that they were not surprised by Pence's participation, citing his previous support of anti-LGBTQ legislation.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's home page for more stories.</a></li></ul>Vice President <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/mike-pence">Mike Pence</a> participated in an anti-gay church service, drawing condemnation from <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/lgbtq">LGBTQ</a> advocacy groups.At the service on Sunday at the Holy City Church of God in Memphis, Tennessee, Pence stood at the pulpit before a mostly black congregation to speak about the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Trump administration's work to "open pathways to the American dream for every American."Following his speech, the founding pastor of the church, Bishop Jerry Wayne Taylor, went on a diatribe denouncing homosexuality as the work of "the devil.""The devil is trying to destroy the foundation of marriage - cut off the reproduction process. Two men can't have a baby. Two women can't have a baby," Taylor said in the sermon.Taylor blamed a "demonic spirit" for same-sex attraction and urged his congregants to encourage only young women and men to get married."It's a demonic spirit that causes a woman to lie with another woman. It's a demonic spirit that calls a man to be attracted to another man," the church leader proselytized.The homophobic sermon was live-streamed by the White House from the Holy City Church of God in Christ. A video of the service remains on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4e5-Y9E31g&amp;feature=emb_title">White House YouTube page</a>.<h2>Church leaders lashed out at LGBTQ people and praised Pence</h2>During his sermon, Taylor also lashed out at those whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth, claiming that God "made a man to be a man."He ended his tirade on homosexuality by pointing to animal relationships, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150206-are-there-any-homosexual-animals">falsely</a> claiming they did not engage in same-sex relationships."You never see two male animals coming together. Animals have not left the place God called them to be in," Taylor said. "We got to expose what the devil is doing."Associated PressVice President Mike Pence.Earlier in the service, another church leader called Pence "one of the most persecuted Christians in America" who was hated for "believing the Bible.""The biggest criticism that he gets all over television and everywhere else is that he actually believes the Bible ... They hate him for believing," Bishop Vincent Matthews Jr. said.A representative for Pence did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.<h2>LGBTQ advocates say the rhetoric match the Trump administration's policies</h2>LGBTQ advocacy groups said they were not surprised by Pence's participation at the anti-gay sermon given the Trump administration's history of advocating for legislation that discriminates against the LGBTQ community.According to GLAAD, the Trump administration has made <a href="https://www.glaad.org/tap/donald-trump">136 attacks on the LGBTQ community</a>, most notably its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-a-breakdown-of-trump-administrations-transgender-military-ban-2019-1">ban on transgender service members from serving in the armed forces</a>. "Wish we could say we were surprised that the Vice President spoke at a church event where the bishop spouted vile things about LGBTQ people. But here we are," <a href="https://twitter.com/glaad/status/1219649315926396934">GLAAD tweeted.</a>Pence has become an ambassador for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/donald-trump">President Donald Trump</a> in the Christian community, <a href="https://www.ksl.com/article/46623129/vp-mike-pence-talks-trade-reelection-and-religion-during-utah-visit">attending services all over the country</a> to garner support for the president.Pence's appearance at Holy City Church of God in Christ may be a way to appeal to the Black protestant community. Trump's support among Black protestants is significantly lower than white evangelicals, 69% of whom said they supported his presidency <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/03/18/evangelical-approval-of-trump-remains-high-but-other-religious-groups-are-less-supportive/">in a 2019 Pew poll</a>.At the Holy City service, Pence listed all work the administration had done on behalf of the Black community and went on to promise that the Trump administration would stand for the "right of every American to live the American dream regardless of race or creed or color."<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li></ul><ul class="read-more-links"><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/mike-pence-meme-conversion-camp-tik-tok-2020-1">On TikTok, teens are imagining that Mike Pence runs a thriving gay conversion camp</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-a-breakdown-of-trump-administrations-transgender-military-ban-2019-1">Here's a breakdown of the Trump administration's transgender military ban that the Supreme Court allowed to move forward</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lgbtq-employment-supreme-court-cases-explainer-2019-9">The Supreme Court is about to hear 3 cases that could decide if people can be fired for being LGBTQ. Here's everything you need to know.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-seemed-unaware-plans-decriminalize-homosexuality-around-world-2019-2">Trump seemed to know nothing about his own administration's plan to decriminalize homosexuality around the world</a></li></ul> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/georgetown-professor-reveals-people-wrong-mlk-martin-luther-king-jr-race-black-radical-racism-2017-5">A Georgetown professor explains how Martin Luther King Jr. 'has been severely whitewashed'</a></h3>

Mike Pence spoke at a homophobic church service where the pastor blamed 'the devil' for same-sex attraction

