Its sad how a transgender’s entire life revolves around his/her gender with no fault of their own. And the same rule doesn’t apply to us. Our lives are not governed by our gender alone.
We forget that as human beings we are born gender neutral. It is society that pushes us into being this or that. And as human beings we like order, we like to compartmentalize things. Chaos is generally not acceptable. So categorizing oneself as male or female is absolutely necessary. One cannot be both.We all have multiple identities. We are born multiple sexes. But along the way we acquire a need to define ourselves. Until a certain age, a child is never even aware about his/her gender. But gradually he or she is consciously made aware of his/her gender and constantly told to do things based on his/her gender.
The present social and citizenship identification system is based on a confused understanding of biological sex and stereo typed associated gender. Many times the ID cards state options like “Gender” – Male and Female or “Sex” – Man and Woman. This is not just a technical problem in understanding or a grammatical mistake. The problem arises because we consider gender to be binary. We forget that the transgender exist. This is an entire system of exclusion and an old system of identifying people in the reproductive paradigm. A male person, whose body has penis, testicles, can also produce, has to be masculine. Similarly a female person, whose body has vagina, uterus, breasts, can also produce, has to be feminine. This whole range of understanding is a familial understanding and not a social understanding. The traits ascribed to both femininity and masculinity is mostly based on the conditions that support and promote patriarchal family system. This gets extended to the government administrative system, judiciary systems, constitution and social systems. People who voluntarily choose their gender or people who by biological difference do not fit into this description of familial understanding of “gender or sex” are excluded in all aspects – fundamental rights, human rights, citizenship rights, entitlements, social, political, cultural acceptance and acceptance by the family. A whole range of people who identify “trans”, “intersex” or the ones who do not identify with either not only get excluded and denied of rights but also face severe discrimination, ridicule, get punished, under go forcible corrective measures, thrown out of support systems, and non-acceptance driving the person to the extent of suicide.
Our government systems, social, economic, labour, political, cultural, civil systems do not even accept slight difference in the identification process. For example a male born person who looks differently, probably like a woman but produces certificates as male is not only questioned about their identity but also many times threatened to check for the correct sex/ gender which is confused in their mind. They also suggest corrective measures to fit in to “correct boxes”. If this is resented they loose the opportunity. Even for people who might want to express their gender differently but would not mind accepting the sex binary that is assumed in our society there is no space, because sex and gender blurs in all systems and the “appearance” matters. Though this constitution recognizes individual rights with dignity it is because of this appearance, that people get denied of their rights.
The present system which some what operates based on binary sex but insists on associated traits of gender does not offer any options to people who are out side the defined boxes of gender. To add to this people who break this defined boxes in different phases are accepted or not accepted based on the extent of loyalty that is shown to the defined boxes.
Transgenders are very often called nature’s mistake or nature’s injustice. How can we as one of the creations of nature, call another creation a mistake. Who gives us that authority? And what entitles us to be a justified creation?
We are ready to accept diversity and multiplicity in all spheres. Why not gender?
The present system which some what operates based on binary sex but insists on associated traits of gender does not offer any options to people who are out side the defined boxes of gender. To add to this people who break these defined boxes in different phases are accepted or not accepted based on the extent of loyalty that is shown to the defined boxes. In this context if one proposes the idea of an entirely biological sex based identification system, it still does not recognize in a rights based manner the minuscule population of intersex people. There are corrective measures everywhere. Again based on the reproductive paradigm the body that is made of a different composition which includes both male and female is considered defective. So, clearly the attitude is mainly to correct people and put them either under male or female, or, man or women. The attitude clearly does not give any choice to people or a right on their own body. This also extends to people having no choice to decide their identity in social, political, cultural, economic, and civil roles. Of course the modern technology offers these corrective surgeries, therapies, treatments but one does not recognize the fact that not all people can afford the surgery, not all people choose surgery, some people might just want the change in appearance, some people may just want change in gender and some people cannot just opt for surgery due to family pressure, societal pressure, or there will not be that space to openly opt for the surgery.
On the other hand if we look at the present system, we feel that our constitution and government are lazy to wake up to the fact that we will have to change an entire system of operations, plus attitudes and make spaces that have been historically occupied conveniently being blind to the existence of people’s different expressions of sex and gender. The change would mean a systemic change, which recognizes the historical oppressions based on gender, Trans and Intersex people, women, people who identify as women or men, people who are different in their bodies and have a choice in their sex and gender. It would mean change in attitudes, language, judiciary process and constitution. This would mean bringing difference between sex and gender resulting in change of standards in social, political, economic, cultural, labour, civil, and the list is in exhaustive. It really means “CHANGE” - colossal work.
While these systems are blind to change conveniently, the offer that is now made in an attempt to recognize is based on sympathy. It is not based on rights of the marginalized. For example – if there are two people sitting comfortably on a bench and for a long time feel that the ones not like them should sit, they will suddenly develop sympathy for the “others”, who are standing and are not like them. They will then say “we will give to people like you a little space on this bench and people like you should adjust within this space”. This could also be a patch up effort to shut the noises which are demanding recognition. The attitude is to just adjust within the binary system or creating another space called “Other, Eunuch or TG” to make it more exclusive. So in this process we still maintain the binary system intact. Even this “Other” space is boxed and restricted. While equality that is substantive, that which is inclusive and makes space for everyone is out of the window. There is no effort to put more benches to provide the rightful space.
The binary sex-gender system adopted by the government administrative and judiciary process and of rights in the constitution could be due to lack of consultation of all public. Or, the general public have historical convenience to not to recognize the people who are marginalized based on sex and gender. But the gender diversity is historical and evident. Unfortunately through this sex-gender binary the space for gender diversity expressions is closed. In this process communities that are marginalized based on sex and gender stand out as a newly evolving concept and further get discriminated along with historical discrimination and rights violations.
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