Two gay men kissing? Hardly newsworthy in 2013. Yet the recent photo of Toronto rapper Kanwer Saini, AKA Sikh Knowledge, locking lips with a male friend at a gay pride parade has certainly sent waves through social media this December.
The reason? Well for starters both Kanwer and the other half of the kiss, Syed Hai are of South Asian descent. But you knew that from their names. Where it gets interesting… Kanwer Saini is a turbaned punjabi, and as his epithet reveals, a self-professed follower of the Sikh religion.
Predictably, reactions are split. This is of course no ordinary debate… an overwhelming number of comments on the photo which can be found on Saini’s facebook invoke his Sikh religion.
Jazz Thakkar comments… “[I don’t care] if he’s gay. That’s his life. But pls change your name from Sikh Knowledge an[sic] take off the turban. Its[sic] disrespectful”.
Others, such as Amrita Singh disagree, “Sikhism teaches us many things – one of those things is acceptance.”
And herein lies the debate.
While there is no question of anyone’s legal and social right to express their homosexuality as they wish, does religion have any say in the matter?
This writer would answer in the affirmative to this question, when that sexual expression takes place side by side with blatant religious expression as is the case with Mr. Sikh Knowledge.
So where does Sikhism stand on homosexuality?
The long and short of it is that it is impossible for for anyone to be following the Sikh lifestyle as per Guru Granth Sahib, the word of God and the Guru himself for Sikhs, and the Sikh Rehat Maryada, code of conduct.
Of the acts Sikhs are meant to abstain from, pre-marital relations of any sort, be they homosexual or heterosexual, are among the four Bajjar Kurehitaan, or major transgressions. So major in fact that they incur immediate apostasy once committed.
Now marriage in Sikhism is performed through the Anand Karaj ceremony, a ceremony which specifically relies on their being one man and one woman to be performed correctly, there is no scope for any homogeneous version of the ceremony.
That places any homosexual behaviour outside of acceptable Sikh activity.
Just to reiterate this point, the then Jathedar of Akal Takht, Joginder Singh Vedanti gave a clear statement on homosexuality in 2005, saying that it “is against the Sikh religion and the Sikh code of conduct and totally against the laws of nature.”
The kiss therefore, even if with a woman, would have raised eyebrows among the Sikh community simply for being a pre-marital kiss involving someone displaying the symbols of their faith, let alone a homosexual one.
By choosing to present himself as a Sikh by all accounts and then choosing to publically partake in actions undisputedly forbidden for Sikhs, the backlash from those adhering to the religion should not come as a surprise. It is absurd as someone proclaiming to be a Socialist voting for the Conservative Party.
Does this mean that Sikhism promotes homophobia? Far from it.
There are many actions which Gurmat, the Guru’s philosophy, tell us are wrong. Take the cutting of hair for example. To cut or remove any of one’s hair is completely and utterly forbidden by the Sikh code of conduct and is considered a crime against God’s will.
While you will see Sikhs practising and preaching the above, what you will not see is Sikhs acting prejudicially in any way towards people with cut hair or showing them any hatred.
Similarly, while Gurmat does teach an incompatibility between homosexuality and the Sikh way of life, it does not teach us to discriminate against those who do choose to partake in homosexual activity.