<ul class="summary-list"><li>I left New York 14 years ago, before same-sex marriage was legalized in the US.</li><li>Now, I'm married to an American woman and have a green card.</li></ul>In 2009, I was 25 and living my best queer life. I had finished a Master of Fine Arts degree from NYU and was an adjunct instructor at various colleges in the city. I shared an apartment with my American girlfriend in Brooklyn — back when it was somewhat affordable — and was reading my poems at dive bars and community bookstores.I was underemployed and uninsured, sure, but it was a life I could have only dreamed of as an Indian kid growing up in New Delhi in the 1980s, where I had never even heard the word "gay."The dream ended abruptly one night when my visa application to remain in the US was denied. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flawed-h1b-visa-system-layoffs-undermining-americas-tech-industry-2022-12">H-1B work visa</a> was, and remains, notoriously difficult to get, and <a href="https://www.insider.com/inspiring-pictures-of-same-sex-weddings-around-the-world-2019-4">same-sex marriage</a> was illegal at the federal level — my girlfriend was unable to marry me.After 30 days of anxiety, grief, and lawyer's visits, I kissed my sweetheart and rode away in a taxi early one September morning. As rain splattered the windshield, Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" played on the radio and I watched Brooklynites crossing the street, holding takeaway coffees, about to start another day in what I then thought of as the best country on Earth.Fourteen years ago, I would have done anything for a green card. Today, the rightful owner of a green card — I am not so sure.<h2>I fell in love again, and we crossed continents</h2>In 2017, two years after the <a href="https://www.insider.com/how-families-have-changed-then-and-now-america-2019-3#same-sex-marriage-is-now-legal-nationwide-but-lgbtq-families-still-experience-discrimination-2">Obergefell v. Hodges decision</a> made marriage equality the law of the land in the US, I met the woman who went on to be my wife. Erin, an American, was living in the US, 10,000 miles away from what had become my new home in Southeast Asia. We did a year of long distance, and eventually, she took a leap of faith and moved across the world to be with me. We began living together in Singapore and got married during a vacation in the US in 2019. <div type="image" title="Mrigaa and Erin's wedding in New York, which Byron Brown, the mayor of Buffalo, attended." height="3920" width="5226" msid="104969987" hostid="261" sizebytes="1453638"></div><a href="https://www.insider.com/singapore-lifestyle-food-shopping-malls-weather-heat-misconceptions-2023-9">Singapore</a>, where we started our life together, is a small but influential city-state in Southeast Asia. It's renowned for its ambitious infrastructure, razor-sharp efficiency, and low crime rate. Last month, it was named the <a href="https://www.worldsbestcities.com/rankings/worlds-best-cities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fifth-best city in the world</a>, according to Resonance Consultancy's World's Best Cities report. The report's methodology factors in sustainable infrastructure, social vibrancy, and growth opportunities. And yet, its lack of adequate legal frameworks for LGBTQ+ folks meant that Erin and I could not apply as a family for permanent residency, access fertility treatments such as IVF, or sponsor each other for dependent visas if one of us lost our jobs.As much as we loved Singapore, we knew we couldn't build the life we wanted there. So in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Erin applied to sponsor me for a US green card through marriage. After two years of applications, documents, medical tests, close to $4,000 in fees, and lots of bureaucratic processes, the country that had turned me down all those years ago finally let me back in. It has given me a path to citizenship and the chance to build the family that I want with the person that I want.I should be ecstatic. But instead, I am terrified.<h2>The freedom to live … or die</h2>Just as I am finally able to return to the land of the free, the US feels less free than ever. The Human Rights Campaign said that, as of June this year, <a href="https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/roundup-of-anti-lgbtq-legislation-advancing-in-states-across-the-country" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a record 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills</a> have been introduced in state legislatures in 2023 alone. These range from curtailing gender-affirming treatment and permitting discrimination to banning books and drag shows.It's gotten so bad that Canada issued a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/30/world/canada/travel-warning-us-lgbtq.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">travel advisory</a> in August about traveling within the United States to its LGBTQ+ citizens.Last year's chilling overturn of Roe v Wade — and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/justice-thomas-said-the-court-should-reconsider-rulings-on-same-sex-marriage-2022-6">Justice Clarence Thomas' troubling remarks </a>about needing to revisit the same-sex marriage decision — make me worry that the very rights that have legally brought me to this country can easily be reconsidered.Then there's the threat of physical and gun violence, at times seemingly random and other times exacerbated by unchecked hate speech in public discourse. <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/lgbtqi-community-resources" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Department of Homeland Security</a> has reported a surge in violence against LGBTQ+ individuals and community spaces, with threats "increasingly tied to hate groups and domestic violent extremists." There have been <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/fatal-violence-against-the-transgender-and-nonbinary-community-in-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dozens of instances</a> of fatal gun violence against transgender and nonbinary people this year alone. Just two months ago, a <a href="https://www.insider.com/laura-carleton-killed-suspect-made-disparaging-remarks-pride-flag-sheriff-said-2023-8">store owner in California was shot dead</a> for displaying a pride flag.It's ironic that as a gay interracial couple, Erin and I would have been far safer in Singapore — where private gun ownership is not permitted — than we are in the US.<h2>Making impossible compromises</h2><div type="image" title="Mrigaa and Erin's last vacation in Asia before moving back to the US." height="2575" width="3297" msid="104969988" hostid="261" sizebytes="888936"></div>I was born in India, where my mother tongue has no word for gay people, and the Supreme <a href="https://www.insider.com/indias-supreme-court-legalized-gay-relations-2018-9">Court of India only issued a decision overturning a ban on homosexuality</a> in 2018. I grew up in Thailand, where society tacitly accepts LGBTQ+ communities but there is no legal framework to support them. I lived for a beautiful decade in Singapore, where <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-decriminalizes-sex-between-men-humanity-wins-say-lgbt-activists-2022-8">homosexuality was only decriminalized this year</a>. None of these countries have marriage equality yet.As a brown queer person, I've stopped waiting around for any one country to hand me the life I want.So despite the many reasons for terror, I am here, not in the best place on Earth, but in America, hoping to build my gay family without dying in the process.

