The
United Theological College, Bangalore
CS17:
Biblical Hermeneutics and People’s Struggle
Struggles
of the Transgender Communities
Presented
by: Leaha Susan John, C.P. Caroline, Vinod Shemron
Introduction
Transgender
communities are the one who are traumatized and misunderstood community and in
a state of considerable physical pain and mental anguish, and despite feeling
of insecure about appearing in public.
Most of us had a negative experience with the transgender people on
streets, trains and other public places demanding money from the public. Transgender also perform religious ceremonies
at weddings and at the birth of male babies, involving music, singing and
sexually suggestive dancing. These are intended to bring good luck and
fertility.[1]
Definition
The
term ‘Transgender’ is an umbrella term to describe people who do not conform to
traditional notions of gender identity, appearance and expression. Within the
group are heterosexual cross-dressers, men who identify as women, women who
believe that they should have been born as men. Some simply appear as the other
gender; others may take hormones to obtain some of the desired characteristics;
still others have surgery.[2]
The simple definition of Transgender is, “it is a state of one’s own gender
identity and it relates and include a person’s gender that does not conform to
society’s norm and expectations. In other words their gender identity does not
match with their birth sex.”[3]
Transgender
community: A Historical Background
The term transgender
relates to a diversity of practices that call into question traditional ways of
seeing gender and its relationship with sex and sexuality. Transgender may also refer to individuals who
have undergone hormone treatment or surgery to reconstruct their bodies, or
those who cross gender in ways that are less permanent.[4]
The transgender have existed in all parts of the world, with their own local
identities, customs and rituals. In South- Asia they are known as ‘hijras’,
‘jogappas’, ‘jogtas , shiv-shaktis.
The transgender
expressions of sexuality or gender identity are often hidden or stigmatized by
the wider society. Resisting this stigma
has been part of the long struggle for survival of the transgender community to
live alongside the society at large.[5]
In
India
In India there are two
types’ hijras and kothis. One group is called ‘hijras’. The hijra community in India has existed with
a recorded history of more than 4000 years. The third gender is called
‘pingala’ in Sanskrit and invoked as ‘shiva- shakthi’, the image of Shiva as
half-male and half-female, representing a god who is ageless, formless and
sexless. They trace their origins in Ramayana and Mahabharata. The other group
kothis often see themselves as non-English speaking, with a feminine homosexual
identity distinct from the gay/ bisexual identity, they belong to lower
middle-class and feel they are marginalised due to lack of access to resources,
information, employment, in terms of language education, socio-economic status
as well as sexuality.[6]
Struggles
of Transgender:
This discrimination and
violence is not always committed by the state or the police but by the society
itself. Its roots lie in the prejudice that the society has towards the
transgender society. Though the violence and moral policing inflicted on this
community appears to be random, it is a systematic way of suppressing these
people from freely expressing themselves and constricting them to society’s
heterosexual model.
Transgender are
undergoing various forms of struggles from at the age of 12-14 to until their
death. They are facing various kinds of
challenges in day-today life with regards to religion, life style, family
hierarchy, law, social status, community and society. All over the world transgender people are
facing extreme discrimination in health, housing, education employment, and
many countries the bureaucracy laws that are unable to place them into male or
female gender categories.[7]
Transgender undergo lot of humiliation and harassment at the hand of the
public’s, they tease them and call them with abuse terms which can cause lot of
agony and shame on the part of the transgender.
The abusive language towards the transgender is put them in lack of
self-worth and self-esteem which makes transgender even to attempt suicide at
some point.
Socio-Economic
status:
Most of the Transgender
living at the margins of society with very low social status, many of them not
even has a proper shelter. They do not
have the support of their family, who have most often been mean to them and
driven them out of their own home, as they were not in a position to conform,
to the socially accepted rules, which became very visible.[8]
Their struggles are started from the
family when realise their sexuality, first begins with finding acceptance
within the family. Once the truth is out
they are usually forced to leave the family/home and fend for themselves. This gives no choice but resort to begging or
sex work. This profession is given by
the society and they are slotted into it.
They are denied of any other employment opportunities by the society.
Education:
The education
institutions have also failed to provide a safe environment for their
studies. For most of them school has
been a place where they were harassed, teased and bullied by both the students
and the teachers. This has resulted in most of the Transgender dropping out of
school.[9] Therefore, they are deprived of education and
literacy which adds to their marginalisation in the society.
