Mozez Singh on the ongoing battle to legalise same sex marriages: Even if the law changes, it’s difficult to change the mindset

The Supreme Court has reserved its judgement on same-sex marriages being legalised under the Special Marriage Act. Writer-director Mozez Singh, who is closely following the arguments, is hopeful of a favourable verdict for LGBTQI+ individuals.

“I hope it gets resolved, it is the need of the hour. To have any kind of law or any kind of legality that stops two people from fully being able to love and live with each other in a respectful manner, whether they are same sex or heterosexual or whatever it is, is absolutely irrelevant,” says Singh.

The filmmaker further points out how here we’re talking about human beings and love, and how it crosses all boundaries “of gender, all boundaries of class. So, if two people are willing to be together and live in a respectful manner, and follow the law of the land, then shouldn’t they be allowed to get married? I really hope it happens,” adds the filmmaker.

While the proceedings are on, RSS has released a survey report that has called homosexuality a disorder, which will rise if same-sex marriage is legalised. Singh says, he can’t read such things, not because it pisses him off, but he finds it the waste of his time. “Why should I read something which is unintelligent. In fact, it’s stupid. I would rather spend those five minutes to read something, which is going to inform me, educate me, give me something to chew on. And these things are not even coming from a thinking brain,” says the Human director.

While he is keeping the fingers crossed ahead of the verdict, Singh says there is a long way for us to go before the LGBTQ community could fully rejoice. “ Even if the law changes, and I hope it does because it’s a big push in the right direction, the most difficult thing is to change people’s mind sets. And the most difficult thing is to change how people are born and raised, and taught to believe in certain things and not believe in certain things. These things are ingrained in a person’s brain from a very young age.”

Meanwhile, he says he will do everything possible to bring about the change through his work. “I will inform through my work, because my work is the thing that will reach out the most. And I’m doing it all the time already. I’m constantly working on projects, which push the envelope and let people think in a more accepting and lateral way about all this stuff,” shares Singh, whose web show Human was one of his many attempts to normalize LGBTQ space.

Having said that,he wished the pace with which the change is happening was quicker and the machinery was bigger that would bring about the change. “But it is what it is. And all we can keep doing is our focus on our own bit to push it forward. And that’s what I’m doing. Of course, I would love to be part of a world where this was irrelevant. Where you don’t even have to pick up the phone and talk to me about it. I wish it was so normal…it was so equal. It was the same for every sex, every gender. And I wish that changes but I don’t know when that will change. What I do know is what I can do about it. I can at least change the mindset of one person through my work. And slowly, that’ll become a domino effect and more people will change their mind and realize that what’s happening is unfair.”