Transgender Rights Research Articles

Efficacy of gender-affirming therapy for transgender people in Pakistan

Dear Editor, According to the 2017 census of Pakistan, the transgender population has been estimated to be around 10,000. In contrast transgender activists speculate that the number may be closer to 300,000.1 Regardless of the number, the controversy surrounding transgenders, and their healthcare, has risen to the forefront of our society in the past several years. This was further fueled by the Transgender Rights Act of 2018 in Pakistan, which promised access to gender-affirming healthcare. The importance of providing gender-affirming healthcare to transgender individuals is underscored by the potential positive impact on their mental health, as demonstrated by studies conducted in the US. These studies have shown improved mental health outcomes, such as decreased suicidality and psychological distress, for transgender people who are undergoing, or have experienced, certain procedures.2, 3 These procedures, in the US, involve psychological help, gender-affirming hormones, surgery, and puberty blockers.4 Despite the 2018 bill’s promise to deliver trans-centred healthcare, a thorough investigation of the current literature reveals that no studies regarding the efficacy of these treatments have been conducted on the transgender population of Pakistan. While the validity of US-centred studies isn’t denied, Pakistan’s social and religious climate may demonstrate differing effects on their mental health. The quality of healthcare is further questioned after the proposed changes to the Transgender Persons Rights Act of 2018. These amendments would replace the term “transgender” with “intersex”,5 excluding transgender people with unambiguous genitalia and drastically reducing their access to healthcare. As the social climate heats up, trans people risk further discrimination. Therefore, it’s essential that researches be conducted to observe and test the impact of the current healthcare on transgender people, as it would highlight any gaps in the medical understanding of gender dysphoria, offer constructive criticism to help improve the state of healthcare, reduce healthcare discrimination, and aid the passing of more inclusive laws. We hope that studies will be undertaken on this issue to eventually create a healthier, safer space for transgender population.

The Impact of Economic Exclusion on the Constitutionally Guaranteed Entitlements of Economic Justice, Equality of Opportunity and Right to Live with Human Dignity of the Transgenders

Objective: The objective of the paper is to examine and explain how the constitutionally guaranteed entitlements notably the various facets of right to equality, right to life and preambular assurance of justice: social, economic and political will remain unachievable and meaningless for the transgenders till their economic exclusion and marginalisation continues. The present paper shall examine the important aspects of legal provisions and economic policy which can ensure that the constitutional mandates enshrined under Articles 14, 15, 16 and 21 become a reality for transgender through their economic empowerment. Theoretical Framework: The Constitution of India recognises and rests firmly on the fundamental principles of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice. Transgender people have always been the part of every society, nation and culture since ages but unfortunately their very existence has been negated at every level of society. This marginalised section and highly disadvantaged group has consistently and continuously been subjected to social stigma, discrimination and exclusion from all kinds of socio-economic and political undertakings. The insensitivity and the apathy of the public at large are still the biggest challenges in mainstreaming the transgenders and eliminating all forms of socio-economic exclusion against them. The extreme discrimination and exclusionary practices against the transgender people at every level in the work place, from job rejection to privacy violation and even sexual harassment, disproportionately affects their physical and mental wellbeing. The socio-economic marginalisation and denial of any gainful employment opportunity puts them in depression, pessimism and forces them to engage in unlawful activities and become drug suppliers, sex workers and even low-income entertainers. Method: The present paper focuses on the constitutionally guaranteed entitlements namely “economic justice” and “equality of opportunity” of the transgender people while taking up the issue of their economic exclusion and marginalisation and intends to explore how the economic exclusion has adverse and severe implications on transgender rights. Results and Discussion: The cost of economic exclusion of transgender people in India cannot be undermined. Such discrimination and unaccepting environments are capable of psychologically depressing transgender people and adversely affecting their incentive to get training and education. This turns into a vicious circle that translates into low investment in human capital and suboptimal opportunities for them resulting in lower productivity of overall economy. Conclusion: With very limited employment opportunities, transgender’s education, health and living standard are abysmally low and therefore, in order to achieve the constitutional mandate enshrined under Articles 14, 15, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India, the objectives of the government should be to allow reasonable participation of most of the transgender population in the national economy.

