Transgenders Disapprove Of Medical Tests To Determine Gender For ID Card

Photo courtesy: Hindustan Times

Chennai: The transgender community has objected to medical examinations conducted to provide them identity cards in Tamil Nadu.

Transgender activists are arguing that lower abdominal scan to ascertain their gender are “unnecessary and humiliating”, reported timesnownews.com.

One of the transwomen, who had applied for transgender identity card, was asked to visit the district medical college hospital for doctors to issue the gender identification statement.

“We were asked to go to our district medical college for a scan… they told us that the procedure for issuing identity cards has changed and only if the scan report is attached to our application, we will get our cards,” the transwoman was quoted as saying by The News Minute.

“This is the first time I am hearing of this rule,” she said.

Recalling the experience, the woman said they were scanned in front of several strangers.

According to a lawyer, the state government has been following the old procedure of gender identification despite the Supreme Court’s National Legal Services Authority Vs Union of India (NALSA) judgment.

“As per NALSA judgment, it is very clear that there should not be any physical examination and that it should be certified only based on self-identification. In Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Nadu Third Gender Welfare Board has been following the procedure including a sonogram and a physical examination since beginning. This has been followed from before NALSA judgment. Now after NALSA judgment, this should have been changed,” Sathyashri Sharmila was quoted as saying.