I'm terrified of moving to the US to start a family

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In 2006, Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil came out to a local newspaper, becoming <keyword id="11892747" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>'s first openly gay prince.</li><li>He endured years of conversion therapy — including electroshock treatments — and was publicly disowned by his family.</li></ul>Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, the 39th direct descendant of India's Gohil Rajput dynasty, knew he was gay at age 12. But he could only live his truth three decades later.Gohil publicly came out in an interview to a local newspaper in 2006, becoming the first openly gay royal in the country. He was 41 at the time.Until 2018, homosexuality was illegal in India, punishable under Section 377, a colonial-era draconian law that demanded up to life imprisonment for anyone committing sexual acts "against the order of nature." Naturally, Gohil's public unmasking triggered a nation-wide scandal. The entire town of Rajpipla — a formerly princely state located in the western state of Gujarat where his ancestors were kings — turned on him. "The day I came out, my effigies were burnt. There were a lot of protests, people took to the streets and shouted slogans saying that I brought shame and humiliation to the royal family and to the culture of India. There were death-threats and demands that I be stripped off of my title," Gohil told Insider over a phone call from the coastal state of Kerala.His parents, the Maharaja and Maharani of Rajpipla, responded with similar rage. They publicly disowned him as their son and took out advertisements in newspapers announcing that he was cut off as heir due to his involvement in activities "unsuitable to society". <h2>He turned the palace grounds he was once thrown out of into a shelter for the LGBTQ+ community.</h2>Gohil had expected the homophobic uproar. The society he grew up around was strongly conserative, and the country he grew up in didn't legally recognize gay rights. Many around him believed that homosexuality was a mental disorder. At the time, Gohil remembers reporters clamoring to him for a comment on the public rejection. He calmly recounted the answer he gave them, saying, "I don't blame the people who are against me. I blame their ignorance on the subject." Today, at 55, Gohil's stance remains the same. Much of his advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights continues to primarily revolve around decimating the stigma around homosexuality. It's with that approach that he founded Lakshya Trust, a charitable organization with the aim to improve the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in Gujarat two decades ago. In 2018, the year that the Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality in a landmark ruling, Gohil opened up a 15-acre palace grounds to build a shelter for vulnerable members of the community. Ironically, it was the same palace he was thrown out of when he publicly came out years ago. In that sense, a large part of Gohil's crusade for equal rights and dignity of life for the LGBTQ+ community is rooted in his own painful past, which included being forced into a short-lived arranged marriage with a woman (Gohil eventually married his husband in 2013), enduring years of torturous conversion therapy, and suffering in silence.<div type="image" title="Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil" height="1928" width="2571" msid="90942851" hostid="261"></div><h2>After coming out to his family, Gohil was subjected to years of conversion therapy.</h2>Back in 2002, four years before he came out to the world, Gohil came out to his parents, having been attracted to men for years. "They thought it was impossible that I could be gay because my cultural upbringing had been so rich. They had no idea that there's no connection between someone's sexuality and their upbringing," Gohil recounted. The state of denial was followed by his parents insisting on finding a "cure" for his sexuality. In the next four years, Gohil claims that his parents took him to a host of medical practitioners and spiritual guides, "They approached doctors to operate on my brain to make me straight and subjected me to electroshock treatments." When it didn't work out the way they imagined, Gohil was shipped to religious leaders who were ordered to make him "behave normally." None of it worked. But by the time his parents stopped their efforts, Gohil was left traumatized and depressed, often contemplating suicide. In many ways, he says the newspaper interview unshackled him. <h2>Conversion therapy is still not illegal in India. "I have to keep fighting."</h2>Two decades since, conversion therapy is still not outlawed in India (Tamil Nadu is the only state to legally ban the practice last year). Even though there is no proven success rate, it continues to be widely employed to physically and mentally assault the country's queer population, leading to increased depression and death by suicide among LGBTQ+ youth in India. In 2020, a 21-year-old bisexual woman <a href="https://lifestyle.livemint.com/health/wellness/the-pain-and-cruelty-of-conversion-therapy-111634459309525.html">committed</a> suicide after her family subjected her to a harrowing two-month ordeal at de-addiction centers in Kerala in a bid to "cure" her bisexuality. Today, Gohil is at the forefront of the demand for a ban on the unethical practice. In that, he is not just fighting for a ban but is also battling decades of regressive mentality, ignorance, and judgment. "It's important for people like me who have a certain reputation in society to continue the advocacy. We can't just stop because the country repealed Section 377," he said, explaining that a law being passed in India doesn't always mean that people will immediately start accepting or following it."Now we have to fight for issues like same-sex marriage, right to inheritance, right to adoption. It's a never-ending cycle. I have to keep fighting."

India's first openly gay prince endured years of torturous conversion therapy. Now, he's fighting to make the practice illegal.

NEW DELHI: Even as a "communal versus secular" battle promises to remain the main motif of the 2014 election, <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword> has sought to counter criticism that it presided over a shrinking <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword> by balancing its "welfare" instincts with an outreach to business. 
 Though Congress's political focus remains challenging <keyword id="14666" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="BJP">BJP</keyword>'s prime ministerial <keyword id="53129" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="candidate">candidate</keyword> <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> by painting him as a threat to the idea of a unified, equitable India, the party is also looking to undercut his growth pitch. 
 Framing Congress policies as truly inclusive, vice-president <keyword id="5268" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rahul-Gandhi">Rahul Gandhi</keyword> said, "The country can grow by a firm partnership between business and poor. It cannot grow either by neglecting business or the poor." 
 
The manifesto, which bears a strong imprint of Rahul's thinking, promises a strong set of rights-based initiatives intended to benefit a "sandwiched" class of those between the poverty line and the middle class. 
 
Rahul has consistently focused on this section, estimated by his backroom to number 70 crore, and the manifesto promised to bring these "skilled hands" into the middle class through a 15-point agenda. 
 
Addressing the interests of a class that is not-rich, not-middle class, not-BPL (NRMB) can help Congress counter caste and identity based politics of its rivals in many states, party sources contended. 
 
The document released on Wednesday looks to offer a "complementarity" between business and beneficiaries of the welfare schemes by arguing that programmes like homestead and health security will spur demand. 
 
Just the health sector could see an addition of 60 lakh jobs while Congress promised to frame policies that can deliver 10 crore jobs – a clear attempt to counter the damaging criticism that UPA policies delivered jobless growth. 
 
The lack of specific initiatives — apart from pledges such as fixing retrospective tax — to encourage foreign investment reflects a belief that if systems work in a fair and efficient manner, capital is bound to follow. 
 
There are other shifts from past UPA policy that point to the ongoing change of guard in Congress with the manifesto's political and governance reforms underlining Rahul's oft-repeated view that rent seeking and influence peddling is the bane. 
 Though the proposals cannot wish away the negative impact of a series of corruption scandals, Rahul chose to defend the 'primaries' experiment in choosing <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> candidates saying it was an idea well worth the effort. 
 
His argument that making a system more transparent can make it that much harder for bribe-giving and lobbying to influence decisions has been at best partially successful. But either way, Congress is clearly committed to Rahul's way. 
 
The balancing act between welfare and growth seeks to retain the support of those likely to benefit from schemes like rural employment and food security and counter Modi's sharp criticism that corruption, shrinking employment and stalled businesses meant both the poor and the middle class lost out. 
 
The rebalancing did not, however, see any dilution of Congress's focus in a rights-based approach that party leaders say is intended to "give the deserving their due" and this means health cover including free medicines, homestead security and pensions. There is also the promise to improve education through a greater role of private institutions. 
 
Though Rahul said he recognizes the need for business to prosper to fund welfare schemes, the manifesto clearly does not see the rights as "handouts" but feels they level the playing field for the disadvantaged. 
 
 
 The manifesto slammed the "retroactive <keyword id="6383566" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Taxation">taxation</keyword>" while promising to pump in one trillion dollars in infrastructure in ten years and bringing in flexible labour policy to boost competitiveness. It also lays stress on job creation and manufacturing. 
 
