Who Is Menaka Guruswamy? India's First Openly Queer MP Takes Oath In Rajya Sabha

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy on Monday made history by taking oath as a Rajya Sabha MP, becoming India’s first openly queer Member of Parliament.

Guruswamy was nominated by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) along with West Bengal Minister Babul Supriyo, former Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar, and actor Koel Mallick as candidates for the upper house in February.

Who Is Menaka Guruswamy?

Menaka Guruswamy is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court and one of the leading voices in India’s LGBTQ rights movement. She was among the lawyers who fought the landmark case that led to the decriminalisation of same-sex relations in India after Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was struck down in 2018.

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To Rs 30 Lakh Per Court Appearance

The term “queer” is used to describe people whose sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression does not fit traditional ideas of being exclusively heterosexual or cisgender. It is an inclusive word that can refer to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and other non-heterosexual or non-cisgender identities. Guruswamy proudly identifies as queer.

According to an excerpt from “Rising: 30 Women Who Changed India” by Kiran Manral, Guruswamy began her career in 1997 under former Attorney General Ashok Desai, whom she considers her mentor, focusing on litigation and constitutional matters.

She later pursued higher studies at Oxford, completing a BCL, and at Harvard, earning an LLM, before returning to India in 2001 and settling in New Delhi. In 2019, she was named one of the 100 most influential Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine.

Guruswamy has also represented the TMC in court, challenging Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at the offices of I-PAC, the party’s political consulting agency.

19 Newly Elected Members Take Oath

On Monday, nineteen newly elected and re-elected Rajya Sabha members took their oaths in Parliament.

Among them are five members from Maharashtra, including Ramdas Bandu Athawale, Maya Chintaman Ivnate, Sharadchandra Pawar, Ramrao Sakharam Wadkute, and Jyoti Nagnath Waghmare. Six members from Tamil Nadu include Christopher Manickam, Anbumani Ramadoss, Constandine Ravindran, L K Sudhish, M Thambidurai, and Tiruchi Siva.

West Bengal contributed five members, including Babul Supriyo, Menaka Guruswamy, Rajeev Kumar, Rukmini Mallik, and Biswajit Sinha, while Odisha saw three members — Santrupt Mishra, Dilip Kumar Ray, and Manmohan Samal — take their oaths.

The ceremony was conducted in the presence of Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan. Deputy Chairman Harivansh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, and floor leaders of various parties were also present in the House.

(With inputs from agencies)