Assessing the Influence of Transgender Rights on the Mental Health of Transgender Individuals in India and the United States

Assessing the Influence of Transgender Rights on the Mental Health of Transgender Individuals in India and the United States

Unsettling the Conversation on Trans Rights

This article argues that trans rights are trapped within settler frameworks of gender and rights, therefore making them incompatible with and in opposition to Indigenous lifeways. Starting with the premise that engagement with the settler state is not benign, the authors argue that trans rights-based organizing diverts and thwarts the potential for solidarity work with Indigenous struggles for freedom and is inherently limited in its potential to secure Indigenous futurity. The authors hope that trans studies and collective struggles organized around gender embrace anti-colonial and anti-racist praxis to result in tangible and discursive outcomes to bolster Indigenous cultural continuity and land-based connections. The authors use this article to call for a collective movement toward gender self-determination that is sensitive and reflexive of settler colonialism and produces tangible decolonial actions that will benefit the lives of Indigenous Two-Spirit, trans, and nonbinary people and align with movements for Indigenous self-determination. Queer and trans settlers are urged to begin a process of accountability and to engage a decolonial praxis to support Indigenous decolonization in all its forms—fighting for land claims, defending water and land rights, and supporting the resurgence of Indigenous erotics and gender formations. To be truly decolonial we suggest that trans political organizing moves beyond the settler framework of rights and toward Indigenous solidarity in politics, practices, and shared struggles, foregrounding anti-colonial, anti-racist, and pro-Indigenous values.

The Quest for Horizontal Transgender Reservations Under the Spectre of Brahmanical Governmentality

This article argues that the trajectory of transgender rights, especially the quest for transgender reservations is shrouded by the spectre of Brahmanical governmentality perpetuated by the state. Through an anti-caste analysis of the recent developments in this issue, it attempts to demonstrate that the denial of horizontal reservations for trans persons by the state fulfils the conditions of Brahmanical governmentality. It is characterized by a lack of a refusal to engage with trans persons’ lived realities, ignoring trans voices about vital issues pertaining to their community and the promulgation of legal and policy decisions which inimically affect the material interests of trans persons and perpetuate their oppression.

A Global Analysis of Transgender Rights: Introducing the Trans Rights Indicator Project (TRIP)

To what extent do countries protect the rights of transgender people? How does this differ from legal protections countries offer sexual orientation minorities? What conditions are beneficial for advancing trans rights? Limitations in data availability and accessibility make answering these types of trans-specific questions difficult. To address this shortcoming, I introduce a new dataset. The Trans Rights Indicator Project (TRIP) provides insight into the legal situations transgender people faced in 173 countries from 2000 to 2021. The dataset currently includes 14 indicators that capture the presence or absence of laws related to criminalization, legal gender recognition, and anti-discrimination protections. I then use this data to discuss the global status of transgender rights throughout the period and compare these trends to sexual orientation rights. Finally, I conclude with a preliminary analysis of three institutional and cultural factors that may help explain variation in transgender rights throughout the world.

The Origins and Development of the National Transgender Rights Movement in the United States of America

Abstract This article examines the emergence of a national transgender rights movement in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth and first decade of the twenty-first century. Drawing on newly available materials from the Trans Equality Archive at the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, DC, this study shows that the transgender movement has been neither wholly independent of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement, nor simply a subdivision of it. Through a process of hybridization, the transgender movement became simultaneously its own independent movement and a constituent of the LGBT movement. In building this argument, this article tells an untold story about the history of the movement. First, I narrate the emergence of a shared transgender collective identity separate from LGB identity. Second, I describe the burgeoning of a transgender movement and detail its continued distinction from the LGB movement. Third, I explain how the transgender movement pushed to turn the “LGB” movement into the “LGBT” movement, while still maintaining its independence. The article sheds light on the complex dynamics of contention among national advocacy organizations that gave shape to the contemporary transgender rights movement. It also contributes to the scholarship by tracing the distinctive evolution of the national transgender movement, which has operated alongside grassroots trans movements.