"The elections are not just about good work and economic development. For Congress, this election is to safeguard the constitutional framework that the freedom fighters bequeathed to us…we don't turn man against man," she said. 
 The Congress trinity of <keyword id="71" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Prime-Minister">Prime Minister</keyword> <keyword id="6359397" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Manmohan-Singh">Manmohan Singh</keyword>, <keyword id="689" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Sonia-Gandhi">Sonia Gandhi</keyword> and Rahul singled out Modi for sharp attack. Rahul backed Singh's earlier description that Modi would be a disastrous for India as a PM and added that he represented an ideology that would hurt the country. 
 Congress faces strong anti-incumbency after a decade in power, co<keyword id="6355553" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="MP">mp</keyword>ounded by the slips on the graft-and-growth fronts that have put its chances with the middle-classes under a cloud. The failure in the largely rural states of MP, <keyword id="43945" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Chhattisgarh">Chhattisgarh</keyword> and Rajasthan in the December elections underlined the limitations of the appeal of UPA's flagship schemes. 
 
The attack on BJP and Modi for "communalism" seeks to address the vast electorate of Muslims and minorities who are likely to polarise against the BJP with Modi as mascot. There seems a realization among the Congress strategists that because of his image, Modi is succeeding in baiting the Hindu votes despite talking about development in his rallies. 
 
The bid to corner the saffron camp aims as much to corner it with a large section of the electorate as also to deepen the "secular" deterrent for the regional parties mulling partnership with BJP. 
 
Times View 
 
The Times of India Manifesto ('MANIFESTOI', published on March 14) had made a strong case for fiscally responsible and socially progressive governance. The Congress manifesto is broadly in line with our philosophy, although it is somewhat skimpy on details. It calls for accelerated growth and financial prudence; speedy introduction of GST; administrative, legal and judicial reforms, flexible labour laws; 'zero aversion' to foreign investment; decriminalization of consensual gay sex; greater spending on health and education; creation of a business-enabling environment. All of this, and more, was contained in the TOI Manifesto. Question is, how much of it will the Congress be able to actually implement? After all, it had a decade to do it. 
 
While agreeing with the overall thrust of the manifesto, it should be pointed out that what Congress calls a 'rights- based approach' can be rendered meaningless by overreach. We have no quarrel with the general proposition that many of the services government provides to citizens should be treated as their due rather than a favour. Indeed, it is an important change in the mindset of those in 'power'. However, we must not make the mistake of assuming that all of India's problems – among them the fact that not everybody gets their roti, kapda and makaan – can be legislated away by giving people a 'right' to them. Guaranteeing the right to health, for instance, is a far cry from actually delivering quality, affordable healthcare to 1.2 billion. 
 
<a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/specials/lok-sabha-elections-2014/news/TOI-manifesto-An-agenda-for-the-new-government/articleshow/31973967.cms">READ ALSO: TOI manifesto — An agenda for the new government</a>

Congress Manifesto Takes On Modi, Balances Talk Of Welfare With Outreach To India Inc

