- Transgenders are now to be considered as belonging to a separate third gender according to the latest Supreme Court ruling and directed the government to erase the stigma attached to this community. This is in line with every human being’s right to choose his or her own gender. Their identity is to be perceived as a function of their psychology, rather than biology.
- Earlier, in the absence of gender recognition, transgenders found it very difficult to obtain basic documents such as passports and driving licenses.
- The ruling will serve to alleviate the social stigma and discrimination attached to this community, help in their social and economic development, bring to the fore the subject of eunuchism and gender identity crisis which are hitherto rarely discussed in India.
- This ruling comes a few months after the Supreme Court upheld the penal provision of Section 377 that criminalises homosexuality.
- Read at: http://epaper.timesofindia.
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