Beyond Legal Recognition: Empowering India’s LGBTQ+ Community in the Fight for True Inclusion and Equality
After great opposition from the public, the government added the third category of “other” to the existing categories of “male” and “female” in several administrative forms. Although the official State position in the nation is changing, which is promising, policymakers should not stop at a simple apparent shift away from cis-sexism, especially in light of the complexities of legal recognition. The Indian legislative and government have been slow to recognise the existence of a third gender, even though we are still, regrettably, ahead of several other nations. It has taken the better part of a century for this to happen. The issue affects not only the LGBT community in India but also society at large because it is becoming recognised as a part of the larger debate about how we see identity and sexuality. Words can convey a feeling of safety, acceptance, and belonging. That’s exactly what legal recognition does for any individual or group. It guarantees at least a minimal level of stability, protects their identity, and fosters a sense of security. It is a formal recognition of rights for LGBT groups.
Ignorance cannot lead to recognition. It needs to come from awareness, knowledge, and responsiveness. The importance of name change, gender marker change, and official certification is only understood by those who understand what it means to be a transgender man. For this reason, efforts will be made to simplify procedures. The only person who will consider ensuring inclusion in official documentation understands the broader role pronouns play in societal acceptance and one’s expression. Before being a sign of security, legal recognition is a sign of empowerment. Formal identification allows community members to feel like they belong in an increasingly perilous environment or start feeling like they do. The Manusmriti, an ancient Hindu legal text, established severe penalties for homosexual activity between men, even harsher penalties for that between female virgins or kanyas, and an even more severe punishment for married women who engage in homosexual activity with kanyas. This is where the legal discourse on homosexuality in India originated.
This codification may only have one benefit: recognition can be found in punishment. It is a formal, although constrained, admission of the existence of the LGBT community, which society can no longer ignore. LGBT people frequently experience pressure to marry people they are not attracted to. For example, when gay men marry straight women, they are both victims of a patriarchal society that insists on marriage between a man and a woman. Social conformity forces parents to compel their homosexual or lesbian children into traditional marriages, even when the parents are aware of the child’s sexual orientation. As a result, many of them are compelled to lead two lives, and the “sanctity of (forced) marriage” is based on suffering and silence, with the parents disregarding their child’s right to make their own decisions. When lesbian women enter these forced marriages, they experience double marginalisation. Lesbian women’s desires are viewed as inexplicable, and a threat to the moral fabric of society since sexual pleasure is viewed as a “luxury” that should not be shared by all women.
Lesbian women find it difficult to discuss their sexual preferences in a predominantly patriarchal Indian society due to their lack of economic independence and fear of social rejection. LGBT people have fewer employment options, and if they do find work, they must deal with harassment and discrimination at work, both explicitly and implicitly. For example, even when they are highly qualified, many transgender people struggle to get employment. Workplaces that are inclusive and diverse are crucial. The International Labor Organization’s guidelines for its staff union handling sexual harassment at work, the National Institute of Health (United States), and the UNHCR’s Guidelines on dealing with sexual harassment at work all use a gender-neutral approach. As a result, it is critical that Indian legislation acknowledge same-sex prejudice and not dismiss the abuse LGBT people endure. To fully appreciate the intricate details of the LGBT community, one must first understand the diversity of the groups that make up this community.
Only legislative action will not be sufficient to accomplish this. The nation’s leaders, scholars, and other influential individuals define its socio-political climate. Without these leaders guiding people toward inclusivity, society cannot attain it. What is required is for leaders to demonstrate to the populace how and maybe even why our society needs to change. The law must acknowledge that there are ongoing cases of sexual harassment of LGBT people that are solely the result of social stigma within the community. Until this is changed through social evolution, the law must effectively empower individuals, stop these incidents from happening, and offer a robust grievance procedure. Over the past century, our understanding of gender identities, homosexuality, and the gay community has grown significantly. It is reasonable to anticipate that these concepts will continue to advance, deepen, and take on new dimensions. The LGBTQ+ community needs to be accepted for everything it is and everything it can become. The community is, first and foremost, a collection of individuals, and people deserve to be secure.
Sources cited –
https://theleaflet.in/protecting-the-queer-community-from-sexual-harassment