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel's long-shot 2020 presidential campaign is being managed entirely on the Internet primarily by three teenagers and former high school classmates from Westchester, New York.&#xa0;</li><li>David Oks, Henry Williams, and Elijah Emery have built a following of 95,000 Twitter followers on which they troll other 2020 candidates and tweet about their leftist policy ideas from Gravel's account.</li><li>In an interview with INSIDER, Williams said the initial goal of the campaign was to get Gravel on the debate stage to challenge US imperialism.</li><li>Williams said he hopes Gravel will serve as a new vanguard for leftist ideas, and the so-called #Gravelanche behind them will become the basis of the Democratic Party's new left flank.</li><li>In particular, the campaign hopes to bring novel ideas including ending US intervention abroad, slashing military spending, and legalizing sex work into the political mainstream.&#xa0;</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Business Insider's&#xa0;homepage&#xa0;for more stories.&#xa0;</a></li></ul>"<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-joe-biden-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a>'s a bum," <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1136429999744069632" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began a June 5 tweet from the account of 89-year-old former Sen. Mike Gravel</a> of Alaska, the latest iteration in a long series of insults against the former vice president. "A right-wing chauvinist, good time prick, arrogant bastard creep who thinks that because he's got a $3,000 suit and the cachet of a lifetime sinecure in the Senate we should bow down to his beaming smile. A real racist piece of work," the tweet, Gravel's most-retweeted and most-liked tweet about Biden, continued.&#xa0;&#xa0;That day, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/abortion-rights-groups-slam-joe-biden-for-hyde-amendment-support-2019-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden drew ire from reproductive rights groups</a> and much of the 2020 presidential primary field when his campaign told NBC <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">News</keyword> that he supported keeping the 1973 Hyde Amendment, which bans any federal funding from subsidizing abortion except in rare cases (Biden ended up backtracking and changing his position on the matter less than 48 hours later).While most other candidates just recently began to publicly take veiled and explicit shots at Biden and at each other, the teenagers running Gravel's long-shot 2020 presidential campaign have built a following and made a near-sport out of coming up with creative insults for their fellow contenders - and criticizing fellow Democrats, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%40mikegravel%20joe%20biden&amp;src=typd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">particularly Biden</a>, just as ferociously as Republicans.&#xa0;Gravel's account, which now has almost 100,000 followers, is run by three high school and college students from Westchester County, New York. They drafted Gravel - an octogenarian former Senator whose last ran campaign was in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary - to run for president again back in March of this year.Initially, their ask was simple.They wanted people to donate $1 to help get Gravel on the stage for the first Democratic debates this month in Miami. It was there, they hoped, Gravel would bring issues like US imperialism and ending war into the 2020 conversation.While the Gravel campaign fell short of the required 1% performance in three polls and 65,000 unique donors to make the first debates in Miami, <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1140286138944577536" target="_blank" rel="noopener">its organizers say they're on the path to qualify for the next round of debates in July</a>, all thanks to their online popularity.&#xa0;Read more:&#xa0;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/democratic-debate-qualifiers-schedule-first-debate-june-2019-6" data-analytics-position="2">The 20 Democratic candidates who qualified for the debates and how they'll be split up between two nights</a>On Twitter, they've called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-pete-buttigieg-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pete Buttigieg</a> "a Gold Star goofball," said the presidency of Sen. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-cory-booker-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cory Booker</a> would be like "a boot stamping on a human face," <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1134610713908076544" target="_blank" rel="noopener">publicly shamed candidates who poll lower than Gravel</a> as "fake progressives and stooges for corporate power."They've also <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1139571952807567360" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released merchandise</a> - including buttons and papers meant for rolling joints of marijuana - decorated with punchy logos including "cut military spending in half," "compost the rich," and "send Henry Kissinger to the Hague."&#xa0;The campaign, however, goes much deeper than the aggressive (and often very funny) tweets attacking fellow Democrats and eye-catching merchandise. The Gravel team <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1126564849289506822" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is now "running to win,"</a> and has centered their mission around <a href="https://www.mikegravel.org/issues/">an extremely detailed set of policies</a> - one of the most comprehensive in the field - modeled on the same ones for which Gravel has championed his entire career, especially military non-interventionism.On <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mikegravel2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the donation section of Gravel's campaign website</a>, the mission is described as "ending America's imperial policies (especially in Venezuela and Iran), legalizing marijuana, fundamentally reforming our <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> through direct democracy, abolishing mass surveillance on American citizens, prioritizing climate change, dismantling America's carceral state, and building a foreign policy of peace."<h2>How it all came together</h2>This Gravel teens have run a campaign before, albeit a failed one, in Ok's run for mayor of Ardsley, New York at age 16.They've come a long way since then, having managed to secure 45,000 individual donors, raise $120,000 total in the first month of the campaign, and even reach 1% in a few polls - entirely through social media. They're now even the subject of an upcoming documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SnhZSOm_AM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">titled "Teen Kingmakers."</a>In a May interview with INSIDER, Gravel's chief of staff and top strategist Henry Williams, a 18-year-old Columbia University physics major, said his friend and Gravel's campaign manager David Oks first got him interested in politics when they were high schoolers during the 2016 election.&#xa0;"[Oks] always rated Trump's chances way higher than anyone else did at that point. As time went on, I started to see that not only was he right about that, but he was right about a lot of other stuff and had an instinct of how politics works," Williams said.&#xa0;In the most crowded Democratic primary field in history, some candidates have struggled to command attention online, but social media is a second language to Oks and Williams. And in a political environment that rewards shock value and novelty, they've perfected the formula.Williams said that he and Oks' push to draft Gravel was partly inspired by the meteoric rise of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-andrew-yang-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Andrew Yang</a>, a tech entrepreneur running a campaign largely centered around universal basic income, who raised $1.7 million from 80,000 donors in just two months after catching fire on the Internet and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-yang-online-memes-2020-fundraising-2019-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inspiring a loyal following who term themselves the #YangGang.