City transgenders get an identity — Mx

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23

The transgender community has finally got an identity in the city as the Chandigarh Administration has decided to make a provision for a separate gender-neutral title, “Mx”, in all forms and applications for them. The Transgender Welfare Board recently wrote to all heads of departments, corporations and boards to examine the issue of the prefix “Ms” for transgenders in forms and applications.

The Administration has formed the 14-member Transgender Welfare Board to safeguard the rights of the third gender and also to ensure that they do not face any kind of discrimination.

The decision to ask all departments to use the “Mx” prefix before the names of transgenders was taken at the first meeting of the board which was chaired by Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajiv Gupta.

At present, all forms and applications have prefixes such as “Mr”, “Ms” or “Mrs”, but there is no prefix to identify the transgender community. Oxford English Dictionary recently included the term “Mx” for trans and gender-nonconforming people to identify themselves in lieu of gender-specific honorifics such as “Mr” and Ms”.

Transgenders in the city have hailed the decision of the board and said it was a positive step for their recognition. Approximately 3,000 transgenders live in the city.

Dhananjay Chauhan, director of Saksham Trust and non-official member of the board, said it was a big victory for the community as they had got recognition in the city. Chauhan, the first transgender student of the PU, started the NGO for the rights of the LGBT community in 2009.