“All Five Fingers Are Not the Same”
Summary All five fingers are not the same…. People should be respected for who they are. —Thehan, 43-year-old gay man, Colombo, November 2015 In Sri Lanka, there are two frames: man and woman. Society...
View ArticleComing out, ever so gingerly
In Kerala’s vibrant public sphere, theirs is a surprisingly invisible presence. Fear stalks them wherever they go and their efforts to come out of the closet still remain tentative and fraught with...
View ArticleChaos in Congress, DMK alliance over seat-sharing
Barely within a day after the Congress and the DMK in Tamil Nadu clinching a deal for the forthcoming elections, identifying constituencies seems to have run into rough weather. It is...
View ArticleThree things I’ve learned about the real meaning of gender equality
When I started an NGO for gender equality, there was much I didn’t know. Here’s what I discovered...
View ArticleAll Vaginas Are Welcome; Creating a Healing Space For Female Identified Persons
This is a blog about vaginas. Or it's about more than vaginas. It's about gender, sexual orientation and creating a safe healing space for all people who identify as female or questioning to come and...
View ArticleWhat We're Made Of
Scrolling through my Facebook feed this Sunday I saw that many friends had posted the same article, the discussions occurring on each persons post could not have been more different. Responses were...
View ArticleIndia’s first transgender college principal a giant step forward
The recent appointment of India’s first transgender college principal in eastern Bengal state is another incremental step towards public acceptance for the country’s small but hugely discriminated...
View ArticleBeing transgender: facts, myths and rights
WASHINGTON: Transgender people live under dramatically varying circumstances around the world — often facing violent repression, but also conquering crucial new rights most notably in Europe and the...
View ArticleWhy can you change gender but not race?
Marina Benjamin on the curious logic of modern identity politics. " data-adaptive-image-768-img="" data-adaptive-image-1024-img="" data-adaptive-image-max-img=""> At my daughter’s state girls’...
View ArticleThe trans equality struggle: Everyone has a stake in this fight (CPUSA -...
(Source: CPUSA - Communist Party USA) This text is based on a report delivered to the National Committee of the Communist Party on June 1, 2016. Last summer, we held a class at the Communist Party's...
View ArticleSex Reassignment Surgery
What is sex reassignment surgery?: Sex reassignment surgery (SRS), also known as gender reassignment surgery (GRS), is a means of transitioning to a different gender through surgical alteration of the...
View Article10 biggest misconceptions about transgender men and women
According to two studies conducted in 2007 and 2009 by LGBT demographer, Gary Gates, approximately 700,000 Americans, about 0.3 percent of U.S. adults, identify as being transgender. With that many...
View ArticleWho Decides What Makes a Woman?
When I read a recent New York Times article by Elinor Burkett titled, "What Makes a Woman?" I found that I agreed with her on one point. I too thought that small minority of transgender people...
View ArticleThe Problem With the Transgender Umbrella
Identity and gender are at the forefront of most discussions regarding rights and recognition, both legally, socially and usually not without controversy. As a child, all I ever wanted was to be...
View ArticleThe Best Place to Be Trans Is a Dictatorship
Thailand’s new constitution may protect transgender people from discrimination—but not in the way that you think. Thailand made headlines last week for proposing that its new constitution should...
View ArticleBeyond the binary: what does it mean to be genderfluid?
‘Look at the man in a dress,” my mum said, giving him a glance and a smile. “The poor thing.” Looking frightened, he flung the bread and milk into the passenger seat of his car. As he drove off, I saw...
View ArticlePolicies on transgender admissions at women's colleges
Barnard College's Board of Trustees is expected to vote next week on a formal policy governing admission of transgender students. The vote at the Manhattan campus follows those at a number of women's...
View ArticleWhere Gender, Race and Privilege Collide
The transgender community has suffered since the 1970s from gatekeeping, when a white anti-trans medical professional, Dr. Paul McHugh, joined the staff at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore with the sole...
View ArticleFirst trans fest set to break gender barriers
An upcoming festival in Bengaluru will showcase the best of transgender talent - from spoken word, to dance and drama Narthaki Nataraj is among the most visible dancers on Chennai's culture circuit....
View ArticleYour Trolliest, Least Politically Correct Questions About Trans Identities,...
As Slate’s primary comment moderator, I see a lot of rude, poorly worded, or clueless questions about transgender people. Sometimes they are even sincere! Although all these questions have answers,...
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