Binary compulsion: A dangerous gender myth

In Nepal, the term ‘third gender’ has been used, which is derived from the root word Tritiya Prakriti (‘person of third nature’ in Sanskrit language). There were more than two genders recognised in East and South Asia, and most of African and other indigenous societies until Christianity or Islam took over. Gender variant people have existed throughout the world and across time, celebrated in some cultures, denigrated in others. Some societies did not just recognize people who embodied a gender identity beyond the binary, for example, hijra, kothi, maruni, janana, nastri, napumshak communities in South Asia, two-spirit people among some Native American cultures, waria, kathoi in Southeast Asia and Fa’afafine in Pacific Islander communities, they were/are well-respected and had/have important roles, largely accepted by all, to play in society. While the blunt classificatory instruments of colonial rule imposed new and bureaucratic restrictions on gender assignment/self-identification, these communities persisted, and continue to this day to provide alternate ways of thinking about gender that evade the externally imposed binary classification. Now, due to centuries of long and ardent missionary propaganda, and the role of the western media, these cultural influences are so strong that even these above-mentioned people of third nature don’t wish to use their traditional identity to introduce themselves, and often prefer the English word ‘transgender’. It’s important to note here that the word ‘third’ does not mean third in terms of a ranking order. Instead, it just means not so obvious, special, middle gender; something similar to the meaning when we say ‘the third eye’, indicating thereby merely the fact that there are more than two. These communities of non-binary genders thus have to face a dilemma in their thinking process. Substituting western/modern words for the terms traditionally used to signify gender have become an easy way out for them, instead of accepting and living out who they are culturally conditioned to be bodywise, emotionally, and spiritually. Let’s try to understand with an example. What’s the thought when one says, “I am (born) in the wrong body.”? Where is this notion of the ‘wrong body’ coming from? What/who made you believe that you are in a ‘wrong body’? Who taught you and made you believe that some ‘other body’ is the ‘right body’ for you, instead of the one you were born with? Western theology and myths tell us that when God created the world (stars, sun, moon, rivers, valleys, trees, animals, food), he created a man (Adam). After a while, God realized that the man he created was lonely and needed a helper/companion. He decided to create a woman to help and entertain that man, Adam, and thus created a woman, Eve. Thus, according to Western faith/culture system (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), God did not create any gender other than man and woman. This is at the very root of the binary that is being imposed today. This faith tradition impacts transgender persons adversely. It lays down that a male can only become a man, a female can only become a woman. Other options, whereby a male wishes to become a woman (or vice-versa), are seen as antithetical to the grand plan laid out by God. It’s thus understood as something that we mere mortals should not interfere with or tamper. To try to do so is variously seen as unnatural, sinful, and even criminal. But in Eastern faith traditions and culture systems there is no creator god! ‘Creation’ is not an exclusive phenomenon, and is instead an integral part of a long drawn out and cyclical process, wherein creation, its sustenance, and its destruction are all part and parcel of the same continuous long cycle and are intimately linked to each other. Thus, anything that has ‘existence’ is part of the magic of this eternal cycle, and there is no value judgment attached to it. Everything, and every phenomenon in nature is ‘natural’. Human beings are not competent to question this grand scheme, nor capable of attaching value-driven interpretations of right and wrong on natural phenomenons. Human beings become part of this cycle through their actions (Karma), and every consequence in the life of an individual is a result of their karma. Thus men, women, and several other genders are part of humanity and part of nature and existence. They all are living their own ‘karma’. Therefore, one cannot say that any one gender is better or ‘more right’ than any other gender. Hence, no one can be urged to become a man or a woman. One is what one is, naturally, as a consequence of past karma, and that’s that. Therefore, historically everyone was, (and still are in many indigenous communities) respected regardless of their gender and sexual identity. In the mid-18th century, Judaeo-Christian morality was given the imprimatur of ‘scientific pathology’, and homosexuality was classified as a mental illness. This happened likely under the influence of that set of biblical ideas wherein sodomy is sinful, women were created to help and entertain men, and copulation was sanctioned only within heterosexual matrimony (preferably in the missionary position). Until a few decades ago, and very much within recent memory, even in supposedly advanced and modern countries like the USA and the UK, homosexual people were diagnosed as mentally sick. Thus even the scientific edifice of modern society worked toward conditioning many gays and lesbians to start believing that they had a mental disorder. Many cruel and inhuman therapies, including electric shock therapy and overdoses of numbing drugs were administered to ‘change people’. Of course, since it was not ‘science’ but morality-driven prejudices that created the so-called pathology in the first place, none of these therapies actually worked. Since the early 80s of the last century, gay rights activists fought against such unscientific claims, and the harm such pseudo-sciences caused. As a result, homosexually was finally removed from the list of mental health disorders. The cycle of pain, suffering, and discrimination that gay men underwent, and their successful struggle to engineer change and claim their rights is today being replicated for persons whose gender identification defies the binary of man and woman and the straightjacketed roles assigned to each. The structures that contribute to creating dominant discourses and ideas are heavily influenced by the West, and sadly, it