Indian Supreme Court Officially Recognises "Third Gender"

Rick_

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/india-supreme-court-recognizes-transgender-people-third-gender150414

As the article says, India's Supreme Court has ruled that transgender people are now allowed to be classed as a new, third gender if they so wish instead of the gender they transition to and if they choose this new third option, they will also be recognised as "an economically and socially discriminated against" gender and will receive extra help in getting employment and education.

A public awareness campaign is to be started to lessen homophobia against transgender Indians and a third public bathroom for them as well as now having equal rights for adoption.

Cyclonus

That's still bigoted, transsexuals aren't a third gender. I think they should bring in third gender laws for intersexed people though.

Ambersky

The article says Cyclonus that

The court also found that if a person undergoes surgery to change his or her sex then they are entitled to be legally recognized as the gender they have transitioned to.

So there is the option to be recognised male or female but India has a different history of looking at gender than we do in the West. Some people have been self identifying as third gender for many years and seem to want to continue in this tradition which has a place for them in Indian culture.

Indian culture has traditionally recognized transgender individuals as ‘hijras’ and many have traditionally viewed themselves as a third gender separate to male or female. -

I find this very interesting and I like the idea of a challenge to gender as simply a choice of being either male or female. In discussions on gender I mainly hear people wanting to be one or the other I rarely hear discussions on being happy with ambiguity or mutability. Im not saying I dont recognise it is important for many people to be recognised for the gender they are but I like seeing challenges to the binary of male or female from anyone not just trans people but gay and straight cis people too

There are other cultures who have looked at gender differently than we do Native Canadian and Native American cultures have a tradition of people being Two Spirit
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/11/two-spirit-people-north-america

Annasopra

Cyclonus wrote: »

That's still bigoted, transsexuals aren't a third gender. I think they should bring in third gender laws for intersexed people though.

I'm really failing to understand your point at all.
1 Some trans people do define as non gender binary
2 The law still allows people to identify as male or female
3 Gender and sex are different so while an intersex person has characteristics of male and female sex they do define as male or female gender so categorising all intersex people as third gender wouldn't work.

Cyclonus

Sorry, maybe I'm just ignorant. I thought that trans people didn't identify as the gender they were born with, but they still identified strongly as the opposite gender. Sorry, not trying to be offensive, I clearly have some research to do.

Ambersky

I freely admit I have more to learn about gender and sex its an area that interest me but I am still confused and working it out in my head. Your not alone Cyclonus I think I can see where you are coming from, it seems simple and then you find out its actually more complex than you first thought

Annasopra

Cyclonus wrote: »

Sorry, maybe I'm just ignorant. I thought that trans people didn't identify as the gender they were born with, but they still identified strongly as the opposite gender. Sorry, not trying to be offensive, I clearly have some research to do.

Not always. Transgender is an umbrella that covers people who identify as the opposite gender to the sex they were assigned at birth but also people who identified as non gender binary i.e. neither male nor female.