In a small win for inclusivity for queer people across India, the Government of India last week approved a transgender Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer’s request to remove his deadname from official records. After the Ministry of Finance issued an order to this effect on 10 July, his name was changed to M Anukathir Surya on public records.
Anukathir doesn’t owe anyone this visibility. But his story making it to national headlines is still important for inclusivity – especially in a country where we still see queer and trans creators receive brutal trolling on social media.
More often than not, their queer identities are reduced to a ‘foreign’ concept. While queer and trans people have thus far carried the burden of visibility and combatting false narratives like that, the Indian government’s recognition of Anukathir’s identity only bolsters their fight.
However, one can’t allow this win to eclipse the reality of queer lives in India. Let's understand why!
Reporting Anukathir’s Story: Deadnaming, Misgendering, and General Lack of Sensitivity
One of the most glaring reasons is just the way Anukathir’s story was reported across news portals. Almost every news portal used Anukathir’s deadname (alongside his affirmed name) and the pronouns “she/her”.
A deadname is usually the name given to a trans person at birth by their parents or a guardian – and many trans people choose to eventually stop using the name. Using someone’s deadname is not only inaccurate; it is disrespectful and sets a harmful precedent.
Even if Anukathir or any individual trans person is comfortable with their deadname being mentioned, it’s the writer’s responsibility to clarify that. The Inqlusive Newsrooms LGBTQIA+ Media Reference Guide (by The News Minute and Queer Chennai Chronicles) mentions a (simple) guideline to reporting in such cases.
“While reporting, do not ask for a person’s ‘old name’ or ‘original name’ or deadname. It is not an important detail that society needs to know, and mentioning a person’s deadname in a story is disrespectful. Similarly, descriptions like ‘the man became a woman’ or ‘the woman became a man’ should be avoided. You must stick to the name they give you in all published reports.”The Inqlusive Newsrooms LGBTQIA+ Media Reference Guide
If you make a list of the very simple instructions mentioned above (and it will be a short list), barely any news portal would score high (or score any points at all). Let’s take a look at some of the reporting (Anukathir's deadname has been struck out).
Anukathir is currently a Joint Commissioner in the office of the Chief Commissioner of the Customs Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal in Hyderabad.
Even a considerably high-profile case like his doesn’t lead to basic empathy in reporting.
This is not an anomaly either. Even when former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s son Suchetan Bhattacharya came out as a trans man in 2023, he was misgendered in media reports (not counting the transphobic rhetoric peddled online by a section of social media).
Speaking of his experience, Bhattacharya had told Indian Express, “It is very painful to carry a biological gender identity which is totally opposite of my actual gender identity that I feel mentally and emotionally. It hurts me a lot to carry a female name, write female in the gender section, see the ‘Ms’ title in front of my name and so on but this pain gets deeper and deeper as I am getting older.”
Social Media Is Still Rife With, Largely Unchecked, Transphobic Rhetoric
One can’t read stories like that of Anukathir and Suchetan without thinking of stories like Pranshu’s – a queer teenager who died by suicide in 2023. Even after Pranshu’s passing, comments under his Instagram posts were homophobic and transphobic, hinting at a sinister reality.
At the time, The Quint had spoken to queer creators about the homophobic and transphobic harassment they face online and how social media platforms fail to provide them with a safe space. Roshini Kumar, a queer artist and activist, had said,
“They (bullies) want us dead. They don't care. From name-calling to wanting us killed, these bullies have no face or accountability. Of course, it affects our mental health. If it doesn't get to you today, it will get to you tomorrow. Yesterday, it was Pranshu. Tomorrow it might be someone we know.”Roshini Kumar, Queer artist and activist
A 2023 GLAAD (a non-governmental media organisation working towards LGBTQIA+ advocacy) report on online safety had noted that there is a “anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on social media” – and this rhetoric goes largely unchecked.
Sensitive reportage on queer issues is only one of the things that can challenge this reality by increasing inclusive visibility.
For younger queer people, it is important to see stories of people they can identify with in mainstream media, but that shouldn’t be negated by irresponsible coverage.
For instance, this (inaccurate and bigoted) assumption that there are “too many queer people in India now” – a false rhetoric often peddled by trolls online – can only exist if queer people aren’t allowed the visibility they deserve.
The Ground Reality of Getting a TG ID/ Certificate
There is another aspect to the news about Anukathir – and the Ministry of Finance’s order to change his name on public records. Some news portals reported that Anukathir was ‘allowed’ to do so which, in itself, is inaccurate considering there wasn’t any need for permission.
Anyone has the right to remove their deadname from official documents by law thanks to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules passed in 2020 – and put into effect the same year.
