Trans-Gendering -Seminar MTTS

Mar Thoma Theological Seminary Kottayam

National Seminar on Transgender Identities

Trans-Gendering : Re-inventions and Re-imaginations

February 8-9, 2018.

1.Introduction
It gives me joy that the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary Kottayam is organising a national seminar on Transgender Identities. The theme selected is, Trans-Gendering: Re-inventions and Re-imaginations. The awesome God who created the heavens and the earth with the Galaxies Mountains and oceans, also created man, woman, and transgender in his image, his likeness, gifting with his life-giving breath. As blessed stewards, we are assigned to keep the created order, dress it and make it grow as members of the kingdom of God. A transgender like any other human being is created to reveal God and also join hands with God to establish his kingdom. We are all created for eternity. Our prayer is: Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

2. Who is a transgender?
The transgender is an umbrella term. A general definition is that the transgender person is one whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to the person at birth. The truth is that the TG communities are incredibly diverse. In fact, each one is to be understood with the unique characteristics manifested by that person. Therefore it is necessary that we understand the commonly used terminologies.

Terminologies

• Asexual: A person who generally does not feel sexual attraction or desire to any group of people. Asexuality is not the same as celibacy.
• Bisexual: A person who is attracted to both people of their own gender and another gender
• Gay: A person who is attracted primarily to members of the same sex. Although it can be used for any sex (e.g. gay man, gay woman, gay person), “lesbian” is sometimes the preferred term for women who are attracted to women.
• Gender expression: A term which refers to the ways in which we each manifest masculinity or femininity. It is usually an extension of our “gender identity,” our innate sense of being male, female, etc
• Gender identity: The sense of “being” male, female, genderqueer, agender, etc. For some people, gender identity is in accord with physical anatomy
• Heterosexual: A person who is only attracted to members of the opposite sex
• Homosexual: A clinical term for people who are attracted to members of the same sex
• Homophobia: A range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT)
• Intersex:A person whose sexual anatomy or chromosomes do not fit with the traditional markers of “female” and “male“.
• Lesbian: A woman who is primarily attracted to other women
• LGBTIQA: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Asexual. Commonly referred to as the LGBT community
• Queer: An umbrella term sometimes used to refer to the entire LGBT community
• Questioning: For some, the process of exploring and discovering one’s own sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression
• Pansexual: A person who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction for members of all gender identities/expressions, not just people who fit into the standard gender binary (i.e. men and women)
• Sexual orientation: The type of sexual, romantic, and/or physical attraction someone feels toward others
• Transgender: This term has many definitions. As indicated above, it is frequently used as an umbrella term to refer to all people who do not identify with their assigned gender at birth or the binary gender system.
• Transphobia: The fear or hatred of transgender people or gender non-conforming behavior
• Transsexual: A person whose gender identity is different from their biological sex, who may undergo medical treatments to change their biological sex, often times to align it with their gender identity, or they may live their lives as another sex.
• Transvestitism: Transvestitism is a fetish in which a person repeatedly cross-dresses to achieve sexual arousal or gratification

Transgenders are born to parents, brought up in homes and educated in schools. They are an integral part of the human community. But they are generally misunderstood.

‘Gauri Savitri, a trans-woman from Cherthala, Kerala, believes that both her male body and female mind were given to her by God.’ She asks the question, “Why I should live in a specific category?” (The Week, January 7, 2018). Likewise, Suman a TG college student studying journalism says, “I do hope we will change our view on what ‘Trans’ look like. It is not just something on the outside; it is something very deep and spiritual. We are created in the image of God. I am part of that as Suman” (Suvartha Patrika – Mumbai Diocese of the Mar Thoma Church, vol. VIII 2017 – Transgender Ministry Special Edition).

3. Law and Disorder
History reveals that the members of the transgender community in pre-colonial period enjoyed better respect and human dignity in human society than the ones we see today. During the colonial era, the British, who ruled in India enacted the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. This particular act criminalises the transgender community in India. By this, the Eunuchs could be imprisoned for up to two years if they cross-dressed. This act was repealed in 1949, with the Independence of India. But the sentiment behind the law remains even now. As a result, the transgender community are shunned and ridiculed. They are generally denied education and employment. It is remarkable to note that Thiruchi Siva of the DMK introduced the rights of the transgender persons in Rajya Sabha after the NALSA judgment (National Legal Service Authority). The Supreme Court of India gave a progressive judgment in 2014 to treat transgenders as equal, creating a third gender status. The court directed the government to extend reservations to the members of the community in education and employment and take measures to address their problems such as gender dysphoria and depression. This judgment entitles the members of the transgender community to identify themselves with the gender of their choice. The court said, “Gender identity refers to each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth.” That means the court clearly differentiated between a person’s biological sex and their gender identity.

