I'm hardly an authority on the details of what's happening, but I haven't seen a post about this yet so I'll just share a summary and some resources about what's happening now in India:
On 13 March, in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Virendra Kumar, introduced a bill to amend the Transgender Persons Act of 2019, and it was passed by voice vote without any discussion.
If enacted as law, it will effectively discard the historic NALSA judgment of the Supreme Court, which recognized the right of individuals to self-identify their gender. Under this amendment, self-identification as a transgender person will no longer be accepted. Only two categories of people will be eligible for transgender identity: Members of traditional socio-cultural communities such as Hijra, Kinner, Aravani, Jogta, etc. and Intersex individuals.
If the bill is implemented, any transgender person seeking legal recognition will have to appear before a medical board and physically prove their identity, demonstrating that they belong to one of these two categories. Only then will they receive a transgender identity certificate. The bill also proposes that if a transgender person undergoes surgery in a hospital, the hospital will be required to notify government authorities beforehand.
This could severely affect access to gender-affirming healthcare. Many transgender people may be pushed toward unsafe or secretive procedures, leading to even more dangerous situations. In effect, the law would allow a cisgender doctor to decide whether a person is transgender based on examining their body. This amendment threatens to nullify the rights that the transgender community achieved after years of struggle, particularly through the Supreme Courtโs historic NALSA judgment.
Ironically, the government claims that the purpose of this bill is to ensure that government benefits reach the โmost marginalizedโ sections of the transgender community, such as Hijra groups, and to prevent others from accessing those benefits. However, hundreds of transgender youth who, empowered by the NALSA judgment, had begun moving away from traditional marginalized occupations and entering mainstream professions may now face new barriers. This amendment risks pushing them back into the very social structures they had struggled to leave behind.
Some more Information (put out by @gaysi on Insragram):
The tags currently being used across various social media platforms are #rejectbill79 and #NoGoingBack, for anyone who wants to track it.