Through the National Portal for Transgender Persons, trans people can apply for a TG certificate and an identity card. These documents – as quoted on the portal – “help(s) in identification of the Transgender Person” and after the documents are issued, “a transgender person is entitled to change name & gender in all official documents”. The application is supposed to be processed in a maximum of 30 days.
Yet, for many trans people, this simple act is a battle. Trans people often face hurdles while trying to obtain these documents, including confrontations with the District Magistrate (DM) responsible for issuing them.
Moreover, the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment has also set up shelter homes for transgender people called ‘Garima Greh’. A coordinator from such an establishment in Jaipur had told BoomLive in 2023, “The creation of the portal was a step in the right direction. But DMs of rural areas make inconsistent demands not stipulated in the Act, and there is no proper assistance on the ground regarding technical aspects.”
Even after the certificate is issued, getting your name changed on official documents can be a hassle. Shiva (name changed for privacy) recalled, “Before I started the process, I talked to a lot of trans people in my home state, and they all had a different order of events. We got a lawyer to help us register through the transgender identity portal. And once that was done, I was issued my TG ID/certificate.”
Speaking of getting his name updated in the Aadhaar card, he said,
“The Aadhaar card process was tougher because, for some reason, they refused to accept my TG ID as the main proof of identity for ‘male’ because I think I could have gotten my Aadhaar to ‘transgender’ but not ‘male’ which is what I wanted.”Shiva (alias)
“I had to get a certificate from an endocrinologist saying that I am undergoing transition medically and that I'm doing hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and some people had to give like, post operation certificates. I didn’t have to do that thankfully and some people I know didn’t have to submit this certificate either. I had to get the certificate done in (my hometown) from an endocrinologist because my regular doctor is in Mumbai, and he said that it’s not a thing to give out such a certificate. So, the process is messy,” he added.
While the process of updating his passport is underway, Shiva faced a lot of back and forth from his college despite having a TG ID/ certificate. “You generally need your name published in the gazette after you do the TG ID process, but I didn’t need to. I used the documents I had to get my Aadhaar done, so I didn’t need to get my name published in the gazette, except that resulted in a lot of back and forth with my college. But I eventually used the certificate to get my name changed on my degree. The PAN card was the easiest to get,” he said.
Shiva added that his major takeaway from the whole process was that it is ‘tedious and annoying’, but things go smoother if a parent or adult is present.
"I went with my mother, and she handled most of the talking and it went well because they took her seriously. Maybe they were like, ‘Okay, this kid has parental support,’ so they were pretty nice to me as well,” Shiva added.
‘Only About 4% Transgender People Have the TG ID Card/Certificate’
Cases like this highlight how a lack of sensitivity training can further put trans people at risk even as they go through the process. Another issue with the process is the lack of accessibility. Jeet, the founder of Yes, We Exist – an independent LGBTQIA+ rights watchdog – said to The Quint,
“The website is only available in English; it shows Hindi, Gujarati, and Malayalam and Bengali as available language options, but only the homepage gets translated to these four languages, the rest of the website is in English only. How many transgender persons are tech-savvy, have internet access, and understand English legal jargon?"
According to the last Census conducted in 2011, the population of transgender people in India is about 4.88 lakh. Out of that, approximately 20,800 people have been issued a certificate or TG ID, according to the portal.
Jeet added, “About 20,000 transgender identity certificates and ID cards have been issued since September 2020. This discrepancy in the numbers indicates how inaccessible and ineffective the portal and the process is. For context, after the Aadhaar card was launched in 2010, 67% adults had an Aadhaar card by the end of 2014 and 90% had it by the end of the next year. But in the four years since the Act was implemented, only about 4% transgender persons have a TG ID card.”
“Within a few months after launch, we reported that application data of all applicants could be viewed by anyone by simply editing a URL of your own application and replacing your application number with other numbers,” Jeet added.
This meant that sensitive information about people applying for documents on the website was accessible. This was fixed after the report came out.
However, the portal’s efficiency isn’t the only threat to trans people’s safety. Several trans people choose to not come out to their families or people in their vicinity for their safety and being outed when they aren’t ready can pose a huge risk. Jeet recalled,
“In the initial phase, we also saw that police would visit the residential addresses of applicants for address verification and expose the applicants’ trans identity to their neighbours. This had caused immense hardships to those living in rented accommodations with transphobic neighbours and landlords.”Jeet, Founder, Yes, We Exist
Stories like Anukathir’s are certainly a step forward in creating a more inclusive space for queer and trans people, but there is much that still needs to be changed at the ground level. From implementing laws made for queer people responsibly to increasing sensitivity about queer issues across the board, the road ahead is long.
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