India announces separate category for transgender taxpayers

I may be wrong but my understanding is that the difference between transgender community in India and here is, In india they are fighting for recognition as third gender and to have equal rights as male and female gender.

Hindu mythology speaks about third gender, gods manifesting as different genders etc., so it is easier for everyone to accept that there is a third gender and they have to be treated equal to others. Colonialism with strict Victorian moral code did make people change people's behaviour.

In the past, anyone who identified as third gender or Hirja, went and joined a community , they lived together, had certain roles in the society, had their own rituals and special god.

But there is a recognition now ,
that this way of life just leaves them in poverty and open to exploitation. Rightfully, they want to have equal opportunity in education, jobs etc.,

rpl.hds.harvard.edu/religion-context/case-studies/gender/third-gender-and-hijras

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7539026/

Indian passports used to have U for transgender but that has been changed to Female now.

Here's another research into sexual practice in Mumbai (if you have access to the doc, else the abstract is visible) - link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-016-0886-0

Seriously, it's all a myth - most are gay men in a deeply homophobic society. (Indian born and raised here too before someone has a go at me)

Agree with this comment. They are viewed differently and not as there in the west.

There's a study from Pakistan pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22204249/ which has this -

^Out of 400 hijras, penis and testes were absent in only three hijras (0.8%) Among the remaining 397 hijras, 98.3% were circumcised and 1.7% were non-circumcised. Inguinal Lymphadenopathy was the most common finding. The study dispels the myth that Hijras in Pakistan have ambiguous genitalia, are hermaphrodites or have undergone removal of male sexual organs.^

eyope actually no. A small minority are intersex or people with DSD. A large number are 'camp' gay. Regarding the castration - a large % retain their male tackle and the initiation ceremony can be purely symbolic. There was some research into numbers, I'll see if I can find it.

(I should possibly clarify any foundations for my comment - Born and bred in India for 22 years and settled in the UK for 17 years).

Hijra and issues around Hijra in India does NOT equal to the trans issue we see in the west. It would be quite misplaced to draw comparisons and parallels.

Third gender categories have been common in very patriarchal societies so that the (male) individuals in that category (often gay men, rarely women) do not disrupt the rigid hierarchy of men over women. The existence of third genders in some cultures is perfectly compatible with extreme subjugation of women, for instance, so it's not the kind of thing it is now being painted by activists.

Whatever else they are, they are not hermaphrodites! No human being can produce both sperm and ova - all of us are either male or female, even those patients with DSDs (disorders of sexual development).

New Scottish tax forms:

Male
Female
Rapist

Third gender categories are never a sign of progress; they always exist as a product of homophobia and sexism. They are a societal coping mechanism for dealing with gays and lesbians and people who fail to meet cultural sexual stereotypes. Seeing third genders as a sign that the past was more progressive about gender is completely ahistorical.

This isn't what a 'hijra' is. They are either hermaphrodites or men who have undergone voluntary castration who don't want to be seen as or referred to as men. They are proud of their community (which is quite established) and their identity - and do not see themselves as male gendered. They do not see themselves as women either (though they dress and speak as women). The third gender exists to allow them this choice. It isn't a govt or society mandated designation.

Incidentally they've always existed in India as a group and any negative connotations only came about because the conservative British persecuted them during their rule. And this became the way of life. We are now heading back to a place of more acceptance and inclusion for them and this is what this policy represents.

Countries that have quite strict ideals on what men and women should be tend to have "third genders". The Hirja are pretty much effeminate men who society deems not masculine enough to be real men, so that get related to a different category.

It would be a mistake to attribute Western ideas around gender identity and gender dysmorphia to these people.

But unsurprisingly as the West develops stricter stereotypes around gender the consequences are alternative genders as people struggle to fit into such strict stereotypes (which many trans groups promote).

Sorry OP, it took me a while to realise it doesn’t refer to India Willoughby taking it upon them self to make up a new tax category