The Lok Sabha is preparing to discuss the rights of transgender persons in their session of the Parliament. The bill that they are discussing says, “a transgender person is a person who is neither wholly female nor wholly male or a combination of female or male or neither female nor male; and whose sense of gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at the time of birth and includes trans-men and trans-women, person with intersex variations and gender queers. The interesting part is that the bill also makes provision for a five-member district screening committee that would examine people before giving them the right to identify as a transgender. This is ridiculous for putting emphasis on a biological test. The members of the transgender community are making a hue and cry against it, and the social justice ministry is thinking of bringing some amendments.

Here is an area where the Church needs to recognise the ‘bleeding point’ of the suffering humanity. For this we need sensitivity and compassion. The Church is called to create “refreshing spots” in the world where the earth grows barren.

4. Generations perish without proper education
Children are sent to school by the parents. Children who are transgenders start feeling the gender difference even when their sex remains the same as at the time of birth. Gender feeling being different from one’s sex, moves the child to cling on to the gender groups where they feel psychologically comfortable. So a male child may show more affinity to girls in the class. It is in the adolescent age that the children grow physically as male and female. There will be variations even in this category when it comes to a transgender. This growth is more complex when the urge becomes intense for a person to become trans-man or trans-woman. There are cases where teachers fail to understand the child, parents try to hide the fact and peers bully them. It becomes very difficult to choose the toilet facility if the educational institution is not providing gender-neutral facilities. As a result, a good number of trans-gender children drop their education and remain as drop-outs to the very end of their life. This evident in the case of Kochi Metro:

In May 2017, Kochi Metro Rail Limited appointed 23 transgender people in different positions, among its workforce, from ticketing to house-keeping staff, with payment between Rs. 9000/- and Rs. 15,000/- a month. The company plans to scale up the number of transgender employees to 60 gradually. Unfortunately, on the first week itself 8 of the 23 transgender people, all trans-women and school drop-outs, quit their jobs they found it impossible to make ends meet. In a place like Kochi where the daily rent ranges from Rs. 400/- to Rs. 600/- a day, the Kochi Metro case is a typical example of how noble intention is frustrated for various reasons including inadequate educational qualifications.

Today, majority of the transgenders in the society are school drop-outs. The result is that they are not educated and are not able to cope up with the awareness they need to understand the systems of the present-day world. This itself can marginalise the members of the transgender community. The remedy is to create congenial environment in regular schools.

The state government in Kerala is willing to admit them back into the school and give scholarship for their education. This is not happening as members of the transgender community are reluctant to go back to school after a lapse of few years. The larger society is also not willing to accept them in the regular schools. Yet, there are a few who have transcended their difficulties and have gone for higher education.

Manabi Bandyopadhya was born to a middle class family in a suburb of Kolkatta, underwent sex-change in 2003 and became the first transgender college Principal. She did her Ph.D in Bengali literature. Though she changed her name, the government refused to accept her new identity. While she was a student, she was asked to behave like a man. She was forced to vacate the college hostel. She says, “I was born a man, but my soul was something else. I faced tremendous humiliation and insults from my colleagues. I gathered money to go for sex-change operation.” Thus Somnath became Manabi. Today Manabi is the Vice-Chairman of the West-Bengal government’s Transgender Board. She asks, “I am different person today. But what about others who don’t have a voice?”

There are Indian transgenders who broke through the predicament of the TG community viz. Madhu Kinnar who is the Mayor of Raigaon, Chattisgarh, elected in 2015. Shanavi Ponnuswamy is an engineer who was denied an air-hostess job in Air India. The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Civil Navigation Ministry and Air India to give their explanation.

Set backs are there for TG people like Kamala Jaan who was elected in 1998 as the Mayor of Katni, MP, but removed in 2003 because the seat was reserved for women. These are instances where” the spirit of domination” marginalises the deserving and the needy. Jesus showed the way of love and compassion. Mission in the truth of Christ is a radical search for the defenseless, voiceless and the unrecognised.

