No Surgery Required to Change Sex Marker in Passport – Delhi HC

Article 21 in the Constitution Of India 1949 states that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. It is on the basis of this Article, that the Delhi High Court has proposed that “you can’t insist on somebody to undergo sex-change operation for that (passport) purpose.”

The plea was brought to the Delhi High Court by one Lasya Kahli Singh – a ‘trans’ identifying male, through his advocates Siddharth Seem and Oindrila Sen. The plea contends that “insistence on sex reassignment surgery in order for an individual to identify or change their sex/gender is unnecessary and violative of the choice of the individual with respect to undergoing a surgical procedure to reflect the transition.” Notice how casually the two conflicting and ambiguous terminologies are used interchangeably with zero regard for semantics or the law.

Delhi High Court observed: “As per NALSA judgement, they have the right to decide their self-identified gender. That right was upheld. It means that a transgender person will himself or herself decide the gender and you will abide by that. This insistence is violative of Article 21 right.”

The Court has directed the concerned authority of Central Government (in this case the passport office) to take specific instructions in this regard within a week, and has posted the matter for hearing on April 22. Should the passport office respond by accepting the court order, the fight to retain any women’s rights in this country can be considered over!

During the oft-quoted NALSA judgement, the Supreme Court interpreted the word ‘sex’, as given in Articles, to include ‘gender identity’. It said, “both gender and biological attributes constitute distinct components of sex.” And instead of defining ‘gender’ as a set of sex stereotypes, it defined it as ‘gender identity’. And with this interpretation (which is not in line with the Constitution of India- which only mentions ‘sex’ as the protected category) the Supreme Court concluded that protection from sex-based oppression under the Articles inadvertantly includes gender and gender identity. Sex is biological, dimorphic, and immutable. Whereas gender identity is a person’s “feeling” of what ‘sex’ they are. This legal ambiguity within the NALSA judgement has set a dangerous precedent for all further judgements. These policies have attempted to create a set of legal statuses without undertaking a prior impact assessment for the effects on the rest of society, particularly women. Additionally, it contains a number of provisions that enable the erasure of legal history, and hence open the door for potential misrepresentation.

Though many males have effectively bypassed some protocols to procure documents – and write extensive reports on how they went about it, and who to contact etc. – an actual legal liberty would truly open the floodgates. I have been pointing out several steps taken by the trans lobby which will cost women their rights, despite a persistent insistence that their demands will not impact women.

A quick summary of gender infiltration

A male contested in a ward reserved for females, and won. There is a petition to make all college hostels ‘gender neutral’ in Karnataka, and some colleges have already effected this policy. The Ministry of Home Affairs is placing ‘trans’ identifying men amongst the female estate, while ‘women-only’ prisons remain underutilised as incarcerated women are housed at male facilities. An Indian Police Recruitment Board capitulates to gender ideology; where, in order to claim the oppression gold star, the lobby group sought the privileges offered to destitute widows as if the two demographics were the same. While women’s bodies are punished exclusively on the basis of sex, menstruation, a female-only bodily function is now being paraded by corporations  as an unspecified ‘open for all’ experience. In a university in Calicut, a city in the state of Kerala, a trans-identified male participated in women’s sports kicking a woman out of her rightful spot. Lobby groups have set legal precedence in regards to ‘trans’ adoption rights by enabling men to self identify as ‘women’, thereby violating the rules laid out by authorities that a male, in the absence of a female partner, cannot adopt a girl child. While lesbians and gender-nonconforming women still face stigma and violence, Indian liberals and corporations turn to transition as the answer. Gay marriage is still illegal, so the number of lesbians opting for sex reassignment surgery is on a steady increase with no speculation over the reasons. Meanwhile, an active cheerleading campaign for transgender identity is spreading through the gay community.