“The Rosa Parks of the trans bathroom debate”: Gavin Grimm and the racialization of transgender civil rights

ABSTRACT Gavin Grimm, a white transgender boy from Virginia, successfully sued his school board in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board and helped secure the right for trans and gender nonconforming students to use public school bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities. His 2021 victory was the culmination of a long legal battle that began in 2014, when the Gloucester County School Board (GCSB) passed a resolution that segregated bathrooms on the basis of “biological gender.” This essay considers the two GCSB meetings at which this resolution was debated as instances of “ordinary democracy,” where local practices of deliberation not only set policy but also sustain community and produce shared opinion. Drawing on Black trans scholarship that proposes the transitivity of Blackness and demonstrates how Blackness is made present in the service of whiteness, I examine how the discussions at the GCSB meetings strategically mobilized civil rights rhetoric and histories of racial segregation to debate Gavin’s entitlement to public space. Blackness, I argue, is invoked and disavowed as a condition of possibility for modern white trans identities and a resource for vernacular articulations of the scope of trans rights.

Sexual peril and dangerous others: The moral economies of the trans prisoner policy debates in England and Wales

This article analyses a widely publicised case in England, where a trans woman was remanded to a women’s prison and subsequently sexually assaulted other women prisoners. The article traces how the case was politically mobilised to support a growing backlash against trans rights in Britain. The article argues that the case was successfully deployed by trans-hostile groups because of a combination of carceral politics and sexual exceptionalism, which cut across both left and right politics and has roots in racialised narratives of ‘dangerous others'. These narratives, while ostensibly claiming to guard against sexual violence, paradoxically limit the capacity to meaningfully address underlying causes of sexual harm.

The Issue of Violence against Transgender People in Prisons

This article analyses the issue of violence against transgender individuals in prisons, focusing on legislative regulation in various countries. According to the study, transgender people are more likely to commit crimes as a result of systemic discrimination, but they are also more likely to face violent attacks once inside prison. It could be argued that international legal instruments aimed at ensuring transgender rights in prisons are not effective, and they regulate the rights of prisoners in a more general manner. Positive examples of legal regulation regarding the protection of transgender rights in various countries can also be viewed as best practices. This study suggests that legal reforms are required in transgender inmate rights policies to prevent incidents of violence.

The trouble with tagging: a queer porn company tussles to find the right words

ABSTRACT While major media outlets repost Pornhub’s popular search terms and ‘debate’ trans rights, the discussions among queer porn producers about tagging and gender are more nuanced. Tags (descriptive keywords assigned to films and performers) have many uses, but applying gendered terms to bodies is fraught with complex biases. We share our experiences, formed by working with creators and customers on the porn sites PinkLabel.TV and CrashPadSeries.com, to reveal the challenges of evolving language and technology that respects artists and audiences alike.

Trans liberation under neoliberal governmentality: An argument against rights-based activism

During the 1980s, the increasing institutionalization of the North American gay and lesbian rights movement drastically shifted the goals and methods of 2SLGBTQIA+ activism. Organizations began to focus on achieving access and equality through dominant institutions (such as military service and hate crime legislation) with the goal of achieving “equal citizenship,” rather than challenging the foundational inequalities embedded in such institutions. Despite the issues with this kind of approach, contemporary trans resistance is often expected to replicate this framework and make similar demands for trans-specific human rights and legal protections. This article argues that a rights-based approach to trans liberation cannot succeed under the current iteration of biopolitical governance in the United States. Inspired by Henry Giroux’s concept of the biopolitics of disposability, the author suggests that contemporary neoliberalism devalues trans lives (especially the lives of racialized trans women and femmes) to such an extent that they are viewed as expendable. Therefore, 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy that seeks to gain further transgender rights and legal protections from a state that views trans lives as expendable should be abandoned in favour of activist projects that address the most urgent issues facing the most vulnerable trans people, such as employment assistance programs, access to inclusive healthcare, decarceration, and prison abolition projects.

Gender Affirmation-Related Information-Seeking Behaviors in a Diverse Sample of Transgender and Gender-Diverse Young Adults: Survey Study.

