Indian LGBT2SQIA+ Residents Get Right to Sex Reassignment Surgery as Numerous Landmark Court Verdicts Await

     February 2022 has been a major month for LGBT2SQIA+ rights around the world, from bans on conversion therapy in Israel and New Zealand to a law criminalizing transgender people being struck down in Kuwait. On February 17th, 2022, India got its first major victory of 2022 for the 250 million or more LGBT2SQIA+ people who live there when the Indian Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment announced that gender-affirming care would henceforth be covered by insurance in the country.

     LGBT2SQIA+ rights in India have been evolving rapidly. In 2018, same-sex sexual relations were still illegal in India. That year, a court ruling struck down this ban and instituted an equal age of consent for same-sex individuals. Things only got better: oddly enough, in spite of the ban, discrimination covering gender identity and expression had been banned since 2014, the same year a third gender option was legalized, while homosexuality and transgenderism had never been classified as illnesses by the Indian Psychiatric Society. In 2018, lesbians gained access to IVF, discrimination in the provision of goods and services was banned, and discrimination in all other areas was banned by state- and government-funded bodies. In 2019, Indians were given the right to change their legal gender with sex reassignment surgery. In 2020, same-sex couples in India were granted unregistered cohabitation. In 2021, conversion therapy was banned by law.

     Meanwhile, Indians are eagerly awaiting three landmark court decisions, one of which could protect intersex minors from invasive procedures, another of which could lift restrictions on MSMs (men who have sex with men) donating blood, and a final one that could legalize same-sex marriage. If these efforts are successful, the next steps will be to legalize LGBTI military service, allow joint and international joint as well as stepchild adoption by same-sex couples, and allow automatic parenthood on birth certificates for children of same-sex couples. With the crisis in Ukraine, the United States may soon designate India a major non-NATO ally. If this occurs, I'm calling on the United States to press India to allow all Indians to serve their country in uniform.

     If the outcome of these court decisions is favorable, it would represent the most rapid progress for the LGBT2SQIA+ community ever made. India is home to 1.4 billion of the world's 7.9 billion people, or 18 percent. Roughly one in six Indians are LGBT2SQIA+, which represents three percent of the global population. 250 MILLION people are LGBT2SQIA+ residents of India; securing the rights of these individuals would represent a major step forward for social justice and human rights.