One Billion Rising: Transgender Person Breaks Silence

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Available Summary:

Transsexuals and intersex individuals face significant challenges in India

Defining sexual identities is difficult in any cultural context. In Indian society, where cultural norms are often more conservative than much of the West, understanding and incorporating diversity remains a significant challenge—for individuals and society at large.

The US-based Human Rights Campaign Foundation defines transgender as, "a term used to describe a broad range of people who experience and/or express their gender somewhat differently from what most people expect. It is an overarching term that includes those expressing gender characteristics that don't correspond with characteristics traditionally ascribed to the person's sex or presumed sex."

Where transgender is associated with a personal, internal identity, intersexuality is often defined by physical characteristics. The Intersex Society of North America makes this distinction: "Many people confuse transgender and transsexual people with people with intersex conditions because they see two groups of people who would like to choose their own gender identity, and sometimes those choices require hormonal treatments and/or surgery. These are similarities. It's also true, albeit rare, that some people who have intersex conditions also decide to change genders at some point in their life, so some people with intersex conditions might also identify themselves as transgender or transsexual.

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