Closets and Cabinets: Where are India’s Queer Politicians?

According to the Kinsey Scale, roughly 10% of any population identifies as LGBTQ+- which accounts to approximately 135 million people in India. According to the Pew Research Centre  younger generations such as Gen-Z or Millennials are significantly more likely to openly identify as queer compared to older generations. This can be attributed to several reasons such as increased destigmatization, spread of queer culture and pride through the internet, and changing societal norms. According to India Times, Lok Sabha has 0 openly queer politicians and less than 7% are aged younger than 38 in 2024. With our law-makers being decades away from understanding the needs of 135 million people- one is not shocked to learn about the abhorrent state of queer welfare in India. 

2018 saw the decriminalization of homosexuality through article 377. 5 years since, legal recognition of same-sex marriages remains non-existent. Marriage often goes beyond symbolism with many legal and financial privileges missing to couples whose marriage remains unrecognised. For example, queer couples in India cannot jointly own property, adopt children, or even name their spouse as a life insurance beneficiary, simply because they cannot get legally married. Furthermore, fundamental spousal privileges like hospital visitation rights, spousal medical decisions, tax benefits for married couples and pension are also undelivered to queer couples in India simply due to the same-sex marriages being completely prohibited. 

 The 2014 NALSA judgement recognises trans people as a ‘third gender’ but authorities fail to consistently implement the ensured welfare schemes. Furthermore, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 contains broad discrimination clauses and invasive requirements such as proof of gender affirming surgery which is a humiliating and unnecessary clause for trans people. A repetitive legal hurdle for trans people seems to be the consistent contradictions between the 2014 NALSA judgement and the 2020 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act. For example, the former clearly emphasizes “the right of transgender persons to self-identify their gender without undergoing medical procedures”; the latter act however, mandates “proof of medical intervention for changing gender to “male” or “female” in official records”. The clear contradictions in the two judgements undermines the validity of rights of trans people in the Indian legal framework altogether. Moreover, the implementation of transgender rights remains painfully sporadic. In 2023, 3225 applications for trans-identity certificates were pending clearance out of 24,000 applications- often exceeding the 30-day window mandated by the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020. This statistic seems much more alarming once we learn that a 2015 Lancet study found that “transgender individuals whose official documents reflected their self-affirmed gender identity and name experienced 32% less psychological distress and were 22% less likely to have suicidal thoughts compared to those without such recognition”. 

This shows that queer rights whether it be trans people rights or the legalization of same-sex marriages are just simply not treated with the same urgency or granted the same level of importance by the government as other lesser stigmatised issues that span across a variety of ages. A contributing factor could be limited political accountability due to a  lack of sufficient youth or queer representation in the parliament. Few politicians speak up about LGBTQ+ rights and even fewer implement queer welfare policies.

27 year old Anish Gawande is NCP’s national spokesperson and a queer rights activist. He has been quoted saying “I never thought it would be possible to be out and in politics”. According to an interview with Times of India, he has also mentioned about his plans to stay closetted given his career aspirations in public-service. Nevertheless, he is today an inspiring LGBTQ+ activist and founder of the The Pink List- an archive of current and former Lok Sabha MP’s who have made positive statements about the LGBTQ community. Anish’s political footprint has been powerful and hopeful towards the future of equal rights for queer people. 

A state making considerable positive changes towards the welfare of trans people is Tamil Nadu, under CM M.K. Stalin. According to sources like the Economic Times, Tamil Nadu’s Economic Welfare Board provides a monthly pension of INR 1500 to destitute trans people of over 40 years. The state launched app ‘Thirunangai’ has helped register over 10,000 identity cards for trans people. Moreover, subsidies for setting up businesses, issuing house-size pattas, banning non-consensual intersex surgery on infants, and pro-trans welfare police reforms has made Tamil Nadu a model state for queer-inclusive policies under CM Stalin’s leadership.

Despite life for queer individuals being unimaginably hard in India, unsupported by the government and its laws- rare but strong queer inclusive leadership is a step in the right direction for queer visibility and rights inside and outside the parliament. Though one may attribute the poor state of queer welfare to the largely orthodox nature of Indian society it is imperative to link the little attention to LGBTQ+ related issues to a lack of queer or youth representation in the parliament itself. 

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons , Instagram: @anishgawande