5. Denial of a healing touch
The members of the transgender community find it very difficult in general to consult a doctor when they are ill or to get hospitalised when they need prolonged treatment. Medical personnel turn their face when they discover that the patient is a transgender, saying that I am not trained to treat such cases. One transgender said, “The doctors refuse to take us in. The male doctors ask us to see the female doctors and the female doctors sent us back to the male ones. Our identity is always misunderstood and looked down upon.” Some are generally interested to view the body of the patient than treating them or extending a proper healing ministry. When parents realise that their children are transgenders, they either hide the fact or take them to psychologists or to shamans. The medical treatment that a transgender person requires is complex. When one wants sex-reassignment surgery (SRS), it is costly affair and a long procedure for which some of the State governments also do not have adequate funds. The SRS may require different stages of medical procedure and therefore admitting them to the hospital for several times turn out to be an arduous and expensive task. SRS requires a team ministry in which several specialist doctors need to put their heads together.

Manish Kumar Giri became Sabi Giri through SRS and speaks of her medical journey: “A gender reassignment process is not simple. You need a lot of courage to go through it. There are so many tests. Psychiatric counselling, endocrine tests, before the actual operations, etc… I have spent ninety percent of my savings … when I returned from my surgery, I developed an infection on November 7, 2016. I had two surgeries and was in intensive care for twenty-two days. I was in the surgical ward for another month after which I was sent to the psychiatric ward for five months… I have no savings left. Sometimes I think the only career for people like me is sex-work.”

When Sabi reported her sex-change, she was dismissed from Naval Service where she was employed for seven years. While serving in the Navy, as Manish Kumar Giri, he was forced to marry a girl by his parents, during one of his vacation visits to his home. The marriage took place within seven days. When Manish revealed the facts to her, she left him and they never lived together.

TG people are branded as ‘useless’ or ‘unwanted’. God is one who accepts us as we are. The encounter of Jesus with Zachaeus or the Samaritan woman is needed lessons for us to accept the TG members and lead them to life “in all its fullness.”

6. The hunger
Where do you find a transgender? They generally appear on the streets as beggars, homeless, sex workers – sometimes aggressive and most times hungry. Transgender children are either thrown out from the family or they themselves decide to leave the place. Parents, when they discover that the child is a transgender, feel that such a child is a road-block to the future of other children in the family and will also bring ill-fame to the family. Siblings try to get rid of them to enjoy the inheritance of family property. People generally forget the fact that a transgender can be born in any family and to any couple. Research has shown that there might be some biological basis to gender dysphoria or identifying with the gender not assigned to one’s at birth. Transgender people can’t help being who they are. This paper is not attempting to address gender dysphoria at a neurological or chromosomal level. But let us understand that transgender people go through tremendous stress while coping up with the predicament of their life.

In the case of Delphina who was Vikram Sundarraman, the bullies spilled ink on her T-shirt with the words, “foreign dog.” Once people tried to physically examine the person to find out if Delphina was a boy or a girl. Sandra, a 31 year old trans-woman from Kerala considered taking her life several times. When she dressed up like a girl, her mother scolded severely and her classmates bullied and made fun of her. In the case of Sandra, she ran away from home. Her family did not allow her to attend the wedding of her older brother. When the money ran out, she started working as a home nurse, but she couldn’t continue that as her employers did not like her dressing up as a woman. Her only option was to get into sex-work. Sandra’s story is not an isolated one. A good number of transgender people follow a similar trajectory.

Psychiatrist Dr. Varghese Punnoose, Head of the department of Psychiatry at the Government Medical College, Kottayam, says, “When they lose family support, they go through a lot of psychological distress. Many become addicted to alcohol and drugs. This is a bad combination that drives them to anti-social activities and sex-work. Some of them join groups that operate like gangs that are into organised begging and crime.”

Only a small percentage among the transgender members is employed. Once they leave their family, they are on the road without food, money and shelter.

Like any other human being, transgender members also have a sex urge. Sandra says, “I was desperate for the love that I hadn’t received from my family.” She was in love with a boy who seduced to extort money from her. There are cases where a transgender member turns out to be a gay or a lesbian. Companionship is what they look for.

Anjuli Mathai reports in the cover feature of The Week, January 7, 2018, the case of a transsexual couple. Arav Appukuttan, age 46, a trans-man and Sukanyeah Krishna, 22, a trans-woman met each other when they went for their sex reassignment surgeries in Mumbai. They got their certificates confirmed on the gender change. One day Arav took Sukanyeah to Marine Drive in Kochi and asked, “If our age difference is not a problem, can I marry you?” They are now living together. Arav does not have a job and Sukanyeah was dismissed from work.

