Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, June 25: Experts working for transgenders’ rights believe that the still prevalent practice of conversion therapy for transgenders is regressive and against the dignity of thousands of these people living in the state.
Speaking at a workshop in the city, L Ramakrishnan, country director of SAATHI (Solidarity and Action Against HIV Infection in India), said, “Many people still believe that some medical procedures like conversion therapy can change the gender orientation of transgenders and make them straight. However, ample scientific evidences have proved the exercise as futile. People now need to understand and accept the third gender.”
Exhorting the dire need to understand the needs and orientation of the third gender, Ramakrishan said, “After some activism and some court rulings, now the medical fraternity are also forced to focus on psychological tests of the third gender to know their gender orientation and not only on their physical features which could often be conflicting.”
Many experts from the fields of health, media and the third gender assembled at a city hotel Thursday to brainstorm on the mental conditions of transgenders.
Meera Parida, a noted third gender activist said, “Acceptance of the transgenders by their family members is still a cumbersome task. A transgender during his adolescent stage often lives in a state of fear and dilemma over their (sexual) orientation and hesitates to discuss it with his parents. The time is ripe for the society now to accept the third genders keeping in mind the surge in awareness in the society.”
Sriharsha Mohanty, project officer of the Orissa AIDS Control Society, said, “Mental health of transgenders has, till now, not got any prominent place in health programmes. Not much importance has been given into it. It is the need of the hour now to introduce it into our health programmes across the various health institutions in the country to benefit the often ignored community.”