&#xa0;</a>Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-yang-online-memes-2020-fundraising-2019-4" data-analytics-position="5">Longshot 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang is using an online meme army to raise millions</a>"If Yang can weaponize a small, super online subset of the Internet and get an international audience, why couldn't you go take someone like Gravel who appeals to those who like honest politicians and who are fighting the good fight while also weaponizing a very online, very young base of support and transform that into a movement?"Williams said that he and Oks had vaguely heard about Gravel's 2008 presidential run - where he got on the debate stage and challenged Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden - but after learning more about him on a podcast, decided he would be the perfect candidate to serve as the "vanguard" for a new leftist movement.&#xa0;After Gravel responded to their initial email to his website, Williams said they spoke on the phone for about five to six hours a day for a week about the idea of Gravel running for president.&#xa0;"Bit by bit, we convinced him that there was a real leftist movement and environment that there wasn't in 2008, and in our view, hasn't existed since the 1960s" Williams said, adding that with his and Oks' level of social media savvy, "he would have more an audience now that he would in any point of his career."&#xa0;While it may be tempting to typecast the Gravel teens as emerging standouts in the next new generation of extremely online left-wing social media phenoms and branding experts, the teens behind it say they're grassroots organizers at their core and have big plans for how they want to propel the leftist movement forward.&#xa0;<h2>"A true left flank"&#xa0;</h2>Gravel himself had an unconventional career in politics, defined by taking on bold anti-war stances that directly counteracted the political mainstream.After serving in the Army and earning a degree from Columbia University, Gravel moved to Alaska before it gained statehood, and later ran a successful underdog campaign for Senate. He would go on to serve two terms from 1969 to 1981 and became a vocal anti-war activist. He worked to end the draft, and risked punishment by reading <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/pentagon-papers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Pentagon Papers</a> aloud on the Senate floor.&#xa0;Williams and Oks say they didn't invent the style of campaigning they embody on Twitter and the political messages they project, but are simply furthering Gravel's legacy of taking bold, principled stances and challenging the establishment. They've just adapted it to the digital age and spoken in the language of Twitter.&#xa0;&#xa0;"I don't think that David or myself know anything more than anyone on the left does, or are better or smarter than anyone else, I just think we've read the winds," Williams said about the Gravel campaign's unlikely success, both online and in the real world.&#xa0;Williams said his main goal for the Gravel candidacy is to bring stances like supporting legalized sex work and significant cutting defense into the political mainstream, similarly to how progressives like Sen. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-bernie-sanders-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bernie Sanders</a> helped turn support for positions like Medicare for All from the 2016 fringe to the 2020 mainstream."We intuited that this might work, but we had no idea of the kind of explosion we had," Williams said of the campaign's Twitter presence, adding their campaign has drawn the attention of activists from the pro-sex work legalization and prison abolition movements simply by virtue of being the only campaign seriously engaging with those causes.&#xa0;"Now that Bernie is in the mainstream of the party, you need someone further to the left of him. The best we can do for getting to them to the left is to show it's possible to be where we are and still make waves ... I don't know of anyone that's ever run on decriminalizing sex work before," Williams said.He added, "My dream is to transfer all our political momentum behind one candidate, probably Bernie Sanders, and to get Bernie to adopt a plank to his policy platform regarding non-interventionism or cutting the military budget, opposing the criminalization of sex work, just one or two," saying that people frequently joke that Gravel makes Sanders, 77, look both old and moderate.&#xa0;"We want to prove there's a political market for these messages because the party needs a true left flank," Williams continued.&#xa0;Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/matt-duss-bernie-sanders-foreign-policy-adviser-2019-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bernie Sanders' foreign policy adviser breaks down the senator's progressive global agenda for 2020</a>Among all the 2020 candidates who have presented comprehensive ideas on foreign policy, <a href="https://www.mikegravel.org/issues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Gravel campaign's is by far the most detailed and ambitious.</a>In addition to embracing non-aggression as a principle and not engaging in future wars without explicit congressional approval and oversight, the Gravel foreign policy platform advocates for the US re-engaging in international agreements like the Paris Climate Accord, bringing every currently-deployed troop home from overseas, and cutting the US' defense budget by 50%.The campaign also wants to fundamentally upend the self-perpetuating cycle of defense contractors financially profiting off US military engagements and conflicts - what President Dwight Eisenhower famously termed the military-industrial complex and <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/military-industrial-complex-green-new-deal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is now referred to as "the blob"</a> - by banning foreign arms sales.&#xa0;"You can't push for social democracy domestically, but still maintain a system of imperial exploitation both outside and inside your borders," Williams said.&#xa0;Especially when it comes to US foreign and military policy, Williams argued that Democrats need "a new flank to move the party left again," the way Sanders did on issues like healthcare and the minimum wage in 2016. In his view, foreign policy is the "lacking point" for both Sanders and Warren's campaigns.&#xa0;<h2>A foreign policy of peace and a different global order</h2>Williams tells INSIDER that he perceives an "obscene military worship" and pandering from fellow Democrats who make promises to improve the lives of veterans without meaningfully engaging with the root causes of war. He also thinks Democrats shy away from criticizing the military out of fear of disrespecting veterans, arguing, "we mistreat people by making them fight at all."&#xa0;"You can appreciate and respect veterans, Gravel is a veteran himself. But you can still say the military is wrong and immoral, and the Iraq War was wrong and immoral," Williams added, criticizing politicians on both sides of the aisle for vowing to improve treatment and resources for veterans without meaningfully criticizing the root causes of war and conflict.&#xa0;Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-uranium-stockpile-nuclear-deal-violation-implications-2019-6" data-analytics-position="2">Iran just took its boldest action yet against the nuclear deal to 'blackmail' US allies and isolate Trump</a>Williams said he hopes Gravel's campaign serves as the jumping-off point for Democrats and the left to seriously question the US' current role as the dominant hegemon and as he put it, "the world's policeman," citing the failure of the Iraq War and the countless times in US history the US has used humanitarian intervention to install dictators in places like Latin America, destabilizing entire regions in its wake.When asked if the US no longer acting as a global hegemon would mean non-intervention even in the direst of humanitarian crises, Williams firstly highlighted the US' poor track record with humanitarian interventions, and said that "ending wars, US hegemony, and US imperialism doesn't mean letting injustices happen. It means you need a different global order."&#xa0;"Justice unites us all, and that's where hegemony comes in," Williams added. "You cannot get one kind of justice without the others, and this isn't just about justice within our borders. We've started to partially make that jump with regards to undocumented immigrants ... but the next step is recognizing that people outside our country are equally human."<div></div><div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-allows-hate-speech-harassment-steven-crowder-carlos-maza-2019-6">YouTube is in dangerous territory after not removing a video that ridiculed a Vox producer for being gay</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Mike Gravel's progressive, anti-war presidential campaign is being run by three teens on social media