Eliminating compulsory surgeries is good, but provisions for self ID must be subject to more scrutiny

India is known for its extremely high cases of violence against women, and rape cases are on an all time high. A country with 1.2 billion people with about a 100 rape cases everyday, India has garnered a reputation of being the rape nation. Ironically, this is only on the basis of reported crimes, as a survey confirms that 99% of rape cases go unreported.  Even less reported are incidents of sexual harassment and molestation- the conviction rates for such crimes are so low that men effectively indulge in such sordid activities with impunity.

In 2019, a man who was accused of molesting a female colleague claimed that he was a woman himself, and therefore he considered the colleague a “sister.” According to the FIR(First Information Report) lodged in October 2016, both the accused and the woman worked in the same company in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida in 2014, when he allegedly molested her at a party. The 33-year-old victim, a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis, was brought to the court in a wheelchair and refused to withdraw the case.

Interestingly, the same Delhi High Court that wants to legitimise self ID, dismissed his plea. If such a perpetrator were to self declare his ‘womanhood’ in future, and change his passport to prove his legal ‘female’ status, would the court absolve him of his crime? Or would it record the crime and prosecute him as ‘female’ instead?

Women’s rights are being obfuscated for the welfare men who claim to be us; and demanding us to consider the needs of these men to be a feminist issue is the worst form of gaslighting.

Obviously, my goal is not to directly correlate the rape crisis and other violence against women with trans identifying men; but shouldn’t the government pay more attention to the protection of women and girls? Predators are exploitative by nature, and they go to great lengths to access their prey. There are enough cases of men utilising ‘gender identity’ policies for nefarious ends.

What can be done?

Because there is very little in the form of support for Indians suffering from body dysmorphia, perhaps a good first step would be to invest in mental healthcare that isn’t just  one-stop-instant-affirmation. As a consequence of the arrival of gender ideology in India, several private groups now offer training on Queer Affirmative Counselling Practice, which focus on the oppression faced by the ‘LGBTQI’ community.  While it is certainly true that this community has and does face significant oppression (I remind you again, gay marriage is still illegal), these courses do not challenge young women who want to be boys with holistic mental health support, or explore the reason for such distress in the first place. These Indian websites also engage in rampant and irresponsible fear mongering with unsubstantiated statistics for suicidal ideation. Importantly, removal of the requirement for ‘trans’ surgeries in order to change sex markers on legal documentation doesn’t necessarily stop youngsters from getting them.

There are examples of crimes in the name of ‘inclusion’ all around us, but make comments on them and you’re branded transphobic at the word go, with no further analysis. In a country where a woman’s safety is evidently the lowest priority for stakeholders, it is not surprising how readily the whims of TRAs are entertained. India is also rife with porn sick men who delve into obscene, violent and misogynistic fetishes that reduce a woman to a ‘sissy’ or a slave for male desire. A subreddit I stumbled upon has more than 15000 Indian men who call themselves sluts, maid and fuck toys (I will make a separate post about the rise in Indian AGPs at a later date). Imagine a legal system that would award them legal ‘female’ status should they so request it.

A much-criticised previous draft of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules  required transgender persons to go through medical examination to legally declare their desired sex. This requirement was later omitted in the final Rules, which state that subject to the correctness of the applicant’s particulars the District Magistrate will “get the application processed.” In a way, India has already eliminated possible scrutinies even before the proposed Delhi HC hearing on April 22. This has been done using stealth tactics despite resistance in the form of letters/requests from concerned parties asking to be included in decision making processes etc. which have consistently been ignored.

I’m a woman; a lifelong feminist who regards women’s safety above all else. This includes the safety of women who wish to identify out of womanhood too. Our rights must not come at the cost of catering to a minority group laden with red flags.  Gender inclusion policies have created scope for exploitation as mentioned above. Women’s rights are being obfuscated for the welfare men who claim to be us; and demanding us to consider the needs of these men to be a feminist issue is the worst form of gaslighting. I will not call this empowerment or intersectionality or any other thing that it is not. This is misogyny – a categorical and dangerous form of misogyny – and I object to it. If you would like to challenge this cult, please consider looking at Women’s Declaration International, India Chapter.

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