Medical
Field:
The medical field has
also played a prominent role in discriminating and marginalising
transgender. The two major diagnostic
systems in medical and psychological field ICD 10 and DSM IV are widely
criticised for labelling this gender expression (Transsexualism) as Gender
Identity Disorder (GID). [10] The transgender individual experiences a
persistent discomfort with his or her anatomical sex and a sense of
inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex. Once GID is confirmed, one of the option is
Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS). However the accessibility of SRS among the
transgender population in general is limited. And the educated and wealthy
male-to-female transsexuals’ may have access to surgeons and plastic surgeons,
but many transgender (hijras) who are from a low socio-economic status not be
able to afford SRS. Further SRS is not
done in government hospitals; private qualified practitioners also do not do
SRS, even if they are doing also they charged heavily for that. Consequently, many transgender are going to
unqualified medical practitioners or senior hijras (called ‘Thai Amma’) for
castration which has significant health risks.[11]
International
Bill of Gender Rights
This International Bill
of Gender Rights (IBGR) strives to express human and civil rights from a gender
perspective. The International Bill of Gender Rights (IBGR) was first drafted
committee and adopted by the International Conference on Transgender Law and
Employment policy. This bill says about the right to define gender identity,
the right to free expression of gender identity, the right to secure and attain
and retain employment and to receive just compensation, the right of access to
gendered space and participation in gendered activity, the right to control and
change one’s own body, the right to sexual expression, the right to form
committed, loving relationships and enter into marital contracts, the right to
conceive, bear or adopt children; the right to nurture and have custody of
children and to exercise parental capacity.[12]
Transgender
and Indian Law
Since colonial times,
there have been laws such as the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871, Section 377 of the
Indian Penal Code and the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1986, which
criminalize transgenders. Although the Criminal Tribes Act and Section 377 have
been repealed and decriminalized, they still exist in everyday legal practice.
The cry for basic human rights has been ignored until the past few years, even
by the more popular gay and lesbian movement. The dominant discourse on human
rights in India has yet to come to terms with the production/reproduction of
absolute human rightlessness of transgender communities.[13]
The law in India is a
powerful force to control the hijra and kothi communities. It has criminalized
the existence of hijras and kothis, making the police an omnipresent reality in
their lives.[14]
The Indian law recognise only two genders, so getting ration cards or voter’s
Identification Card is a formidable task for the transgender. Tamil Nadu is the
first state in India which allowed the transgender to indicate their sex as ‘T’
though they got their right to vote in 1994 they had to mention either ‘F’ or
‘M’ in the gender column. In February
2010 the Election Commissioner allowed them the right to register as voter with
“Others.”[15]
The Constitution
Right to equality: all
persons have the right to equality. This law is further expanded by upon in
Art.15 and Art.16 wherein discrimination on the grounds of sex is prohibited
both in terms of access to public places as well as in terms of employment by
the state. There exists a case for seeing if discrimination against hijras and
kothis does indeed amount to discrimination on the grounds of sex.[16]
One of the main
issues of this movement was the fact that the law failed to recognize hijras
and kothis as individuals distinct from the set columns of male and female.
These people do not have an identity of their own. They are legally invisible and
there are no records of them in any government file. The law in India
criminalizes their very existence.
Organisations of
transgender
International
Movements
The
first known movement by transgenders outside India took place in Tenderloin
district of San Francisco. It was called the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot. This
movement was inspired by the famous Stonewall Riot of 1969. The Stonewall Riot
was triggered in New York by the notorious shoe flinging by legendary Latin
transgender woman Sylvia Rivera. In 1970, Rivera co-started the Street
Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which organized trans-women of
colour in New York until the mid 90s.[17]
While gays and lesbians were coming to be recognized, the acknowledgment for
transgender people was pushed to the bottom of the agenda. They were pushed to
the sidelines, as the movement for gays, lesbians and bisexuals expanded.
Transgender women of
colour, in particular, are most vulnerable because of the multiple layers of
oppression they experience as women, as women of colour, and as transgender
women of colour.[18]
Searching for acceptance, the transgender community started their own political
movement called the Transgender Menace, to tackle trans-phobia in the 1960s and
1970s. Trans-Action and, later, Trans-Justice in the 1990s was formed to tackle
legal oppression of the transgender community, especially coloured
transgenders. This movement has achieved a lot, especially in providing
healthcare, civil and human rights and even a status of protected class to the
transgender community. This has led to the decriminalization of transgender,
and a legal identity being conferred to them. This has also led to transgenders
being allowed to marry the opposite sex. Among the many who championed the
cause were Dr Alan Hart, Brandon Teena, Harry Benjamin, Jessica Xavier and
Billy Tipton from America, Magnus Hirscfield from Germany.
In India
One significant
organisation is ‘Sangama’. Sangama works for the rights of sexuality
minorities. It started in February 2002.[19]
The Hijra and Kothi movement in Bangalore was an initiative of Sangama. It
started with the need to document the systematic violence that was being
perpetuated on the Hijra and Kothi community in the city. Hijra is another name
for eunuchs, who are men whose testicles have been removed or do not function.[20]
Kothis are similar to Hijras, except they undertake feminine role in
relationships with men and do not form big groups like the Hijras. The movement
soon spread across the entire city with many NGOs like DISC, Vimochana,
Samraksha, Nele, ALF, and DMC[21]
joining hands to launch campaigns at various levels, protest rallies, and
representations to various government offices and e-mail campaigns. The
movement was supported by the public and covered by the Kannada and English
media.
