As suggested by the Madras High Court, the Tamil Nadu government has issued a glossary which includes LGBTQIA+ terminologies to address them in a correct manner.
Justice N Ananth Venkatesh was informed by the Additional Advocate-General that the glossary was to be published in the government gazette of the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment department in Tamil Nadu from August 20, 2022. By virtue of the issuing of the glossary, the terms included in it will have statutory backing, meaning whenever the LGBTQIA+ community is to be addressed in any proceedings or forum, it will be a prerequisite to describe them only by using the terms in the gazette. This is a crucial step to giving dignity and respect to the members of the community which is the bare minimum.
In 2018, the Merriam-Webster dictionary added more than 840 words to its official English lexicon. One of the terms they included is Latinx, a gender-neutral alternative to Latina and Latino. More and more US teens are coming out as transgender, therefore, it was important to get the wording correct.
Gender-neutral language has been there for centuries for English speakers. The pronoun ‘they’ as a non-specific singular word has been in use with its derivatives like ‘they’, ‘them’, ‘their’, ‘theirs’, and ‘themselves.’ And regional languages have similar scope in them to include terms that are more gender appropriate.
The Tamil Nadu government’s move comes at an important time where we stand at the conjunction of LGBTQIA+ pride parades happening all over the world, the increased portrayal of lesbian and gay couples in television and cinema, the Indian Supreme Court’s landmark decision to decriminalize homosexuality and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) bill, the latter of which became a matter of concern for trans rights.
In such a mixed scenario, the Tamil Nadu legislation on pronouns is a welcome step to achieving holistic development and inclusivity. The reasons are vast and many for this gazette to exist in the very first place.
Identity Matters
Imagine a scenario where you meet someone whose name is ‘Rahul’, but you refer to them as ‘Rohan’ in the first conversation because supposedly they look like a ‘Rohan.’ You get it wrong on the second try as well and get mildly irritated. You complain that it is no big deal.
However, it is a sign of respect and acknowledgement to the person. To do anything other than that is a rejection of an identity that is intrinsic to their being. It conveys to the person that they are being ridiculed and not accepted. In more extremities, it can be a form of bullying where the assumption of pronouns is done on purpose to hurt the other person or make fun of them.
Power Of Linguistics
Language plays an important role in uplifting a community. For a long time, feminist linguists have argued that the pronoun ‘he/ him/ his’ had gained popularity in scholarly work, literature and how education is conceived. The introduction of ‘she/her/hers’, thus, subverted the paradigm and provided social capital to women. Thus, the government taking a decision to include pronouns puts it into legal, political and common knowledge and jurisprudence.
In intersectional feminist linguistics, giving authority and appraising the LGBTQIA+ community will determine the future of impressionable teens and cis-gendered heterosexual belief systems.
Harmful Misgendering
Misgendering can have detrimental consequences for queer folks as it can decrease their self-confidence and overall mental health. A study in the journal ‘Self and Identity,’ factored a lot of negative results of misgendering. More than 32 participants felt stigmatised when their pronouns were misused.
This also caused a lack of self-esteem in many respondents. It also reduced the level of strength and continuity in their identity. Another problematic experience is feeling gender dysphoria, or the inner turmoil one feels when the sex assigned does not match with their gender socialisation.
Misgendering is also a micro-aggression. These are actions or comments passed that can stigmatise or cause discrimination against the marginalized group or community.
It denies autonomy to a person to identify and outwardly express their gender, whether it was exercised in a malicious manner or not. Denial of a person’s authority is a form of coercion and violence. It shows the power dynamics between cisgender and transgender people, where one is allowed to enforce upon the other what they should be referred to as and who has the power to make the other person feel lesser about their gender.
More so, it is imperative to understand that pronouns are a marker of a person’s identity. We do not want to trivialize a person’s identity or perform gender erasure of identity outside the gender binary. The prescriptivism by language purists, who are mostly men, can deny a genderqueer person from their very basis, which is their identity.
Ousting The Individual
Though minor aggression can be circumvented, queer folks should have the right to be referred according to their will, even if they wish to not be identified as transgender, as they might be closeted individuals. This gives people the freedom to choose their pronouns to prevent discrimination or unacceptance by family if they are not comfortable with their gender identity.
Thus, it is important that glossaries such as these exist on a political level for policymakers to be more empathetic and create laws that have no gender bias. It is an egalitarian and equitable society being envisioned when pronouns are developed to indicate a person’s self-consciousness and awareness.
Critics can keep discussing how difficult it is to remember new pronouns and get them in our common knowledge due to societal conditioning. However, a little effort goes a long way in establishing identities which were underserved or continue to be unrecognized and disempowered.