Leaving No One Behind: Transgender Inclusion in India's Sustainable Development by Sharon Sarah Thawaney
November 28, 2023
Introduction:
(Observer Research Foundation) The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a comprehensive framework for addressing global challenges and fostering a more equitable and sustainable future for all. Its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not only a blueprint for achieving peace and prosperity for both the planet and its people but also a clarion call for global cooperation amongst United Nations (UN) member states. These goals seek to achieve socio-economic development, with the underlying theme of “Leaving no one behind” (LNOB). This theme goes beyond helping the most impoverished—it involves fighting discrimination and reducing inequalities globally, based on the UN human rights framework.
This essay seeks to explore the status of the transgender community in India’s sustainable development journey. By analysing transgender rights in India, this brief envisions how the SDGs can help foster an environment that guarantees inclusion, equality, and social justice for this community.
Transgender is an umbrella term that can be used to encompass people whose gender identity is different from the gender ascribed at birth. India, within the South Asian socio-cultural context, carries one of the richest histories of the ‘Hijras’—who represent only one segment of the transgender community among other gender non-conforming identities. Evidence of this community is referenced in various temple carvings and religious scriptures. Even during the Mughal era, hijras held prestigious positions in the royal court. However, this community did not find a place within Western perceptions of gender and was classified as “criminals” under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 by the British colonisers. This marked the institutionalisation of the transgender community's marginalization—a situation that persists to this day.
The nature of this marginalisation is evident, with the transgender community consistently facing significant barriers in accessing healthcare, education, housing, and employment. Their daily lives are marred by the pervasive influence of stigma, discrimination, and violence, all of which are perpetuated by deeply ingrained societal biases and institutional inadequacies left unaddressed, effectively relegating them to the peripheries of society.
Liz Truss wants to ban children from changing gender through hormone therapy
Sunday 3 December 2023
Liz Truss is to propose a law that will ban children from trying to change their gender.
She also wants to ban transgender women from entering female-only spaces - including toilets, changing rooms, refuges and prisons.
Aides close to the former prime minister say she hopes to propose a Bill in the Commons this week that will prevent under-18s from accessing hormone therapy and block the state from recognising social transitioning by children.
The draft legislation will also aim to ensure single-sex spaces are protected in law. More specifically, it will prevent transgender women from accessing female-only areas.
A source said Ms Truss felt there needed to be stronger protections in law to prevent under-18s from “making irreversible decisions about their bodies which they might come to regret”.
Time_Traveller wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 4:25 pmLiz Truss wants to ban children from changing gender through hormone therapy
Sunday 3 December 2023
Liz Truss is to propose a law that will ban children from trying to change their gender.
She also wants to ban transgender women from entering female-only spaces - including toilets, changing rooms, refuges and prisons.
Aides close to the former prime minister say she hopes to propose a Bill in the Commons this week that will prevent under-18s from accessing hormone therapy and block the state from recognising social transitioning by children.
The draft legislation will also aim to ensure single-sex spaces are protected in law. More specifically, it will prevent transgender women from accessing female-only areas.
A source said Ms Truss felt there needed to be stronger protections in law to prevent under-18s from “making irreversible decisions about their bodies which they might come to regret”.
Pope approves blessings for same-sex couples if the rituals don't resemble marriage
BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Updated 6:25 AM PST, December 18, 2023
ROME (AP) -- Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking God's love and mercy shouldn't be subject to "an exhaustive moral analysis" to receive it.
The document from the Vatican's doctrine office, released Monday, elaborates on a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October. In that preliminary response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn't confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.
The new document repeats that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. And it stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.
But it says requests for such blessings should not be denied full stop. It offers an extensive definition of the term "blessing" in Scripture to insist that people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy should not be subject to "an exhaustive moral analysis" as a precondition for receiving it.
Some Traditionalist Bishops Revolt After Vatican Allows ‘Blessing’ Same-sex Couples by David Bumgardner
December 22, 2023
Introduction:
(Baptist News Global) Pope Francis may have authorized non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, but not everyone in the Catholic hierarchy is going along.
Traditionalist bishops, particularly in Africa and Asia, already are revolting and defying the pope’s supposedly unquestionable authority.
In a recent report, The Wall Street Journal’s longtime Vatican and global religion correspondent Francis X. Rocca indicated “the bishops of Zambia, Malawi, and the principal archdiocese of Kazakhstan prohibited their priests” from offering blessings of same-sex couples.
The report added the bishops of Ukraine issued a statement of lament for the declaration’s wording, “which they warned could suggest approval of gay relationships.”
Of special note was a statement issued by the bishops of Zambia. They indicated their ban on blessing same-sex couples despite the new papal policy was “in order to avoid any pastoral confusion and ambiguity as well as not to break the law of our country which forbids same sex unions and activities and while listening to our cultural heritage which does not accept same sex relationships.”