What the human community needs today, is acceptance and not rejection; grace and not simply law. Our journey is for the establishment of an inclusive community.

7. Shelter and Community Living
When the street becomes the shelter for transgender people, the natural tendency is to find shelter and food with some of the leading transgenders or some of the already established gurus. The guru-chela system is the age old family system where a number of chelas (transgender women) would live under the guardianship of one guru.

These transgender groups are known by different names in different parts of the country – Hijra in the north, Sivasakthi and Kojja in Andhra Pradesh, Thirunangai in Tamil Nadu, and Mangal Mukti in the border regions of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telengana. Each is independent and is free to have their own aims and objectives.

A home run by Monalisa in Telengana is different from others. This home had three hundred members, once. Most of the members are victims of sexual abuse and gang rape. Sonia Sheikh found her means of living by dancing at events. She was careful not to fall into the hands of the admirers who started wooing her. One day she was kidnapped and was gang-raped in a farmhouse far from the city. In the morning, they threw acid on her face, and left her. She was then taken to a government hospital. Subsequently, a group of government lawyers who came to the hospital threatened her by saying, “You are going to be punished.” They cited section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to say that the law forbids those assigned male at birth to have sexual intercourse with other male members. Sonia sighs when she raises the question, “How could I make them understand that I was the victim and not the perpetrator?”

Without jobs, transgenders are stuck in a rut. When they open beauty parlours, or fruit stalls, they do not get enough customers. Therefore, they are forced to close.

Monalisa is trying to break the system by rescuing the girls from sex-work and begging. Some members find it difficult to come out of it. For some, they are forced to do it for want of money. Monalisa recently partnered with the Ministry of Rural Development to organise a gathering of five hundred people to raise awareness of transgender issues. She says, “If we don’t educate and employ the girls, no one is going to give them a backward glance after they turn fifty. They will live and die miserable deaths.”

One transgender said, “What is worse is that our bodies will be abandoned after our death. Fellow members’ death give us a reality check! Our existence is so pathetic that we don’t even have anyone to cremate our body or mourn for the loss. Thus we are forced to regret our birth” (Suvartha Patrika, Vol. VIII, 2017).

The aged among the transgender community, are not cared by any. Those who are infected with HIV positive face miserable deaths. Some gurus like Monalisa empower the members to find a career and live together in separate houses. She motivates them to start small businesses like honeybee rearing, agarbati making and solar power production instead of continuing in sex-work and begging. It is generally found that TG members are inclined to art, painting and drawing, design work, and cooking.

8. Challenges before the Church
The challenge before the Church is to find out a new language that will enable her to stand in solidarity with the transgenders. A Church is a place where everybody shall be equally treated and where equal rights to everyone is practised. As a Church, we need to get rid of our prejudices and open new possibilities for life giving transformations to the members. A church is to be a community that exhibits radical generosity and hospitality. On the other hand, the experiences of transgender people can be significant voices for the Churches to transform the world. Transgenders are God’s gift to the world. They have talents. Given an opportunity they will succeed in life.

The radical inclusivity of the Bible is seen in Isaiah 56:3-5, which proclaims:

Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant —
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.

This passage accepts the eunuchs into the Church because God accepts them.

In Matthew 19:11-12, Jesus categorises three types of communities and proposes to turn the social order outside in. Jesus speaks of the inclusivity of the new realm where no-one is excluded. Here is that passage:

Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Acts 8: 26-40 narrates the following:

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—
that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met
an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the
Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to
Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the
Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay
near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet.
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to
come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about,
himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture
and told him the good news about Jesus.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said,
“Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [ ] And
he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down
into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the
Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him
again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and
traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

This particular passage enables us to discover how God guided the early church to grow in unexpected ways.

• The Ethiopian Eunuch holds a very respectable and dignified position assigned by the Queen of the country.
• He could go to the prestigious Jerusalem temple for worship and had access to it.
• He is wealthy and travels on a chariot, in those days.
• He had access to the Holy Scripture and could get a scroll to carry with him. In those days, scrolls were generally kept in religious places and were accessible only to religious leaders.
• He could read and reflect on the scripture unlike most of the people in those days who did not have this privilege.
• He is engaged in a study of the Holy Scripture with Philip, guided by the Holy Spirit.
• He is receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ and openly confessing his faith (v.17).
• He went through the sacrament of Baptism whereby he identified with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• He received the grace of God to carry the Gospel to Ethiopia, and to be a witness there.
• He rejoiced in his salvation (v.39).