At stake is the right
to be different, the right to recognition of different path of sexuality, a
right to immunity from the oppressive and repressive labelling of despised
sexuality. The movement’s relevance reflects in the betterment of the situation
of transgenders.
There are other
Advocacy Groups like, the Humsafar Trust that works for the rights
and health of sexual minorities and for the promotion of rational attitudes to
sexuality, Mingle a national-level advocacy group and think tank that
works for LGBT rights in every sphere of public life in India, Naz India an
organization that aims to spread awareness about sexual health issues,
especially HIV/AIDS. LGBT Media like: Bombay Dost was
India’s first gay magazine, launched in 1990, Pink Pages is
a national gay and lesbian magazine and Time Out is
published in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and has a gay
and lesbian section[22]
In spite of all the
achievements, brutal violence against hijras and kothis still exists. For
serious changes to be made, complex over-lapping of issues relating to gender,
sexuality and class has to be tackled. Discrimination against hijras and kothis
has to stop and the society has to be taught, maybe not to approve, but to at
least to accept them without attempting to ‘cure’ them. Civil rights, such as
the right to vote, right to file legal proceedings against perpetrators should
not only be recognized by law, but the hijras and kothis should be allowed to
exercise these rights. Laws criminalizing transgender should be repealed and
laws protecting them should be enacted. Sex education must be made compulsory
in all schools and they should be structured in such a way that they provide
liberal views to students on different types of sexual orientation.
Human suffering and degradation
of human life due to repression of the right of some to be different should not
be tolerated at any cost.
Bibliography
Encarta.
World English Dictionary, (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2003)
Hines,
Sally “Transforming gender” (Great Britain:
Policy Press, 2007).
Hines, Sally. Transforming Gender (UK: The Policy
Press, 2007).
http://sandystone.com/trans.html.
accessed on 23.10.2014
Jeralyn.
The Emerging Transgender Movement, Talkleft Politics of Crime. 2003
Accessed on 27 October 2014 at
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2003/11/29/149/40606.
Khan, Feroze. “Psycho-Social
Formation of Transgender in Bangalore” (YMCA, United Theological College,).
Lee,
Alexander & MC Ettinger. 2006. The Radical Transgender Movement- Lessons
for the Left, Left turn-Notes from the Global Intifada. Accessed on 27 Oct.
14 at http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/397.
Michael,
Florence. “Psycho-Social Experience of Transgender with reference to
Education” (DPC, United Theological College, 2011).
Nanda, Serena. Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijiras of India (Belmont, Wadsworth
Publishing, 1990).
[1]People’s Union
for Civil Liberties, “Human Rights
Violations Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005).
People’s
Union for Civil Liberties, “Human Rights
Violations against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005),
132-136. Report. Accessed on 27 Oct. 14 at
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/PUCL/PUCL%20Report.html.
[1] Serena Nanda, Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijiras of India
(Belmont, Wadsworth Publishing, 1990), 3.
[2] Jeralyn. 2003.
The Emerging Transgender Movement, Talkleft Politics of Crime. Accessed on 27
October 2014 at http://www.talkleft.com/story/2003/11/29/149/40606.
[4]Sally Hines, “Transforming gender” (Great Britain:
Policy Press, 2007), 9.
[5]People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 23.
[6]People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 24-27.
[8] Feroze Khan, “Psycho-Social
Formation of Transgender in Bangalore” (YMCA, United Theological College, ), 20.
[9] Florence
Michael, “Psycho-Social Experience of Transgender with reference to Education”
(DPC, United Theological College, 2011),
14
[10] People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 67.
[11] People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 67-69.
[12]People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 132-136.
[13] People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 132-136.
Report. Accessed on 27 Oct. 14 at http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/PUCL/PUCL%20Report.html.
[14]People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 57.
[15] Feroze Khan, “Psycho-Social
Formation of Transgender in Bangalore” (YMCA, United Theological College, ), 21.
[16]People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 88.
[17] Alexander Lee & MC Ettinger.
2006. The Radical Transgender Movement- Lessons for the Left, Leftturn-Notes
from the Global Intifada. Accessed on 27 Oct. 14 at
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/397.
[18] Alexander Lee & MC Ettinger.
2006. The Radical Transgender Movement- Lessons for the Left, Leftturn-Notes
from the Global Intifada. Accessed on 27 Oct. 14 at
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/397.
[19]People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations
Against the Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 77-79.
[20] Encarta.1999. World English
Dictionary, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
[21]People’s Union for Civil
Liberties, “Human Rights Violations Against the
Transgender Community” (Karnataka: PUCL, 2005), 77-79.
[22] http://india.angloinfo.com/family/lgbt/
Accessed on 27 Oct. 14
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