Of the 1.6 million transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people in the United States, approximately 700,000 are youth aged 13-24 years. Many factors make it difficult for TGD young people to identify resources for support and information related to gender identity and medical transition. These range from lack of knowledge to concerns about personal safety in the setting of increased antitransgender violence and legislative limitations on transgender rights. Web-based resources may be able to address some of the barriers to finding information and support, but youth may have difficulty finding relevant content or have concerns about the quality and content of information they find on the internet. We aim to understand ways TGD young adults look for web-based information about gender and health. In August 2022, 102 young adults completed a 1-time survey including closed- and open-ended responses. Individuals were recruited through the Prolific platform. Eligibility was restricted to people between the ages of 18-25 years who identified as transgender and were residents of the United States. The initial goal was to recruit 50 White individuals and 50 individuals who identified as Black, indigenous, or people of color. In total, 102 people were eventually enrolled. Young adults reported looking on the internet for information about a broad range of topics related to both medical- and social-gender affirmation. Most participants preferred to obtain information via personal stories. Participants expressed a strong preference for obtaining information from other trans people. There is a need for accessible, expert-informed information for TGD youth, particularly more information generated for the transgender community by members of the community.

TRANSGENDER’S ISSUES IN SPORT COMPETITIONS

The recognition and development of the rights of transgender people raises various problems, one of which is their possibility to participate in sports. The aim of the article is to identify and analyze the issues of transgenders’ participation in sports, reviewing possible ways of solving them. There used such research methods as analysis of new scientific literature and legal documents, qualitative content and comparative analysis, historical analysis. Study showed that international sports organizations and research bodies do not have a unanimous view how to ensure transgender rights to participate in sports with equality and fairness. New scientific researches may help to change this unclear and ambivalent position as well as established legal regulations and a unified policy of states in this area can help to solve such problems.

Socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on the Transgender Community in District Peshawar KP

This study examines the socio-economic impacts of Covid-19 on the transgender community in Peshawar District KP, using a qualitative approach and snowball sampling technique to select a sample of 55 transgender individuals. Through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis, the study found that the transgender community faced significant challenges due to their social exclusion by their Gurus, illiteracy, lack of employment opportunities, and complex gender identity. The impact of Covid-19 exacerbated these problems, resulting in social exclusion, homelessness, mental health issues, economic dependency, and gender complexity. The study recommends that the government and transgender-led organizations conduct awareness sessions, direct religious leaders regarding transgender rights, provide access to healthcare, financial support, and affordable housing facilities, and support the transgender-led organization for inclusion and acceptance.

Sisters, it’s been a while! The emotional pull of the lesbian ‘gender critical’ movement and a failure of solidarity

For five years the UK lesbian community has witnessed growing animosity over the acceptance or otherwise of trans people. This division has been increasingly recognised and commented upon outside of the lesbian community as part of the mainstreaming of so-called ‘gender critical’ (trans-exclusionary) views. Focussing on the lesbian gender critical position, this article tackles its persistence despite the oft-presented counter that empirical research shows its concerns to be unfounded. This article aims to ask questions of this persistence, and to this end ponders the primacy of emotion in the development and sustaining of the lesbian gender critical movement. By tying its rise not only to concerns about trans rights, but instead to an opportunity to recreate lost lesbian community, purpose and solidarity, it is hoped new avenues of understanding can be explored. A centring of the emotional needs met through gender critical activism might explain why it persists even as it has become a movement that vociferously defends the strict gender categories that lesbianism itself rallies against. This centring also poses uncomfortable questions about when anti-establishment itself becomes (some form of) establishment and how that relative power is wielded. While many lesbians view the current dire situation as demanding solidarity with trans people, and make excellent arguments to promote this, this article suggests that the emotional pull of ‘gender critical’ will not be easily overcome and greater attention should be paid to it.

