Give justice to transgender

In 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan granted equal human rights to the transgender community and ordered authorities to recognize transgender people as a separate legal identity on their national identity cards. Now, is the need for understanding the current living situation of the transgender community, how it transformed in the past seven years since the Supreme Court judgment. No work has been done to analyze how successful the implementation of the judgment was, and what policies need to be constructed in order to promote equity and equality for all despite whatever gender differences an individual may have. This can only be done through an in-depth examination of the situation of transgender people.

It is said “the lack of a single common framework for deciding what is ethical and what is not thus ultimately influences the outcome of public policymaking and the reputation of public relations”. The second area of focus is to understand the loopholes that may exist in the Supreme Court judgment and that may have contributed to the failure of its successful implementation. The judgment was prompted by the identity factor. Identity can be referred to as a term which may be social and personal. Social category implies to a group of individuals noticed or recognized by labels and differentiated by policies or laws that decide association and characteristic qualities. As for the second term personal identity can be looked upon as an understanding of unchangeable characteristics due to which an individual feels self-importance since it distinguishes the individual from others. However, there are various definitions and arguments that have been presented for identity throughout history. Identity plays a crucial role in Identity Politics which is a phrase that is widely used to imply numerous political activities and the speculation that is formed due to certain social groups who share their experiences of injustice. The main aim of the development of Identity politics is to protect the political liberty of those individuals who are marginalized in the population and suffer on the basis of their identity in a superior environment so equality can prevail in the society.

The term ‘transgender’ refers to those individuals whose gender identity, behavior and expression differ from the assigned one given at birth. This also includes those individuals who may have had gender reassignment surgery, hormonal treatment or no treatment at all. However, the term ‘transgender’ is often viewed in two ways; the first one being the original definition represents the individuals who cross gender, without having any gender reassignment surgery. The second way is more assorted or taken as an umbrella term which includes all identities and practices that cross or move outside the ideology that has been built regarding gender restrictions. In other words, it includes and is not restricted to heterosexuals, intersex individuals, transvestites, transsexuals, and eunuchs.

It is critical to state here that sexual orientation and gender identity is not the same thing. Gender identity is one’s own perception of ‘self’, despite their physical or emotional appeal towards another person which is sexual orientation.

To be clear, gender nonconformity is not considered as a mental disorder; ‘gender dysphoria’ is in fact described as major mental agony that affects the communal and occupational functioning of a person.

In Pakistan, getting diagnosed and going through sex reassignment surgeries is not as common as it is in developed countries. The reason is the majority of transgender folks residing in Pakistan face issues of poverty and illiteracy.