The UN made a Bollywood video about LGBT rights

GlobalPost

So the UN is partnering with Bollywood to promote gay rights, which is interesting because India has some of the harshest anti-gay laws around.

This week, the UN released a Bollywood music video as part of its "Free & Equal" LGBT rights campaign. The video, called "The Welcome," stars former Miss India Celina Jaitly.

For you Bollywood afficionados out there, Jaitly is covering Lata Mangeshkar’s hit "Uthe Sabke Qadam," from the 1979 romantic comedy, "Baton Baton Mein."

The choice of genre is poignant, given that India's Supreme Court reinstated a colonial-era law banning gay sex just last year.

The law, which had been thrown out by a lower court in 2009, was reinstated in December 2013 — a major setback for the LGBT community in India.

But just this month, India's LGBT community made a significant gain when the Supreme Court recognized transgendered individuals as a third gender.

So for now, Section 377 of India's penal code bans "sex against the order of nature," which has been taken to mean gay sex. Anyone who breaks the law can receive a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

But not for long, if Celina's tweeps have anything to say about it.

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