POLITICAL RIGHTS OF TRANSGENDER

But, you can only be either male
or female, right?

 Transgender is generally
described as an umbrella
term for persons whose
gender identity, gender
expression or behaviour
does not conform to their
biological sex.
 Transgender also takes in
persons who do not
identify with their sex
assigned at birth, and
they do not identify as
either male or female.

Transsexual Cross-dresser
Gender queer Androgyne
Bi-gender Drag kings
and queens

 Male-to-female (MTF or M2F):
A person assigned male at birth who lives, presents or
transitions to female.
 Transwoman
 Uses female pronouns : she, her, hers

 Female-to-male (FTM or F2M):
A person assigned female at birth who lives, presents or
transitions to male.
 Transman
 Uses male pronouns; he, him, his

 India’s Supreme Court recognized transgender people
as a legal third gender.
 The court has directed national and state governments
to redress entrenched discrimination suffered by
transgender people by recognizing them as an official
minority, according them quotas for :
 public jobs and admission to educational institutions,
 making sure they are not discriminated against when
seeking medical care
 official identity documents are now to include a third
gender box.

 The Tamil Nadu state in
India was the first state to
introduce a transgender
(hijra/ aravani) welfare
policy.
 According to the
transgender welfare policy
transgender people can
access free Sex
Reassignment Surgery
(SRS) in the Government
Hospital (only for MTF);
 free housing program;
 various citizenship
documents;

 Admission in government
colleges with full scholarship
for higher studies;
 Alternative sources of
livelihood through formation
of self-help groups (for
savings) and initiating
income-generation
programmes (IGP).
 Tamil Nadu was also the first
state to form a Transgender
Welfare Board with
representatives from the
transgender community.

 The All India Hijra Kalyan Sabha fought for over a
decade to get voting rights, which they finally got in
1994.
 In 1996 Kali stood for elections in Patna under the
then Judicial Reform Party and gave the Janata Dal and
the BJP a bit of a fight.
 Munni ran for the elections as well from South
Bombay that year.
 They both lost, more than 13 years Hijras are
participating in the politics in India

 Kamla Jaan won the position of the mayor of Katni in
MP
 Shabnam Mausi was elected to the Legislative
Assembly in 2002
 December 2000, Asha Devi became the mayor of
Gorakhpur
 On 4 January 2015, independent candidate Madhu Bai
Kinnar was elected as the mayor
of Raigarh, Chhattisgarh becoming India's first openly
transgender mayor
CONT…

 EQNM
 Leslie Feinberg
 Mara Keisling &
National Center for
Transgender Equality
 Sylvia Rivera Law
Project
 Transgender Law
Project

 Navajo Aids Network
 TGRCNM
 Santa Fe Mountain Center
and Cooper Lee Bombardier!
 NM CPAG
 ABQ Healthcare for the
Homeless
 Stephenne Rhodes
 Thank YOU for being open
and present!