TRANSGENDER PEOPLE HOPE FOR SC INTERVENTION
Dhrubo Jyoti
The article revolves around the impact of the new National Register of Citizens is impacting transgender communities. Thousands of transgenders missed the cut to be included in the NRC because it revolved completely around basing the criteria on gender only divided as male and female and no separate figure of the transgender community was available. Another reason for them being excluded is that because they are often thrown out of their own houses, they do not have any parental or family documents to prove their ancestry. In Assam therefore, transgenders had to prove that their ancestors were present in Assam.
The article prescribes several examples of transgender persons, like Dutta, Zeena, Baruah, etc., who have been denied entry in the NRC, mostly because of the social stigma that drove them out of their houses and families. The community appeals to SC because of the hope they have after the 2014 judgment that recognized them as a third gender. Some people even had to resort to pretending to be a particular gender merely to get their name in the NRC because they were not accepted as a different gender otherwise. Often, preferred names and genders didn't match the birth and family records or sometimes, families refused to share or provide documents.
The article prescribes several examples of transgender persons, like Dutta, Zeena, Baruah, etc., who have been denied entry in the NRC, mostly because of the social stigma that drove them out of their houses and families. The community appeals to SC because of the hope they have after the 2014 judgment that recognized them as a third gender. Some people even had to resort to pretending to be a particular gender merely to get their name in the NRC because they were not accepted as a different gender otherwise. Often, preferred names and genders didn't match the birth and family records or sometimes, families refused to share or provide documents.
The petition in the Supreme Court argues that the documents which are required under the NRC are not possible for transpersons to provide and they would end up being stripped of their citizenship even though they are full "Indian" as under their domicile or birth, as prescribed by the Indian Constitution. The counter to this that exists is that there is an "other" option in the gender category. "The petition demanded that the court ask state agencies to collect
family data on behalf of transpersons, and if it was not possible, accept an
affidavit of self-identification from the individual, with due verification
from community representatives"
OKAY NANDINI KRISHNAN, I READ YOUR BOOK 'INVISIBLE MEN' AND HERE'S WHY IT IS OFFENSIVE
Gee Imaan Semmalar
The article at hand is a book review of Invisible Men by Nandini Krishnan, and mostly an unfiltered response to the transphobic book, hidden under the purview of being transgender - supportive. According to the author, the book is "a thinly veiled ethnographic account replete with caste prejudices and transphobia" and it "views and describes their bodies/gender expressions and gives her own unsolicited opinions on how 'feminine' or 'masculine' they are."
He gives 10 reasons to elaborate on why the book is problematic - It constantly migenders and deadnames the interviewees who would obviosuly not be okay with such degradation; it infantalises them, which is actually a reason why they are often paid less than other male labourers; it is very transphobic as it conjures up images that denies them of their rightful identities and she describes the gender changing and other surgeries and hands out her progress reports on the same; he uses the example of dominant caste researches to explain how poverty porn is a way to narrativise their prejudices; she imposes Hinduised and saffron pasts on the community; she uses the example of Manipur to entrench violent nationalist fanatsies; she denies the interviewees of their identity by referring to them as "subjects" and keeps the Islamophobia element of Hindutva out of discussion; she places a victim narrative on the interviewees to garner sympathy porn; she puts on a sick show of necrophilia and finally; she dehumainses them and often uses the pronoun 'it' .
Therefore, he clearly depicts how problematic the book is by providing examples and excerpts from the same and vehemently condemns it for the right reasons.
THE SEXUAL IS POLITICAL
Vikramaditya Sahai
The article is a critical analysis of the recent act regarding trans persons passed by the Parliament. The author starts with explaining the 'social contract' theory as "an attempt to imagine a form of society in which the liberal individual could protect himself from the gravest of sovereign whims". According to the author, the theory performs a two - fold task of transforming a subject into a citizen and tying the citizen - subject to the state. From this, she garners the importance of consent as it is and act of free will and also binds the consenting citizen to the state. "When persons are not recognised as capable of consent, they are made unequal in the response-abilities between them and the state." Here, The Transgender (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 becomes important as it withdraws consent from the trans subject.
