Gender Identity & India

In my opinion, we humans are born as bisexual (sexually attracted to both men and women) it's just the hetero-stereotyped world where we end up getting identified as straights, anyways let's keep my beliefs aside and jump into the topic.

As you all know India is regarded for being very stereotypical in terms of gender identity. It means that it has issues regarding people identifying their sex even though it's trying its best to train their minds into having to adapt to a broader-minded aisle. But the wholesome story rounds up and quite literally ends up in the same homophobic manner as always. So, who should we blame here? Should we blame the government for this? Or the people? Nah, it's to cliché! Why not start a new chapter? Why not incorporate it daily as a part of our education? After all, the very purpose of education is to explore life sexual identity is very much a part of it. Education on such a matter will help young people to feel comfortable about whatever orientation they have!!!!

As we keep modernizing, the world seems to have gotten more ironic. Not a single day is there where you're not disregarded for being either too explicit or too hidden. Initially, India did take some serious initiative in terms of implementing and approving some rights on the LGBTQ community, but it ended up being lame in many ways. The actual transformation became like a put-up act up for the sake of media and publicity. This is very evident from when recently I happened to come across the article on the implementation of LGBTQ rights where they clearly stated that "India has a patriarchal ideology. This is an undiluted endorsement of the traditional gender preference and evidently cannot cope up with the idea of change in any terms. This truly got me to feel terrible and surely the other believers of gender equality too. It is so bad that it prompts the belief that most of us Indian's are ignorant about such an issue. Lord Shiva the divine Supreme being who is worshipped by literally every Indian household stands out as a half woman half man in his avatar as Ardhanarishvara. Yet, we mortals hardly discriminate against him, yet when it comes to lesser mortals, we tend to go against such a thought. Why!?!?

If people can normalize their state and glorify it for having the composition of both genders why don't they go about using the same sense of understanding by regarding, respecting, and reassuring the sex identity chosen to proceed our life in the human world? We the "humans living on earth" have laid down rules which constrict us to an inhuman arena. After all, the sexual orientation was gifted to him by the very God whom we all revere. Who are we then to outcaste, discriminate and violate that great gift given by God when he or she was born? It's just too frustrating to come out in such a constricted society.

However, the Indian people seem to have been rapidly progressing and in favor of the generation Zen’s opinions. There is now quite a fair chance of having our leaders from the Queer community. There have been encouraging beginnings and budding acceptance from society at large. There is a promise in our land where one would be free to be live without having the fear of being judged and look down upon whatever be your sexual orientation.

I know it's just too much to expect from a conservative developing country like India to be able to accept advanced changes, but it all starts with thinking which very often happens within the peripheries of our schools. The evolving educational curriculum appears to be pointing to a more open and freer environment for learning what is morally and fundamentally right. I do personally believe that slowly but surely we will progress towards our intended future of gender equality hand in hand with progressive schooling.

By: Gracyla Norbu Bhutia
Tashi Namgyal Academy