Surrogate motherhood for gay couples to be banned? Bollywood react

By Subhash K. Jha -

August 26, 2016 - 12:03 PM IST

Onir: "I've mixed reactions to this. I feel in a democracy single or gay people should not be discriminated against regarding the right to parenthood .But at the same time I think couples or single individuals desirous of a child should rather adopt. But then everyone should have a choice to decide how they wish to become parents."

Surrogate motherhood for gay couples to be banned? Bollywood react

Apurva Asrani: (gay film editor, filmmaker and writer of Shahid and Aligarh): "I'm glad that the Government at least uttered the word 'homosexual'. Till recently the word never 'came out' of politicians' mouths. Remember the PM's condolence tweet on the Orlando shooting? At least here Sushma Swaraj has acknowledged the community. Heartening to know that they know of its existence. And why are we surprised about being refused to right to surrogate parenthood? As if being deemed criminal is a less cruel stand by our government!"

Celina Jaitly: "I am truly not surprised at the latest move barring foreign gay couples and single people from using surrogate mothers to become parents, well it was expected sooner than later I reckon as our government had said sometime earlier that it would ban foreigners from using surrogate mothers in the country, a move likely to hit the booming commercial surrogacy industry. Honestly what do we expect in a country where homosexuality is considered a criminal offence under the colonial section 377. Honestly, I at the moment am more concerned about the millions of LGB people in my country for whom marriage and parenting is a very very distant dream considering their very existence and being is not recognised under the pretext of religion and archaic laws ."