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Transgender groups in India constitute an indigenous community with a rich and vivid culture and history. However, it is unfortunate that under the hegemonic influence of heteronormative traditions, the democratic inclusion and accommodation of transgender groups could never take place. This exclusion and neglect have recently been challenged through the activism of several groups, which has given rise to a new chapter in the democratic unfolding in India. This article attempts to evaluate the social activism of transgender groups on two planes. One plane attempts to evaluate it in terms of the uniqueness of an indigenous social movement and the areas that distinguish it from other social movements. It is interesting to note that what started as a purely identity-based social movement has now acquired dimensions of redistributive justice. The second plane attempts to evaluate the social activism of transgender groups in terms of the achievements and advances made by the movement on the social and political fronts. This evaluation is necessary in order to appraise the trajectory of the politics of transgender groups, which could foretell the direction of the activism and help in understanding the future scope and direction. The article takes up three arguments in the context of the legal framework put in effect by the state. The first point of discussion is the effectiveness of the transgender ID provided by the Transgender Persons Act and the possible challenges and loopholes related to it. While the state provides legal recognition through the issuance of the transgender ID card, it only remains a symbolic marker as the de facto identity remains unchanged, unless changed by the person themselves. The second point of discussion is the emerging rift amongst transgender groups with respect to the reforms introduced recently. This rift has a tendency to pull in the opposite direction, causing tensions. The final aspect of my discussion relates to the subsequent challenges that emerge from the legal recognition of transgender persons. These challenges touch upon the various aspects of legal, political, social, and economic policymaking and are inevitable for understanding the concerns of transgender persons in India.

AbstractThe alternate sexualities face a society and discourse which presumes a condition of ceteris paribus for heteronormativity. Such framework of understanding very often denies the very existence of the alternate sexualities, and thus, their concerns of justice remain out of the purview of any democratic deliberation. The idea of coerced invisibility discusses such status of the alternate sexualities, wherein they are suppressed and neglected at multifarious levels. This erosion of spatiality puts them under a situation of "out of bounds" which ensures their insulation from the issues such as justice and equality. The paper attempts to discuss how coerced invisibility is a tool through which the exclusion of the alternate sexualities is ensured. The impact of coerced invisibility extends from one's psychology to social existence. When imposed in an acute form, it often produces results like alienation and anomie, which causes serious implications for the alternate sexualities.

AbstractThe queer movement in India celebrated a landmark with the decriminalization of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code in 2018. Another milestone was reached through the legal recognition of the transgender population of the Indian state in 2019. These developments point towards a positive progression of the queer movement in India. The change in the perspective of the state towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) shows a positive stance towards the concerns of the LGBTQI groups. However, the trajectory taken by the Indian state with respect to the concern of the queer community is riddled with a few challenges and roadblocks, which might create obstacles in furthering the concerns of the LGBTQI groups. The engagement with the heteronormative framework makes the sight of the state prismatic, which leads to lopsided and ineffective results. Thus, it is important to understand the specific nature of the concerns of the LGBTQI groups before embarking upon the task of restitution. This paper seeks to discuss the changing perspective of the Indian state towards the concerns of the LGBTQI and find the probable challenges that might be left unaddressed.