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Win McNamee/Getty ImagesRep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) speaks at a press conference on House Resolution 922 outside the U.S. Capitol July 18, 2018 in Washington, DC. Gabbard and Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) spoke on reclaiming 'Congress's constitutional right to declare war' and efforts to define presidential wars not declared by Congress as impeachable 'high crimes and misdemeanors.'</div></div></div><h2>Who is Tulsi Gabbard?</h2>Current job: US Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district. Major in the Hawaii Army National Guard. Running for president of the United States as a Democratic candidate.Age: 37Family: Gabbard is married to freelance cinematographer Abraham Williams.Hometown: Honolulu, HawaiiPolitical party: DemocraticPrevious jobs: Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004. Senate legislative aide from 2007 to 2009. Honolulu City Council from 2011 to 2012. <h2>Who is Tulsi Gabbard's direct competition for the nomination?</h2>Based on a recurring series of national surveys we conduct, we can figure out who the other candidates competing in Tulsi Gabbard's lane are, and who the broader opponents are within the party.<ul><li style="font-weight: 400;">Former Vice President Joe Biden is a frontrunner in the election and remains so - though a weaker one - among those satisfied with Gabbard.</li></ul><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider</div></div></div><ul><li style="font-weight: 400;">Of the 20% of respondents who had heard of Gabbard, only 16% would be satisfied with her as nominee, while 37% would be unsatisfied. Those are rough numbers for Gabbard. That also means our sample size of who her supporters like is fairly slim. </li><li style="font-weight: 400;">Sens. Sanders and Warren outperform among Gabbard supporters and are ideologically nearest to her. Those satisfied with Gabbard as the nominee were also disproportionately likely to be satisfied with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, with about 22 percentage points above her general satisfaction. However, with sample sizes like this it's not great read too deeply into that.</li></ul>INSIDER has been conducting a recurring poll through SurveyMonkey Audience on a national sample to find out how different candidate's constituencies overlap. We ask people whether they are familiar with a candidate, whether they would be satisfied or unsatisfied with that candidate as nominee, and sometimes we also ask whether they think that person would win or lose in a general election against President Donald Trump.<h2>What are Tulsi Gabbard's political positions?</h2><ul><li>On healthcare:<ul><li>Gabbard <a href="https://www.votetulsi.com/node/32958">supports Sen. Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All plan</a>, which would provide universal healthcare to Americans via Medicare. </li><li>"All Americans should have access to affordable healthcare through Medicare or a public option," <a href="https://www.votetulsi.com/node/25065">Gabbard's website says.</a>"We must ensure universal healthcare and empower the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to bring down the price of prescription drugs." </li></ul></li><li>On immigration:<ul><li>Gabbard faced backlash from Democrats and progressives for voting in line with Republicans in 2015 for a bill to impose <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/20/house-democrats-refugee-bill-social-media-backlash">"extreme vetting" measures</a> on Iraqi and Syrian refugees.</li><li>Gabbard has been critical of President Donald Trump's immigration policies and supported the "Keep Families Together Act" in defiance of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy at the border. </li><li>Gabbard supports comprehensive immigration reform and <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/913783906935218177">the Obama-era "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" (DACA) program</a>, which protects from deportation young undocumented people who came to the US as children.</li><li>"The Trump administration's use of children as pawns in the immigration debate is despicable and must end immediately. We obviously need comprehensive immigration reform.," <a href="https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/rep-tulsi-gabbard-calls-keep-families-together-sustainable-solutions-broken">Gabbard said in June 2018.</a></li><li>"We need to stop using immigrants as tokens in a political game and start talking solutions - funding to process asylum requests &amp; targeted aid to address the decades of US intervention that contributed to the collapse of the countries they are fleeing," <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1112799316039622656">Gabbard said</a> in April 2019.</li></ul></li><li>On climate change:<ul><li>Gabbard wants to see the US move away from the use of fossil fuels.</li><li>In 2015, she introduced the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3671?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%223671%22%7D&amp;r=1">"</a><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3671?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%223671%22%7D&amp;r=1">OFF Fuels for a Better Future Act,"</a> which would transition the US away from fossil fuel sources of energy to clean energy sources. The bill calls for 80% of electricity sold to be generated from clean energy resources by 2027 and 100% by 2035.</li><li>The bill also calls for ending subsidies to the fossil fuel industry while banning fracking. </li></ul></li><li>On campaign finance:<ul><li>Gabbard has consistently <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/785983824672935938">called for campaign finance reform</a>. </li><li>"Politicians must represent and listen to the people who elected them to serve - not whatever lobbyist writes them the biggest check. It's long past due for campaign finance reform in our country. PAC $$ has no place in <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> and has no place in my people-powered campaign," <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1086042950193369088">Gabbard said</a> in a tweet in January. </li></ul></li><li>On abortion:<ul><li>Early on in her political career, Gabbard opposed abortion. </li><li>Gabbard has since said she's <a href="https://www.votetulsi.com/updates/2011-12/reflections-role-government-our-personal-lives">"committed to preserving a woman's right to choose,"</a> and has acknowledged shifting her position on this issue. </li><li>In early 2019, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mazie-hirono-signals-she-wont-endorse-tulsi-gabbard-2020-presidential-bid-2019-1">Gabbard accused Democratic colleagues of religious bigotry</a> over questions aimed at a Trump judicial nominee on his ability to remain impartial on issues like abortion due to his membership of the Catholic organization Knights of Columbus.</li></ul></li><li>On LGBTQ rights: <ul><li>In the early 2000s, worked for the Alliance for Traditional Marriage, an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/13/politics/kfile-tulsi-gabbard-lgbt/index.html">anti-gay organization</a> led by her father.</li><li>As a 22-year-old state legislator in Hawaii in 2004, Gabbard testified against a bill legalizing same-sex civil unions. She decried "homosexual extremists" as she voted against the legislation.</li><li>Gabbard has since apologized for her past views toward the LGBTQ community. </li><li>"In my past I said and believed things that were wrong, and worse, hurtful to people in the LGBTQ community and their loved ones ... My views have changed significantly since then, and my record in Congress over the last six years reflects what is in my heart: A strong and ongoing commitment to fighting for LGBTQ rights," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulsi-gabbard-apologizes-to-lgbtq-community-over-past-rhetoric-stances-2019-1">Gabbard said in a video in early 2019.</a></li><li>Gabbard supports same-sex marriage. She also <a href="https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/rep-tulsi-gabbard-statement-president-trump-s-decision-ban-transgender">opposes Trump's ban on transgender people</a> serving in the US military. </li></ul></li><li>On education:<ul><li>Gabbard has supported Sen. Bernie Sanders' legislation to eliminate undergraduate tuition at colleges and universities.</li><li>She wants to eliminate tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities <a href="https://gabbard.house.gov/education">for families that make up to $125,000 a year</a>, and make community college tuition fee-free for everyone.</li></ul></li><li>On Supreme Court and congressional issues:<ul><li style="list-style-type: none;"><ul><li>While other 2020 Democrats have expressed support for increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court, Gabbard's views are currently unclear.<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/430575-sanders-not-crazy-about-nixing-the-senate-filibuster"></a></li><li>It's also unclear if Gabbard would support term limits for Supreme Court justices. </li><li>Gabbard has said she's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/voting-changes/?utm_term=.cd8e10c9f185">open to discussing eliminating the Senate filibuster.