Inclusive sports in Philippine higher education: Determining attitudes towards transgender students’ participation

With the increasing global awareness and recognition of transgender rights and inclusion in various fields, including sports, it is crucial to examine what sports stakeholders think about the participation of transgender people in sports competitions, especially in the Philippines where there is a lack of studies on the topic. This motivated the researcher to conduct this study. Guided by a descriptive research design and using a quantitative-qualitative research approach, this study aims to determine the attitudes towards the participation of transgender athletes in sports, starting with randomly selected athletes from Philippine Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Data were collected through a survey and structured interviews, with questions validated by experts. Findings indicate that the future of sports in Philippine colleges is likely to be inclusive, with student-athletes having positive attitudes towards the idea of allowing trans women and trans men to compete in women’s and men’s sports categories, respectively, and towards the creation of separate sports categories for trans individuals only. This study can help higher education institutions develop more inclusive and respectful athletic practices that promote diversity and equal opportunity for all students who wish to participate on athletic teams and represent their colleges or universities, regardless of gender.

Palimpsests of trans rights: trans-positive stickers and the contestations of transphobia in public space

In recent years, the rights of trans people in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have been increasingly under scrutiny. This paper considers forms of resistance to Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) and neo-fascist gender conservative movements in Edinburgh, Scotland through an analysis of trans-positive stickers in public space. Using an archive of 461 images of trans-rights-related stickers photographed in Edinburgh between August 2018 and May 2022, we explore how trans-positive activism is publicly (en)countering transphobic politics and discourses. Our analysis begins by examining palimpsests of conflict, or the layerings of trans-positive and transphobic stickers – removed, written on, or covered up – in the materiality of public space. We then turn to the transformative potential of stickers as materials of resistance, arguing that trans-positive stickers can undermine transnormative, TERF and neo-fascist gender conservative ideologies and political tactics. Stickers offer public expressions of allyship, communicate political solidarity across social justice movements and marginalised communities, and also provide representations of non-normative trans identities and embodiments. Through this analysis, we present the political potential of stickers as important materials of public resistance that intervene in transphobic political and cultural discourses to produce trans-affirming encounters in public space.

Transgender Rights in Pakistan: A Complete Study under the Constitution and Pakistan Law

The majority of Pakistan's people are Muslims, and the nation as a whole adheres to strict Islamic norms. Governments and societies alike have failed to protect transgender people's rights. With the help of human rights organisations, the transgender population in Pakistan is finally getting some attention, and the Transgender Persons Act, 2018 has just been passed by the Senate. As far back as 2009, the Highest Court in the land of Pakistan issued directions meant to protect the freedoms enjoyed by this group. The issue of "what next?" takes front stage. Positive stakeholder impressions of the Act assist generate public support, therefore tracking them is crucial for the law's long-term viability. Public opinion is only one of many variables that may influence the public policymaking process. Though the regulatory structure of Pakistan in regard to safeguarding the freedoms of transgender people remains in its nascent stage, the doors for potential legislation have recently opened in Pakistan, which will be beneficial in maintaining the liberties of a generally marginalised transgender belonging, as shown by the current research.

Transgender Rights and Religiosities in India

This article argues that religious mythologies and cultural narratives about the timelessness of gender diversity in South Asia frame the formation of the transgender subject of rights in India. The authors interrogate a verdict issued by the Supreme Court of India in 2014 and the Transgender Person Bill of Rights (2018) to ascertain the frames of recognition accorded diverse transgender communities in India. This is followed by an analysis of the category of eunuch created and criminalized by British colonizers and the present-day category of transgender based on self-affirmation of gender. The conflating of religious mythologies into deliberations about transgender constitutional rights reveals how the supposedly secular rights – based claims of and for transgender communities are mediated through a predominantly Hindu Brahmanical imagination of the rights-bearing transgender subject. The authors examine autobiographical narratives by three prominent transgender rights activists in India: Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Living Smile Vidya, and A. Revathi, who provide conflicting visions about the role of religion and state recognition of transgender identities. The authors argue the need for theorizing transgender subjectivities from non-Brahman, Dalit, transmasculine, and non – North Indian perspectives. Such theorizations reveal the potential of coalitional transgender activisms that seek to disrupt Hindu-nationalist hailing of the transgender subject of rights in contemporary India. The authors offer new directions in transgender studies by showing how religious narratives, ritual and performance lie at the heart of transgender subject formation while gesturing toward how such formation risks subsuming transgender identities within (Hindu) nationalist projects.