The following statement was released at the Press Meet held on Dec 3, 2019, at the Press Club, Chepauk, Chennai. The press meet was held concurrently with a postcard writing campaign addressed to the President of India, asking him not to give his assent to the Bill in its current form.

Click here for Tamil version of the Press Release.

Dec 3, 2019, Chennai:

We transgender community members, allies, and members of the Tamil Nadu Rainbow Coalition, a network of LGBTIQA+ groups, collectives and individuals in the state, express our profound dismay at the passing of the Transgender Rights Bill in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill, that was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Nov 26, 2019, is in gross violation of the Supreme Court of India’s NALSA verdict of 2014, and Articles of the constitution such as Article 21 (Right to Life and Liberty), Article 19(1a) (Right to freedom of speech and expression)

1. The primary violation of NALSA seen in the Transgender Bill 2019 is the principle of self-determination. Although the Transgender Bill 2019 does away with the Screening Committee, granting of transgender identity is based on approval of the District Magistrate who has discretionary powers to deny the application. Additionally, for a transgender person to identify as male or female, proof of surgery is required, which contradicts NALSA.

2. We take strong exception to the provision that the primary caregiver for transgender persons – even adults – should be the biological family, and the only alternative is government-provided rehabilitation facilities. There are two issues with this. One, the biological family is often the primary site of violence against transgender children, and trust in the biological family as primary caregiver is misplaced. Second, the Bill completely ignores alternative family structures within which transgender persons have the constitutional right to stay. An example is the traditional jamaat system that has provided shelter and support to transgender women for centuries. Other examples could be intimate partners, friends, etc.

3. The Bill does not contain any mention of reservations in education and employment for transgender persons. This is also in gross violation of the NALSA verdict.

4. Punishment for assault and other egregious offences against transgender persons is limited to a maximum of two years. This treats transgender persons as inferior citizens in comparison to cis women and children, crimes against whom merit more severe punishement. Additionally, clear operational definitions of stigma and discrimination are needed, to ensure that transgender persons are protected against these, and action is taken against offenders. We, additionally, needed an Act for Prevention of Atrocities against Transgender and Intersex Persons, on the lines of the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

5. The Bill confuses transgender and intersex. The Hindi translation of the Bill uses the term “Ubhayalingi” which means Intersex. While we ask that provisions for intersex persons be included in the Bill, we ask that transgender not be used interchangably with intersex. Most transgender persons do not have differences in sexual development (DSD).

6. Transgender identity cards that recognize the rights of individuals to identify within or outside the binary should be issued in all states, as is the practice in Kerala. These identity cards to encompass transmen, transwomen and third-gender individuals.

7. Transgender women should be brought within the ambit of ‘women’ in the Protection of Women from Domestic VIolence Act (2005), as has been recorgnised by the Oct 2019 ruling of a Delhi magisterial court.

8. Free gender-affirmation surgeries and hormone therapies should be made available across the country for trans men and trans women who need them.

Unless these changes are incorporated, we ask that the Transgender Rights Bill (2019) not be given Presidential assent.

Gender rights activist and members of the LGBTQ community came together under the banner of Delhi Queer Pride banner, for a protest vigil for Tara, which took place at Jantar Mantar on November 14.

Dhrubojyoti, journalist and activist based in Delhi, addressed the protestors in New Delhi saying that Transgender persons just like other oppressed groups like Dalits or Adivasis or homeless persons, have been bearing the brunt of police violence. “LGBTQ persons, like me, with the privilege to move around in cars, who are not homeless, who do not beg or engage in sex work as a means of sustenance are the ones who are tolerated by society if not accepted entirely.” It is working class trans persons like Tara who are oppressed by the hetero-patriarchal structures of society with aggressions amounting to physical and sexual violence and even death.

Tara, like lot of other trans-women, was a sex worker. Does that dilute her right to live with dignity? The police harassment meted out against her was under the garb of her being a sex worker. Before she died, she faced torture at the police station where she was told by the police “to go out and die as nobody will mourn your death”.

Whether Tara was killed or forced to kill herself, we are still to find out.

But why is it that we need a death to evoke empathy and agitate? Oppressed groups have been constantly brutalised by the state and society, but it is only when someone dies, that our blood boils. Women get raped and molested almost every day in India, but we needed a Nirbhaya, to take to the streets and demand accountability from the state. Agitated at the apathy of state and society towards oppressed groups, Bittu Karthik, scientist and activist, said, “Tara and a lot of trans-women and sex workers have been harassed and abused. But nobody takes these incidents of aggression seriously. Tara was killed by the same oppressive forces. Maybe we need a death, a murder.”

“Recently in Hyderabad”, said Karthik, “There was a spate of attacks on transgender sex workers by a group of men to extort money. Even after a number of FIRs and constant pleadings with the police, there was no action taken. It was only when one of the trans-women was killed by this group, that people started protesting and police arrested the men. It is just how public sympathy and attention works. We strive to provide retrospective justice to the ones who died under oppression by forces that we did not combat.”

