POPxo Power Women List 2022: Menaka Guruswamy & Arundhati Katju, The LGBTQIA+ Role Models Who Helmed The Historic Section 377 Verdict

The LGBTQIA+ Rights Crusaders 

In a country with a collective history of policing love, lawyers Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju are playing cupid. The two have been fighting homophobia and the outdated legacy of British colonisation for years now. The next big thing that they are working on is to legalise same-sex marriages in India. There is a long road ahead for Guruswamy and Katju, but they have trodden it before. These two played a pivotal role in decriminalising Section 377 in 2018. The landmark judgment that overturned the draconian law was the outcome of a laborious campaign by these two public-interest litigators. They worked for years to humanise the LGBTQIA+ struggle and ensured that the sodomy law was struck. 

For them, the undertaking has been both personal as well as professional. In a 2019 interview, Guruswamy and Katju came out as a couple. They made it to the TIME 100 Most Influential People list in the same year and rightly so. Guruswamy and Katju are no short of superheroes for the role they have played in affirming homosexual rights in India.

Power Move

In 2021, Guruswamy and Katju dominated headlines after announcing ‘The Marriage Project’, a legal endeavour that aims to legalise same-sex marriages in the country. It is the logical next step after their Section 377 win. According to the exemplary lawyers, accepting same-sex relationships is not enough if they cannot be legalised in a country where marriage is a central institution. It is just the beginning of a long battle that Guruswamy and Katju are gearing up to fight. We salute them for effectively changing the LGBTQIA+ narrative in India.

The POPxo Power Women List is an annual list that celebrates incredible Indian women from diverse domains who make power moves that have a real impact. With The POPxo Power Women List 2022, we celebrate 22 phenomenal women. To see the entire list, click here.