Gender Agenda newsletter Transgender law

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The rights of gender-diverse minorities are again in the news.

Last week, India passed an amendment to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill in the face of overwhelming opposition from the trans community and opposition parties. The recent exclusion of transgender athletes from participating in the female category in global sports ahead of the 2028 Olympics in the United States, is another headline grabber. The words “biological females” suddenly is taking centre stage. 

Back in 2019, the National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India (2014) became a landmark judgement of the Supreme Court of India, giving trans people the right to self-identification . Soon, a medical board will decide who a trans person is, based on biological markers.

More importantly, a majority of people fighting against the bill, say that they face the threat of criminalisation. Fred, an activist I met at a protest on March 23, says that prenatal families tend to be the first space of violence for trans people.“It is why trans people gravitate to adopted families. who give us a life. The accusation is that trans people force others into begging and prostitution, but where are the opportunities that the government has created for us. Why has the amendment not spoken of this,” asks this trans man who is fuming, post the judgement. “They treat us as less than human,” he says.

The new Olympic guidelines now impose genetic testing, and ban trans women from competing in the female category. The International Olympic Committee states that it attempts to “protect fairness, safety and integrity in the female category,” the IOC said.

WORDSWORTH 

Inherited inequalities 

The existing construct of society enforces a socio-cultural division of roles, tasks, and expectations that reinforce societal norms surrounding gender. It is why people across time execute gendered scripts both consciously or not, to maintain a social order that favors men and masculinity over women and femininity. According to this paper, it serves to reinforce historical gender inequalities and divisions, thus becoming inherited inequalities.

TOOLKIT 

Shahrnush Parsipur, the writer behind the iconic Iranian novella Women Without Men (Zanan bedun-e Mardan), finds her book part of the 2026 longlist of the International Booker Prize — 37 years after its publication. When it was first published in Persian, the work which follows the intertwined destinies of five women, turned out to be radical, talking about the lives and freedom of Iranian women in an imperialistic Islamic regime.

OUCH!

“Why did she go [relieve herself] behind the bushes? Will the police add lights to the street or to the bushes?”

Actor-politician S. Ve. Sekar on the assault and murder of a 17-year-old in Thoothukudi

People we meet

Jaya Sahodaran

This trans woman who has been in the advocacy space since the 1990s, is still struggling to grapple with the recent judgement. “We have seen quite a bit but I frankly cannot understand why they chose to expedite this bill right now. What was the need? Aren’t we in the middle of a war? Was this done to divert attention from other crises?” she says. For 27 years that she has worked at the Chennai-based Sahodaran, she has not taken a single sick or personal day. Jaya began volunteering at the organisation, became a peer educator, who helped to raise awareness of sexually transmitted infections and diseases among the queer community. Over time, she has become the programme manager at the space. She is vocal, present at every protest, and is one of the key organisers of the Pride parade in Chennai each year. 

Jaya is clear. A bill that did not seek any consultation from a community it concerns will be unilaterally rejected. There will obviously be civil disobedience, she says. “We will fight this on all counts – in court, at hospitals, everywhere. Don’t ruin what is perfectly functional though. That is the worst,” she says.