Indian Census counts transgender people for the first time, finds half a million
The first ever count of India’s transgender population has found nearly 500,000 who were prepared to say they were transgender in filling out census papers – though activists say the real number may be far higher.I hope this helps widen the world’s sometimes super-white reading of trans folks and their partners/community – this is so interested to read. Boyfriend and I are both not white so I’m always excited to read about intersections of gender identity and race!
Of the half-million who identified as trans, over a tenth of them were children under six who were counted by their parents! So awesome!
just thought it might be relevant to mention that the reason many of these trans people were excluded from the census in the first place was because of the transphobia and overall queerphobia deeply instilled in colonial south asia by british colonists. not because of ‘dirty ignorant indians’ as many white queer people may assume. this is a huge victory for india in overcoming its postcolonial conditionings.