The Madras High Court on Friday commended the State government for coming up with a glossary both in Tamil and English to refer to the issues faced by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and others (LGBTQIA+) community in a dignified manner.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh recorded the court’s ’deep appreciation’ for the sincere efforts taken by the government for bring out the glossary on time and directed the media to henceforth use only the terms specified in the glossary while reporting about the community.
“This court reiterates confidence on the press and media and sincerely hopes that they would use the dignified expressions while addressing LGBTQIA+ community and follow the court orders in letter and spirit,” the judge wrote while passing interim orders in a related case.
He also appreciated the State government for having implemented a court order to amend the Tamil Nadu Subordinate Police Officers’ Conduct Rules and prohibit police personnel from harassing either any person belong to the community or those working for their welfare.
The judge said that the amendment published in the government gazette on Wednesday was a “milestone and a decisive step” that would give to the people belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community that they were in safe hands.
He hoped that in future, the people belonging to the community would not be facing any harassment by the police personnel. He also patted Director General of Police C. Sylendra Babu for organising sensitisation programmes for the policemen.
Justice Venkatesh agreed with advocate S. Manuraj that Tamil Nadu had earned the distinction of having been the first State in the country to use the expression LGBTQIA+ in the statutory rules though the general practice is to use the term transgender alone.
Even the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had reported to the court that it can allow the shelters established across the country under the Garima Greh scheme to be used only by the transgender and not the entire LGBTQIA+ community as suggested by the court.
“Garimah Greh are the shelter homes for the transgender under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019. In LGBTQIA+, each segment is individual and separate persons having different physical, psychological variations and sexual orientations.
“Therefore, putting them under one roof of Garima Greh may not be feasible and appreciated by the community. This may also give rise to dissensions, fights and incidents of violence within the residents. Further, this Ministry has only the mandate of dealing with transgender person only,” the Centre’s status report read.
