For days, medical students and LGBTQIA+ activists across Kerala have been campaigning against a medical textbook that includes parts that are considered queerphobic. Students of various medical colleges across the state say that portions from the book, authored by Dr P C Ignatius, the Forensic Medicine head of Government Medical College Palakkad, call lesbianism and homosexuality unnatural.
However, now, according to a statement by the SFI unit of the Palakkad Medical College, the professor has agreed to remove the controversial parts of the book and make necessary corrections. EdexLive is yet to contact the professor or get this verified by him.
"The SFI unit had a discussion with the professor today and he has promised to remove these parts from the textbook and to make necessary corrections. These chances are indispensable and hence, all medical literature must be revised," reads their statement. "The books are believed to have been revised in 2020. However, they still use words like sodomy and say that homosexuality is unnatural. This is not acceptable. This is the reason why we launched this campaign," says an MBBS student of Malabar Medical College.
The campaign gathered a lot of importance after the SFI units of various medical colleges and Queerythm, a queer collective spoke out openly about this. Queerythm had also started an online petition seeking to remove all purportedly queerphobic medical literature. "It is rather shocking to observe that most medical textbooks, especially those of forensic medicine taught in Indian universities, still classify queer identities as mental illnesses/sexual perversions and portray LGBTIQA+ community members as indecent creatures having a criminal mindset. More than being unscientific, it is also inhuman to stigmatise an already marginalised & discriminated community, who are constantly fighting for their basic human rights; and instil hatred into young medical students who will become doctors and are going to treat members of the same community in future," it reads.