is still stuck with the pathologizing diagnosis of gender dysphoria attributed to those persons whose gender characteristics or features differ from the accepted binary of men and women. Not surprisingly this time too, it is driven by the same biblical belief, and Judaeo-Christian morality. Often the religiously leaning conservatives are at the forefront of driving this pseudo science. Such an unquestioned and faith-driven attitude is deep-rooted and strong. Under the influence of religious scholars, whose dominance in thought engineering has been at work for many many centuries, today many persons of differing gender characteristics and features themselves believe that they have gender dysphoria. They end up seeking unnecessary, costly, and potentially harmful treatments, including sex reassignment surgery, hormone therapy, etc. Having been made to believe such biblical propaganda, they regard not being a man or woman as a social and pathological problem. They end up thinking that they are in the wrong body. Eastern philosophy creates space for everyone, thus instead of problematising something that is natural, it creates a support structure that’s inclusive. Its terminology is also therefore inclusive. Third Gender is such a term. It breaks and extends the binary of man and woman to include those that are not. It therefore also fosters a society where it’s OK to be different without having to militate against or tamper with one’s body. Occidental philosophy by contrast is about pathology and transformation, with the end goal being to conform to standards set by the outside. It’s not about acceptance and creating space for everyone, but about tampering to fit a pre-set mold. Thus also its terminology. ‘Trans’ means change. It seeks to tamper what’s naturally present, to change it. And to do this it convinces anyone who does not conform that they not only have a problem, but that they are a problem. It creates self conflicted mindsets. It is important to explore this further, so let us enumerate this out? Problems of unquestioningly accepting transgenderism on faith: 1) Trangenderism establishes the wrong notion that to be a human up to par, one must become a man or a woman. Otherwise, one becomes less of a human. Because of this belief, one tries everything, including sex reassignment surgery, to become a man or a woman. 2) It devalues diversity among humans with regard to sexual and gender identity while reinforcing the binary gender system, thereby making everyone who does not conform to sexual/gender norms feel bad/low about themselves, reinforces low self-esteem, and indirectly supports patriarchal norms, which idolizes heterosexuality. 3) It results in unnecessary medical intervention to alter one’s nature, which potentially can bring physical, mental, and health problems in life at any time. Such medical interventions are costly, and while slightly easier for male to female gender transitioning, they are extremely difficult and far more expensive for female to male gender transition, which is unfair to the latter. Needless to say, there are other practical problems associated with transgenders that have been discussed extensively and openly in the last few decades. For example, we can take the issue of transgender people’s participation in sports. The issue of sporting ethics arises because allowing transwomen to compete along with other women in sports seems to provide an unfair advantage to transwomen, but permission for transmen to compete along with men creates a distinct disadvantage for the majority of transmen. If one sees the fact that women’s sports was separated out from men’s sports because women’s and men’s physiologies are different, then one fails to see the logic of allowing transmen to compete in men’s sports and/or transwomen to compete in women’s sports. The only explanation that fits this insistence is that of the orthodoxy of gender binary, wherein everyone has to fit into one of the two set criteria, and even if ‘naturally existing’ in reality, a third (or fourth) category will not be acknowledged or created. Many eastern, African, and other indigenous faiths and cultures have historically accepted, and some are still accepting, of more than two genders. In some cultures, 5 or even 7 genders have been acknowledged and accepted. In the Tantra tradition as practiced in the mountain regions, all these genders were considered divine. Every gender had/have their important roles to play in these societies. No one was/is considered sick, or weak, or diseased because their gender trait is different from the norm. It is a proper and unconditional celebration of gender diversity. To be born male but to grow up with feminine features and presentations if that is one’s nature is a cause of celebration. Similarly, to be born female and to grow with masculine features and presentations, if that is one’s nature is celebrated too. Intersexed people are/were considered having special devine powers and well-respected. We see therefore that in these societies, unlike in the west, no one was/is needed to transit from their core self, their nature, their ‘prakriti’. One can simply be who one is and still be celebrated and valued. No one has to consider their natural state as being pathologically afflicted. The inherent human dignity of everyone is preserved and protected without interference. It is a culture where patriarchy has as much weight as matriarchy, and both are equally valued. The government of Nepal has introduced a policy that requires a medical certificate of sex change surgery if one wishes to apply for citizenship identity documents that recognise their gender as different from their sex at birth. One fails to understand why the government cannot find the moral courage to rely on the wisdom and inclusivity fostered by Nepal’s inclusive, rich, dignity-reinforcing customs, faith-traditions, and culture. It’s a misfortune of cultural genocidal proportions when a government is motivated by imported morality, customs, and ideas, to create legal frameworks that oppress its citizens, while ignoring the much better, inclusive and rights-affirming national traditions. The author is a LGBTIQA+ activist. He was the first openly gay national-level legislator in Asia

Sunil Babu Pant: A guardian of LGBTIQA+ community

