India Adds Third Gender Option to Voting Rolls: 'Other'

Transsexual and intersex people going to the polls in India will no longer have to choose between identifying themselves as male or female, now that a third category for gender has been added.

The new option--"O" for "Other"--has been added alongside the "M" and "F" choices for use by transsexual people, eunuchs, intersex people (born with indeterminate genitalia), or those who for various reasons do not identify themselves according to binary gender. Though the percentages of such people in any given community may be small, in a country of one billion--and a voting roll of more than 700 million--the raw numbers are large enough to warrant a third category.

A Nov. 12 CNN article reported that India's electoral authorities had released a statement announcing that, "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."

The new option follows the decriminalization of consensual sexual intimacy between adults earlier this year in India. In December, the country's first transgender beauty pageant--the "Miss India" contest--is scheduled to take place.

In the United States, transgender individuals still face difficulties with certain everyday practicalities, such as restroom rights or obtaining forms of identification, such as driver's licenses, that are appropriate to their gender identities.