“Recognition of transgenders as a third gender is not a social or medical issue but a human rights issue,” declared Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan in April 2014 when the Indian Supreme Court recognised transgender people as a legal third gender and sanctioned access to affirmative-action programmes across the country. The court recognises that gender is a continuum or a spectrum that goes beyond the binary male or female. But it seems that society’s inclination to break free from hetero-normativity, build sensitivity to gender dysphoria, and move towards economic, political and social inclusion of the third gender has a long way to go. Meanwhile, the iconoclastic members of the...
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