Quick facts Born on June 1972 in Gorkha  Went to Laxmi Secondary School, Gorkha  Graduated in Computer Science from Ukraine and Belarus  Became the member of first constituent assembly in 2008  Partner to Peter Neil  I saw the oppression of gay men during my time in Minsk, Belarus, where I was studying for my master’s degree in computer science. The queer bashing, the posters in hospitals telling people to ‘beware of gays’, the police raids and beatings were commonplace. Throughout my stay there, I didn’t have contact with the subterranean gay life that existed there. So it was in Japan where I was first exposed to my own sexuality. I had gone there to work as a volunteer.  What I found changed me irrevocably. For three days I could not sleep, I was deeply scared. In order to reconcile my own view of myself and the world, I talked to a gay book seller and read every useful book I could get my hands on, including works on Hinduism and sexuality. Next, I went to Hong Kong for further studies at the University of Science and Technology. What I found there confused and disoriented me. Expecting Hong Kong to be a modern society with liberal ways, I was open about my sexual orientation. I was wrong. People there were not comfortable with my openness. I abandoned my studies and returned to Nepal after just six months.  I was less interested in computer studies by that time. I wanted to become a social worker instead. In 1999, I went to Odisha as a volunteer to bring aid to the victims of the super cyclone that killed over 10,000 people. I stayed 10 months there. While I was there, I was also introduced to Buddhism.  Returning to Nepal, and by now certain of the sort of path my life would take, I started to meet other people from LGBTIQA+ community and learned how unpleasant and difficult their lives were. So, I decided to do something about this, and in 2001 formed the Blue Diamond Society, Nepal’s first LGBTIQA+ organization. Blue Diamond started off with AIDS prevention work, the only way then available to get funding and NGO registration. The organization swiftly moved into monitoring and reporting on human rights abuses. We also instituted a human rights training program. We set up an office in Kathmandu, and quickly spread to other towns and cities.  The activities Blue Diamond was involved in culminated in 2007 in an incredible victory in the Supreme Court, in Sunil Babu Pant and Others vs. Government of Nepal and Others. An interim government was in power, from which I had hoped for much, but it proved uninterested in reforms, so Blue Diamond decided to go to court to fight the discriminatory laws and attitude towards the gay community. We won the landmark case, and, in a wide-ranging decision, the court ruled that the government should recognize the third gender and review and reform all laws that had a discriminatory basis.  The government accepted the ruling and Nepal thus became the first country in the world to recognize a third sex and the first in South Asia to legalize homosexuality. The upshot also included the formation of a seven-member same Sex Marriage Committee. The ruling basically decriminalized homosexuality and allowed study on same-sex marriage in Nepal in 2008. And this decision became a reference for many other countries.  This victory brought me to the attention of Kathmandu’s political world. Always looking for votes in the highly fractious bull pit of Nepal’s politics, a small offshoot communist party, the Communist Party of Nepal (United), invited Blue Diamond to participate in its campaign for the elections for the new Constituent Assembly in 2008.  We asked political parties to put sexual and gender minorities in their manifestos. The Maoist party, which joined the peaceful politics following the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, was the first to do so.  In the CA election, the CPN (United) won five seats under the proportional representation system, all in the fifteen districts in which Blue Diamond had offices and conducted election campaigns. By the time, we had over 150,000 active members in the organization. After the election I became the first openly gay parliamentarian in Asia. I took the fight for gay rights directly into the Constituent Assembly, whose task was to draft a new constitution.  I was heavily involved in the drafting of the Fundamental Rights Chapter and secured agreements from all the major parties on the inclusion of provisions to include non-discrimination on grounds of gender and sexual orientation.  Sex, gender and sexuality were not something politely discussed in those days. Despite a very tolerant attitude to the sexual act itself, everyone got married and was expected to produce an heir. There was nothing approaching any recognition of the West’s current rigid differentiations of queer and straight and certainly no identifiable queer lifestyle.  Instead, there was a much more traditional acceptance of a third gender of men who adopted women’s dress and who, in accordance with Hindu tradition, danced and sang at weddings, births and festivals to bring good fortune and to entertain. These could be either castrated hijras, as in India, or uncastrated men from hill tribes, marunis in the hills of the west, notwas among the peoples of the plains, or metis in the hills of eastern Nepal.  Our society’s attitude toward gender and sexuality is gradually changing, but there is still a lot where we could improve on. The important thing is we need to continue this struggle and keep the debate alive.      About him  Madhav Dulal (Friend) I have known him since he became the member of first Constituent Assembly. He is a guardian for LGBTIQA+ community. Not only that, he is an advocate for human rights and youths. He is a very friendly and approachable individual. I have not seen anyone who could continue his legacy in queer community yet. If he was into politics, he could have achieved much better than what the Rastriya Swatantra Party has done in a short period of time. Renu Chand (Colleague) Before Sunil Babu Pant became a member of the first Constituent Assembly, Nepali politicians had no idea about LGBTIQA+ community and their issues. I give him full credit for making the country aware of this issue. After Pant, I have not seen anyone take up the cause with the same zeal. His legacy will live on.  Kiran Thapa (Family member) He is a big hearted person. Because of him, we have our own identity of LGBTIQA+ community. All the achievements we got legally, it’s all because of him. We were together in that movement but he was the one to show us the correct path. We can’t forget him, never. Even if we did, our history has his name written on the golden plate.