Hinduism and Homosexuality

I just came across a post [1] by a lady imagining what her life might have been like had she been gay. She also speaks of a friend whom she calls Stella saying:

“Stella, at least, had to have really believed that was who she was meant to be.She still believes in God, the last I heard. She just has a lot of questions. It’s just too bad that there aren’t very many churches where they’d let her in long enough to ask them.”

It made me wonder what Hinduism says about homosexuality –- I’ve never heard anything at all being quoted against it from any Hindu scripture. However, a quick search reveals:

• There is a lone verse in the Manusmriti that reads: “A twice-born man [from an upper caste] who commits an unnatural offence with a male, or has intercourse with a female in a cart drawn by oxen, in water, or in the day-time, shall bathe, dressed in his clothes.” [2]
• The Arthashastra too apparently imposes a minor fine on a man who has ayoni [non-vaginal] sex (4.13.236). [3]
• The medical text, Sushruta Samhita mentions two different types of homsexual men: kumbhika and asekya.
• And the Naradsmriti apparently says that a homosexual man is unfit for marriage to a woman. [4] Well, obviously!
• Although the Kama Sutra states that homosexual sex is to be engaged in and enjoyed for its own sake as one of the arts. [5]

In addition to this, Hindu religious art and mythology have several depictions of and references to homosexuality right from in the temples of Khajuraho to the tale of Bhagiratha Maharaja, an Indian king born of two women.
That being said, most Hindus I know are deeply homophobic; it’s not a subject I can claim to have any knowledge worth speaking of on but I suspect that that’s one of the effects having had the British make homosexuality a criminal offence during the Raj and never having had the law changed (even though the Brits changed a similar law in their own country in 1967 [6]).
The law in question, Section 377 of the IPC says:Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
After all, Hinduism in itself doesn’t seem to deeply disapprove of homosexuality: the religion may not be particularly enthusiastic about it but it doesn’t unequivocally prohibit it either. And this is not the only instance where British laws have left a legacy in India of misgivings such as these in what are essentially personal matters …think of the restitution of conjugal rights, a concept alien to India which was introduced by the British and which has caused much hardship over the years.
Links:

[1] http://shushnow.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/what-if-i-were-gay/
[2] http://www.slate.com/id/2102443/
[3] http://www.galva108.org/hinduism.html
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_Hinduism
[5] http://www.religionfacts.com/homosexuality/hinduism.htm
[6] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=187403