9. The calling of the Church
As the Church is called upon to minister to the weak and the powerless, it is quite legitimate for the Church to become “the voice of the voiceless” (Uppsala-1968), so as to break the conspiracy of silence in the society. The faithful has to remember again and again, that “Life through Death” must happen in history, for the establishment of justice and peace. As the Busan Assembly of the WCC (2013) affirms, the kairos of the Church has come before us, to affirm life for all, in a pilgrimage towards justice and peace. This is the call of the Spirit, to cross religious and social boundaries in search of a “mature manhood in Christ”. The transgender project of the Mar Thoma Church, is a pioneering effort with spiritual and social goals. It is nothing but rekindling the divine truth bequeathed to the Church. The initiative is to discover a new area of mission, by focusing on mission possibilities in the truth of Christ. It is pertinent that we need to heed to the words of Marcus Barth, who stated, “whoever considers those table companions of Jesus too bad, too base, too little and too far removed from salvation, does not know Jesus as he really is. The Being of the Church in the world enables her ‘to go’, ‘to teach’ and ‘to heal’ as “the conscience of the human community” (Vatican II). There are several daunting challenges and hopes in each era of Christian mission (Dr. M. J. Joseph and Rt. Rev. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius, Sabha Tharaka, 2017).

Through incarnation, God opened the divine world to all creation and started the ministry of reconciliation to the whole world. Diversity in creation is to be accepted and celebrated. The Church is the Eucharistic presence of the Kingdom of God in history. As such, there is a tremendous responsibility before the Church to continue the reconciling act of God in Christ.

10. What the Mar Thoma Church is doing : Navodaya Movement
The Navodaya Movement had its humble beginning in the Mumbai Diocese in 2014. The movement recognised that justice is denied to the TG community and took steps in this direction. A helpline was started to extend a helping hand to all those who seek justice and assistance. This revealed that in a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai (and many others) a larger number of transgender individuals are migrating to the city. Several of these were migrating from Kerala. In April 2017, the Church decided to extend the ministry of Navodaya to Kerala and other places. The project is now chosen as the Birth-Centenary Project of Valiya Metropolitan of the Church, Dr. Philipose Mar Chrysostom Mar Thoma. Most people have some prevailing bias and prejudices about the TG community and also about the kind of ministry amongst them. Therefore the Navodaya Movement decided to have, as the first step, Awareness Programmes at different places to create an understanding of the transgender community and help clarify the various steps needed for the Church to become inclusive.

Jesus is seen in the Gospels as transgressing religious, social and legal boundaries. He teaches the unclean like the leper and the bleeding woman and loved the differently- abled. He dined with the outcasts. Throughout the public ministry, Jesus dissolved the religious boundaries of clean and unclean, holy and profane, saint and sinner. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus identifies with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. This means that we are serving God (ministering to Jesus) wherever we minister to the least, which includes the homeless transgenders. What happens on earth as God’s ministry creates joy in heaven (Lk 25:10).

The Church is called to express solidarity with the suffering and the marginalised. The church should be a place where all people irrespective of caste, colour, class and gender come together to worship God. Speaking explicitly, the Church should allow transgenders to have their space in the congregation assembled for worship. The Church should also reject any tendency to misinterpret the Gospel and the prophecies. The Church is to be welcoming. She should get rid of all prejudices and sexual oppressions. She should open new possibilities of life giving transformation. For this we need to see the meaning of grace over law for the affirmation of human rights and gender justice. Let us remember that God is at work in history to set right what has gone wrong in the human community (Psalm 146:8).

11. Conclusion
Change is never easy, especially in a slow-moving edifice. Whenever change has happened, it has happened because of the prayerful, resolute and bold actions of visionaries. The ministry to the transgender community is a path-breaking one. Surely, Jesus Christ is the ‘yes’ of God (2 Corinthians 1:19).

I hope and wish that this national seminar will start ripples that will go far and wide in bringing transformation even to the mission and ministry of the Church. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we have a great, significant role in the here and now. May God bless and guide us.

Paper presented at the National Seminar on Transgender Identities
at the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam, Jointly organised
by the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary and Aneka.

Transgender Awareness Program: Click Here