Description
The theory and practice of medicine remain central to the concerns of persons identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or others. Individuals who have homosexual desires or feel transgender, or are born intersex, are often taken against their will by medical professionals. Instead of receiving affirmative support, they have distressing experiences of violence and violations.
The narratives of such violence and violation include treatments offered for converting homosexuals to heterosexuals, the humiliation of transgender people within the institution, and emergency surgeries of intersex infants who, due to the collusion between surgeons and parents, face the scalpel to convert into an ‘acceptable’ gender.
Further, everyday struggles of LGBT persons, like suicidality and depression, are dealt with less sensitively owing to the pathologisation of their identities. The most critical challenge here is the need to change the mindsets of doctors who are still insistently focused on changing their patients’ sexual orientation or still exhibit prejudice when dealing with their transgender patients.
As a starting point for change, this anthology brings together writing by medical professionals and queer activists, which is beginning to question heteronormativity within the field of medicine.
The essays in this volume begin by outlining the frameworks on which the mental health and other medical sectors have posited homosexual desire and transgender or intersex identities. They then argue that sexual orientation and gender identity are not to be seen as pathologies and suggest forms of engagement that are more affirmative of LGBT identities. Finally, they look at the interface between law, medicine and human rights as a starting point for a change in the perception of LGBT persons. Aiming to incubate serious and sustained work on the centrality of the medical establishment to queer lives, this anthology will be of particular interest to medical practitioners, queer activists, members of the LGBT community, and all readers who believe that every individual should receive medical attention that is shorn of prejudice of any kind.
ISBN: 978-9380403144
Arvind is a visiting faculty at the School of Policy and Governance. He has been involved with research, writing and practice related to law and social concerns. He has a bachelor’s in law from the National Law School of India University(NLSIU), followed by a master’s at the University of Warwick on a Chevening scholarship. He is currently in the process of doing his PHD on ‘Mapping the elements of an Ambedkarite jurisprudence’ at the NLSIU.
He is the author of co-editor of Law Like Love: Queer perspectives on Law, as well as the co-author of Breathing Life into the Constitution. He was also a part of the team of lawyers challenging Section 377 of the IPC right from the High Court in 2009 to the Supreme Court in 2018.
Arvind is the Founding Member of The Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore.
Vinay Chandran is a counsellor and Executive Director of Swabhava Trust, Bangalore, a non-governmental organisation working with issues related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and similar (LGBT) populations. He set up the Bangalore-based telephone helpline called Sahaya in 2000 and has worked on linking support services with LGBT communities. His areas of research and interest include sexuality, sexual health, counselling, gender, masculinities and ethics. He is also a trainer on all these issues. He has worked with various state AIDS prevention organisations to train diverse groups on working with sexuality, sexual health, counselling and HIV.
