Posted on 02/24/2014 7:22:21 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
LONDON: Indian military is among the least gay-friendly in the world, while Britain's military is the second most homosexuality-friendly.
The first-ever global ranking of countries by inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) service members in the armed forces brought out by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies ranked more than 100 armed forces by inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender personnel.
India is in the bottom half of the list recording only 34 out of 100 in its LGBT score while New Zealand's military, which was found to be the most gay-friendly in the world top scored with 100.
India is well below countries like Liberia (38), Sierra Leone (47), Congo (49), Rwanda (52) and Nepal (55) when it comes to tolerating homosexuality in its armed forces.
India's low rank and intolerance over gay rights comes after India's top court recently reinstated an archaic law that makes gay sex a criminal offense.
In 2009, Delhi's high court had overturned the colonial law (section 377 of the Indian Penal Code) that made gay sex an offense punishable by up to life imprisonment.
The Supreme Court reversed the 2009 ruling in January 2014.
The Netherlands is also second in the ranking along with UK as being highly gay-friendly in its armed forces.
Australia ranked fifth in the index while the US ranked relatively low at 40th out of the 103 countries.
Sweden is ranked third (97.5) followed by Canada (94.3), Denmark (93.5), Belgium (93), Israel (92) and France and Spain tied at a score of 91.8.
Nigeria was found to be the most intolerant scoring as low as 3, followed by Iran (6), Syria (7), Zimbabwe (9) and Ghana (10).
The LGBT Military Index ranked over 100 countries in an instant, transparent, systematic, and comparable overview of 19 policies and best practices.
The Index maps the situation of LGBT participation in the armed forces on a global scale. Every country in the world implements a different combination of policies based on inclusion, admission, tolerance, exclusion, and persecution. Based on these combinations, every armed force can be estimated and ranked to compare countries.
Defence minister Anna Soubry reacted to the Index, "This is the reward for the hard work the department has made to create a positive working environment for its lesbian, gay and bisexual military and civilian employees."
“I always put these kinds of story in context by reminding myself just what it is - that one single characteristic - which defines a ‘gay’ person.”
Reprobate mind.
That is the only distinction they have.
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