</a> </li></ul></li></ul></li><li>On criminal justice reform:<ul><li>"Criminal justice reform must include strategies for dismantling the systemic racism that causes black men to disproportionately receive harsher sentences compared to other races and ethnicities for the same types of crime," <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1093977385161117696">Gabbard said in February 2019.</a></li><li>She's <a href="https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/gabbard-backed-bill-reduce-mass-incarceration-lower-recidivism-signed-law">co-sponsored legislation</a> to reduce mass incarceration and lower recidivism. </li><li>Gabbard has introduced legislation to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-legalization-2020-presidential-candidates-2019-2#rep-tulsi-gabbard-of-hawaii-recently-introduced-a-bi-partisan-bill-in-the-house-with-gop-rep-don-young-to-de-criminalize-marijuana-at-the-federal-level-9">decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.</a> </li></ul></li><li>On trade: <ul><li>Gabbard strongly opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, describing it as a <a href="https://www.votetulsi.com/node/25011">"bad deal for the American people."</a></li><li>The Hawaii lawmaker has <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1103356572829405184">criticized Trump's trade war with China</a>, and his economic policies more generally: "Trump's basic misunderstanding of how trade works is starting to show up in devastating impacts to working Americans. We need a win-win global strategy based on cooperation, not confrontation."</li><li>Gabbard's <a href="https://www.votetulsi.com/node/24925">website</a> for her 2018 reelection campaign says she "believes Americans should have peace of mind knowing that the health of their mortgage, retirement plan, or even salary isn't tied to a roll of the dice on Wall Street."</li></ul></li><li>On foreign policy:<ul><li>The Hawaii congresswoman is a combat veteran. She served in a field medical unit of the Hawaii Army National Guard in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, and was also deployed to Kuwait from 2008 to 2009.</li><li>Gabbard is staunchly anti-interventionist. She's opposed to "regime change wars," and wants to see the US get out of Syria and Afghanistan. Gabbard is also worried about <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=296601871052705">growing US involvement in Venezuela.</a> </li><li>In 2017, she traveled to Syria to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulsi-gabbard-assad-syria-2017-1">meet with President Bashar al-Assad</a>, an accused war criminal. She received sharp criticism from politicians on both sides of the aisle, which was compounded when Gabbard subsequently expressed skepticism Assad had used chemical weapons on civilians. </li><li>Gabbard defended her meeting with Assad as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/tulsi-gabbard-lead-syria/index.html">an opportunity to promote peace through dialogue.</a></li><li>"I have seen this cost of war firsthand, which is why I fight so hard for peace," Gabbard said. "The only alternative to having these kinds of conversations is more war."</li><li>The US is not the <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/11/tulsi-gabbard-2020-caucus-president-democrat-hawaii-syria-saudi-arabia-assad-donald-trump-green-new/2789106002/">"world's police,"</a> Gabbard said in Iowa in early 2019.</li><li>Gabbard has faced criticism for not referring to Assad as an "enemy" of the US or a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulsi-gabbard-syria-assad-war-criminal-stephen-colbert-2019-3">"war criminal."</a></li><li>Gabbard has been a vocal critic of Trump in his <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulsi-gabbard-calls-trump-saudi-arabia-bitch-khashoggi2018-11">ongoing support for Saudi Arabia</a>, particularly following the brutal killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. </li><li>Gabbard also believes it was <a href="https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/rep-tulsi-gabbard-condemns-president-trump-s-withdrawal-iran-nuclear-deal">a mistake for Trump to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,</a> but supports his dialogue with North Korea on denuclearization. </li><li>She's characterized herself as a <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/tulsi-gabbard-president-sanders-democratic-party">"hawk"</a> on terrorism.</li></ul></li><li>On taxes: <ul><li>Gabbard wants to see taxes increased for the wealthiest cohort of Americans and has criticized policies that give corporations tax breaks. </li><li>In February, <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1096831716948410370">Gabbard tweeted</a>, "Amazon reported a $129 million tax REBATE on $11.2 billion in profit last year, making their tax rate -1%. Meanwhile, working Americans are seeing their tax refunds drying up. We need an economy that works for all people. Not just Jeff Bezos."</li><li>Gabbard slammed Trump's tax reform bill, describing it as a <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1092972178948026368">"failure"</a> that resulted in "tax giveaways to corporations" while "adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt and not translating to relief for working Americans or benefiting small business." </li></ul></li></ul><h2>What are Tulsi Gabbard's political successes?</h2><ul><li>Gabbard is one of the <a href="https://gabbard.house.gov/about">first two female combat veterans</a> to serve in Congress and is its first ever Hindu member. </li><li>She was elected to the Hawaii State House to represent West Oahu at the age of 21, which made her the youngest woman ever elected to the state legislature.</li><li>In 2013 Gabbard was elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.</li></ul><h2>How much money has Tulsi Gabbard raised?</h2><ul><li>Gabbard claims to have <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1112571659742052352">received money from nearly 58,000 donors</a> but it's not clear how much she's raised. </li></ul><h2>Could Tulsi Gabbard beat President Trump?</h2>Referring back to INSIDER's recurring poll, Tulsi Gabbard overall is believed to be a weaker candidate in a general election against Donald Trump compared to the whole field. Based on responses from Democratic primary voters, for a typical candidate surveyed 36% of respondents think they'd win, 9% think they'd lose, and 55% are unsure. It's very early and Gabbard has not had time to make an impact among the vast majority of voters, and of the roughly 280 voting Democrats who knew of her and weighed in, 15% thought she'd win, 16% thought she'd lose, and 69% were unsure. <h2>Read more of our best stories on Tulsi Gabbard:</h2><div data-sticky="subnav" data-ad-subnav=""><div data-bi-ad="" id="gpt-post-politics-subnav-desktop-5ca29f352ae171.62684216" data-force="" data-type="ad" data-adunit="business-insider/politics/post" data-secvert="news,defense" data-pagetype="post" data-tag="tulsi-gabbard,foreign-policy,democrats,syria,donald-trump,north-korea,congress,bashar-al-assad,2020-election" data-authors="john-haltiwanger" data-views="8244" data-region="Subnav" data-responsive="[{" browserLimit:00slotSize:300250browserLimit:7280slotSize:72890browserLimit:9700slotSize:9702509709072890location:window="" data-tile-order="false" data-url="tulsi-gabbard-complicated-foreign-policy-explained-2019-2" data-amazontamsizes="[[300,250],[728,90],[970,250],[970,90]]" data-google-query-id="CMjIr8-GsOECFUHDwAodFnwKIw"><ul><li id="google_ads_iframe_/4442842/business-insider/politics/post_0__container__"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulsi-gabbard-complicated-foreign-policy-explained-2019-2">Tulsi Gabbard's foreign policy frustrates centrist Democrats, draws cheers from anti-interventionists, and makes her political identity tough to pigeonhole</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulsi-gabbard-lashes-out-at-nbc-over-russia-propaganda-report-2019-2">Tulsi Gabbard accuses NBC of trying to smear her as 'Kremlin stooge' to 'discredit' her 2020 campaign</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulsi-gabbard-syria-assad-war-criminal-stephen-colbert-2019-3">Tulsi Gabbard won't call Syria's Assad a war criminal as she dances around Stephen Colbert's tough questioning</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tulsi-gabbard-syrian-president-bashar-al-assad-not-americas-enemy-2019-2">Tulsi Gabbard doubles-down on opposition to US intervention in Syria, says Syrian president and accused war criminal Assad is not America's 'enemy'</a></li></ul></div></div><section></section> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-russia-mueller-probe-prison-fraud-conspiracy-trump-2019-3">Paul Manafort faces over 7 years in prison for conspiracy and obstruction. Here's what you need to know about Trump's former campaign chairman.</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

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