A trans person isn't allowed to determine their own gender and gives the state the authority to decide who is a trans person. Here, the author contradicts the act with the landmark judgement of NALSA v UOI which give trans persons the right to determine who they are. The Act also decides for trans persons what they are allowed to do with their bodies, enforced under the threat of withdrawal of legal recognition. "It is possible to be trans and not feel it necessary to be on hormones or go under a knife. Yet, what the bill does is necessitate a regime of recognition in which the trans person must reduce their trans identity to that of the body." The Act robs the trans person to be a witness to their own lives and turns them into merely a physical body. "While there isn’t nor can be any consensus on what makes one trans yet in order to access this identity, trans persons must subject themselves to the unspoken, arbitrary, and unaccountable criteria decided by these agencies."
By also providing several other examples, the author makes it clear that the Act is a representation of how deeply the state is invested in maintaining the gendered ways of the world, ironically in the name of trans rights, and how the social contract is pornographic.
OKAY NANDINI KRISHNAN, I READ YOUR BOOK 'INVISIBLE MEN' AND HERE'S WHY IT IS OFFENSIVE
Gee Imaan Semmalar
The article at hand is a book review of Invisible Men by Nandini Krishnan, and mostly an unfiltered response to the transphobic book, hidden under the purview of being transgender - supportive. According to the author, the book is "a thinly veiled ethnographic account replete with caste prejudices and transphobia" and it "views and describes their bodies/gender expressions and gives her own unsolicited opinions on how 'feminine' or 'masculine' they are."
He gives 10 reasons to elaborate on why the book is problematic - It constantly migenders and deadnames the interviewees who would obviosuly not be okay with such degradation; it infantalises them, which is actually a reason why they are often paid less than other male labourers; it is very transphobic as it conjures up images that denies them of their rightful identities and she describes the gender changing and other surgeries and hands out her progress reports on the same; he uses the example of dominant caste researches to explain how poverty porn is a way to narrativise their prejudices; she imposes Hinduised and saffron pasts on the community; she uses the example of Manipur to entrench violent nationalist fanatsies; she denies the interviewees of their identity by referring to them as "subjects" and keeps the Islamophobia element of Hindutva out of discussion; she places a victim narrative on the interviewees to garner sympathy porn; she puts on a sick show of necrophilia and finally; she dehumainses them and often uses the pronoun 'it' .
Therefore, he clearly depicts how problematic the book is by providing examples and excerpts from the same and vehemently condemns it for the right reasons.
THE SEXUAL IS POLITICAL
Vikramaditya Sahai
The article is a critical analysis of the recent act regarding trans persons passed by the Parliament. The author starts with explaining the 'social contract' theory as "an attempt to imagine a form of society in which the liberal individual could protect himself from the gravest of sovereign whims". According to the author, the theory performs a two - fold task of transforming a subject into a citizen and tying the citizen - subject to the state. From this, she garners the importance of consent as it is and act of free will and also binds the consenting citizen to the state. "When persons are not recognised as capable of consent, they are made unequal in the response-abilities between them and the state." Here, The Transgender (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 becomes important as it withdraws consent from the trans subject.
A trans person isn't allowed to determine their own gender and gives the state the authority to decide who is a trans person. Here, the author contradicts the act with the landmark judgement of NALSA v UOI which give trans persons the right to determine who they are. The Act also decides for trans persons what they are allowed to do with their bodies, enforced under the threat of withdrawal of legal recognition. "It is possible to be trans and not feel it necessary to be on hormones or go under a knife. Yet, what the bill does is necessitate a regime of recognition in which the trans person must reduce their trans identity to that of the body." The Act robs the trans person to be a witness to their own lives and turns them into merely a physical body. "While there isn’t nor can be any consensus on what makes one trans yet in order to access this identity, trans persons must subject themselves to the unspoken, arbitrary, and unaccountable criteria decided by these agencies."
By also providing several other examples, the author makes it clear that the Act is a representation of how deeply the state is invested in maintaining the gendered ways of the world, ironically in the name of trans rights, and how the social contract is pornographic.
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