Helping our transgender sisters in India
RWF provides important financial support to the Rainbow Home of the Seven Sisters, a shelter and community center for the marginalized Hijira/kinner (transgender) community, in the Joypur area of Guwahati, Assam. In India, most transgender people endure deep prejudice and open hostility. Many are rejected by family and are forced to leave home. Transgender women face severe employment discrimination and in desperation many beg or are forced into survival sex work.
At Seven Sisters, the women are able to bond, support one another, organize, and begin to heal. The women receive emergency housing, psychological support, and vocational skills training. The home was opened in June 2021 and has already served over 400 women. Many of the women have been able to leave survival sex work and become self-sufficient.
Help transgender women in India achieve hope, safety, and dignity - please donate today!
LGBTQ+ rights in India
Although LGBTQ+ citizens of India still face social and legal difficulties not faced by non-LGBTQ+ persons, LGBTQ+ rights there have evolved rapidly in recent years. The last decade has seen powerful political movements in favor of LGBTQ+ rights, as well as favorable Supreme Court decisions. The result is that Indians are more accepting of same-sex relationships, with support rising from 15% to 37% for the country as a whole over the period, and reaching 75% among urban youth.
In 2018, India’s Supreme Court struck down a colonial-era law prohibiting gay sex, so there are currently no legal prohibitions of gay sex or sexual expression in the country. LGBTQ+ Indians are protected from discrimination including in housing and employment. Although the Court declined in October, 2023, to legalize same-sex marriage, earlier decisions granted same-sex couples many of the same rights as married heterosexual couples under a cohabitation or live-in relationship status.
The most recent Indian census, in 2011, estimated that there were 488,000 transgender Indian citizens. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill of 2019 outlawed discrimination and guaranteed other rights including full medical care. The Bill established a third gender for identity cards which had been male/female only, and allowed for a change of gender, though only after sex-reassignment
