India's third gender gets own identity in voter rolls

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India's third gender gets own identity in voter rolls

By Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian election authorities Thursday granted what they

called an independent identity to intersex and transsexuals in the country's

voter lists.

Before, members of these groups -- loosely called eunuchs in Indian English --

were referred to as male or female in the voter rolls.

But now, they will have the choice to tick " O " -- for others -- when indicating

their gender in voter forms, the Indian election commission said in a statement.

" Enumerators and booth-level officers (BLOs) shall be instructed to indicate the

sex of eunuchs/transsexuals etc as 'O' if they so desire, while undertaking any

house-to-house enumeration/verification of any application, " a statement from

election authorities said.

India, home to more than 1 billion people, has 714 million registered voters.

Intersexual people are seen as a marginalized community in India. Many end up

begging on the streets, becoming prostitutes or earning their livelihood by

dancing at celebrations.

In July, an Indian court delivered a landmark ruling legalizing gay sex between

consenting partners in the country.

The July verdict meant the law -- Indian penal code section 377, which had

previously criminalized consensual homosexual acts between adults -- was partly

struck down but remains in place as far as forced homosexual acts are concerned.

It was not clear whether the ruling -- which was later challenged by an

astrologer in India's highest court -- would eventually lead to legalization of

gay marriages in the country.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/india.gender.voting/index.html