It is important for us to understand the relationship of marginalised communities and police violence. The widespread impunity with the police to harass, curtail and control certain identities is the reason for Tara’s death. Even after the landmark judgment in NALSA v Union of India, oppression and violence towards trans* individuals continue.

Members from Pinjra Tod, a feminist movement against patriarchal domination of public spaces, expressed their rage towards Tara’s death saying that our patriarchal societies permit only certain kind of bodies – the male, able-bodied, upper class- to enjoy public spaces  like the streets at night. The ‘other’ bodies- women, trans persons – are subjected to suppression and violence as a measure to control those bodies and limit them to a certain periphery. “Dignity of women is attached to their choices of clothing and the time of the night they take to the streets. We are told that it is only bad women who go out at night and then they are subjected to violence, which they presumably asked for. Tara’s death is an example of this narrative.”

Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association of JNU expressed their solidarity and rage towards the incident and condemned police violence towards trans-persons saying, “It is a reflection of the patriarchal, brahminical society that oppresses every disadvantaged group to maintain this status quo. We must resist such acts.”

Shambhavi, member of Dhanak – a student led LGBTQ collective in JNU, expressed her rage towards such ‘dispensable’ identities by citing instances of micro aggressions on campus where students deal with discrimination on a daily basis. She also cited the case of Najeeb and the apathy of the institution towards the case.

While we express our agitation and resistance towards these acts of violence, we must also resist and challenge the institutions that perpetuate these forms of violence. In a hyper-masculine, patriarchal society that is bifurcated on the lines of class, caste and gender, these acts of violence are mere expressions of a much larger problem. Vqueeram, activist and professor, articulated the pain and anger of Hijra and Thirunangai individuals by addressing the structural injustices on these identities every single day so much so that it becomes a matter of life and death. “When people say Hijras are in-betweens, I think they are- in between life and death.”

“The narrative is such that is acceptable that certain lives are dispensable,” said Dhrubojyoti.   “Let us not find novelty in violence and choose to fight only when someone has died. Is it that we are angry only because Tara was burnt alive? Are the acts of violence against marginalised groups every single day not moving enough for us to stand in solidarity?”

Republished from TheWire.in with consent of the author.

Let us raise our hands and clap today like we have never clapped before.
Let us raise our arms and clap today for the year that it has been.
Let us join our hands today for the years to come.
Let us clap today for the years of struggle behind us and before us.
And let us clap the loudest for the joy here and within us.

Let’s join our hands and clap.
Let’s raise our hand and clap.
Let’s lift our arms and clap.

Let’s clap for the judgement.
Let’s clap for freedom.
Let’s clap for justice.
Let’s clap for equality.
Let’s clap for love.

Let’s clap for each one of us who is here today.
And let’s clap for each one of us who could not be here.

Let our claps be claps of joy.
Let our claps be claps of anger.
Let our claps be claps of sorrow.
Let our claps be claps of struggle.
Let our claps be our celebration
And let our claps be our protest.

Let us clap for all those who are here today.
Let us clap for all the lesbians.
Let us clap for all the transgender people.
Let us clap for all the gays.
Let us clap for all the bisexual folks.
Let us clap for all the hijras.
Let us clap for all the intersex people.
Let us clap for all the genderqueer.
Let us clap for all the queer folks.
Let us clap for all the supportive folks.
Let us clap for all our supportive families.
Let us clap for all the friends we are fortunate to have.
Let us clap for all those who believe in justice
Let us clap for each and every person who has come here.

Let us clap for this show of support
Let us clap for this strength of love
Let us clap for this solidarity of struggles

Let us clap for all those who are not with us today
The friends who could not come.
The friends who stayed home because of fear.
Those who lost hope in the long struggle and left us.
Those who died fighting every step of the way.

Let us clap for all those who are beginning to find themselves
The little boy who will be a lovely girl
The young girl in love with her friend
The woman contemplating suicide…
And all those who still think that they are the only ones….

Let us clap in anger
Against all the homophobia we have faced
Against the violence on our minds and bodies
Against the injustices we continue to face
At home, in school, in colleges, in the streets, in our workplaces

Let us clap in protest
We will not be forced into marriages
We will not be named against our wills
We will not be forced to live by rules that destroy our beings

Let us clap in sorrow
For those killed by their families because they dared to love
For those committed to cures and institutions
because they were different
For those who died invisible, untouched by change,
Believing themselves alone and wrong

Let us clap in solidarity
With all those who believe in freedom
With all fighting marginalisation
With all working for social change
With all those struggling for justice against all odds.

Let us clap in celebration
Of difference
Of sameness
Of love
Of justice
Of equality
Of freedom

Let us clap hard
Let us clap long
Let us clap loud
Let us clap strong

Let us clap so that each heart resounds
Let us clap so that the city rings with this sound
Let us clap so that the world hears this sound!

Shalini
For July 2nd 2010

Editors’ Note: July 2 is the anniversary of Delhi High Court’s historic judgement decriminalizing same-sex behavior among consenting adults, in the Naz Foundation case of 2009. It is also the anniversary of India’s first Pride walk, held in Kolkata in 1999.