DISCRIMINATION FACED BY TRANSGENDER

Javeria khan

Department of Sociology International Islamic University Islamabad

ABSTRACT

This study aims to explore the social, psychological and economic challenges faced by
transgender individuals and their significant others. Primarily through interviews researcher
have begun to investigate the intricate experiences of transgender individual focusing on how
individual deals with his/her own feelings and copes up with the challenges of outside. For
this purpose, using qualitative design in depth interviews will be conducted. Moreover,
interview guide will be used as research instrument for collecting the data and narrative
analysis will be done to make sense of the data.

Key words: Transgender, Gender identity, Hijra, Health,

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

When classifying individuals, one piece of information that people may look for regarding
another person is their sex and, therefore, their gender. This information tends to inform the
pronouns and titles that are used when addressing someone. People may often assume that
sex and gender are the same thing and that individuals adhere to them societal gender roles
based on this assumption. People use the information about what sex and gender a person is
to inform how they interact with that individual. For example, one of the first questions that
may be asked of a pregnant woman is whether she is having a boy or a girl. This answer may
shape much of the child’s life from that point on, from what toys the child should play with
and what clothes he or she can wear to how the child should act.

Article 19 declares non-discriminatory practices on the basis of religion, race and

gender yet; several instances of stigma and discrimination prevail among the sexual
minorities including the hijras.

society is deeply stratified along the axes of class, religion, language, education,
which intersect with sexuality to create deeper oppressions. Although hijras have a sort of
sanctioned and visible place in society (especially at weddings, births and festivals), in the
contemporary context, it is the gender non conformity of the hijra that has a major impact
besides lack of a gender recognition certificate, sexual expression, employment, decent
housing, subsidized health care services, and as well as the violence they suffer especially
when they choose to take up sex work.

The Male to Female (MtF) Trans genders commonly known as Hijras are one of the
hardly researched, and callously neglected groups in Society. While they are almost deified in
some circles in many other countries of the world though under different names, they are
often considered as objects of curiosity, ridicule, exploitation, and abuse, the lack of safe
environments, poor access to physical health services, inadequate resources to address their
mental health concerns, and a lack of continuity of caregiving by their families and
communities.

The word hijra was derived from the Persian hiz. Hiz meant one who is „effeminate, ‟
„disdains woman, ‟ „a catamite. Hip meant ineffective and incompetent. Other Persianists
suggest that the origin of hijra was hich, from the word hichgah meaning nowhere. It meant a
person who is nowhere, a thing that has no place, no identity or personality of its own.

The Urdu word "hijra" may alternately be Romanised as hijira, hijda, hijada, hijara,
hijrah and is pronounced "heejra" or "heejda". An older name for hijras is kinnar, which is
used by some hijra groups as a more respectable and formal term.

The most obvious expression of hijras as women is in their dress. Wearing female
attire and their characteristic clapping of hands is an essential and defining characteristic.
Hijras also take female names when they join the community and they use female kinship
terms for each other such as “sister,” “aunty” and “grandmother”. Their language, consists of
the use of feminine expressions and intonations.

Sex and gender are typically thought of as being interchangeable terms. For the most
part, those who are biologically male or female are also deemed masculine or feminine,
respectively. However, for some, their biological sex does not match with what society
would deem as the appropriate gender, the way in which they view themselves. These people
often fall under the umbrella term of transgender, which classifies a number of different
people who have various gender identifications (Newfield, Hart, Dibble, & Kohler, 2006).
This term may include groups such as drag kings and queens, cross-dressers, and
transsexuals.
 Gender identity refers to individual people's sense of their own gender, which may
differ from their sex assigned at birth, from their gender expression, and from the way other
people perceive their gender (Beemyn and Rankin 2011). Though most intersex people are
assigned male or female at birth, some identify with a different gender later in life. Intersex
people may come to identify with any gender identity (man, woman, or a non-binary gender).
Some people, regardless of sex assigned at birth, choose not to label themselves either
cisgender or transgender. Gender identity is distinct from sexual orientation, which is the
pattern of a person's attraction to others (Sausa 2002). Both transgender and cisgender people
may identify with any sexual orientation, including but not limited to heterosexual, gay,
lesbian, bisexual, queer, or asexual (Beemyn and Rankin 2011). Gender identity is not the
same as gender expression, which is the degree to which someone expresses masculinity,
femininity, both, or neither.

People's gender identity may be man or woman, or it may be something else, such as
both man and woman, neither man nor woman, or a unique identity. For example, Beemyn
and Rankin (2011) conducted a survey in 2005 and 2006, which was open to anyone who
considered themselves part of the umbrella term “transgender,” regardless of whether they
used that term for themselves. In order to be inclusive of all gender nonconforming people,
they defined “transgender” as “anyone who transgresses or blurs traditional gender
categories” (2011:22). Respondents to the survey could describe their gender identity as
woman, man, transgender, or other, and those who chose transgender or other were permitted
to elaborate on their response in a text box. As in the National Transgender Discrimination
Survey, there were varied written responses, some of which were unique (2011:23-25). Some
identical write-in responses came both from respondents who chose “transgender” as their
gender identity and from respondents who chose “other,” indicating that much terminology
related to gender is ambiguous (2011:26). This may be related to varying personal
experiences with biological sex, gender identity, and gender expression. Some gender
identities that fall under the umbrella term “non-binary gender” are genderqueer, a gender,
androgynous, Two-Spirit, gender nonconforming or gender variant, third gender, gender
fluid, and bi-gender.

The dilemma of those who experience dissonance between their sex and the gender is
an issue that has increased in awareness. Popular media such as television and movies have
increasingly brought attention to this population. Movies such as Boys Don’t Cry (Vachon,
Kolodner, & Peirce, 1999), TransAmerica (Macy & Tucker, 2005), and The Crying Game
(Wooley & Jordan, 1992) have centred on transgender characters. On television, transgender
characters have appeared in popular shows such as All My Children (Smith, Kwatinetz,
&Frank, 2013), Bones (Hanson et al., 2015), CSI (Petersen et al., 2015), Degrassi (Schuyler,
Stohn, & Yorke, 2015), Family Guy (MacFarlane, 2015), Private Practice (Rhimes et al.,
2013), and Orange is the New Black (Kohan & Friedman, 2015). Although these
representations may or may not be accurate in them depiction, they still serve to make
transgender people more visible in society. In addition, there have been recent issues with
transgender people in the news, such as the controversy around the male-to-female
transsexual 2012 Miss Universe contestant Jenna Talackova (Raptis, 2012).

Transgender individuals may feel that they were born into the wrong body. For these
people, their physical sex does not match their internal gender identity. This particular group
faces a number of problems and challenges. Many transgender people experience anxiety and
distress that their gender — their personal sense of being male, female, or non-binary — is
not reflected by the way they interpret their body or the way others interpret their body which
lead to suicide.

Suicide is an ongoing risk for transgender population, both pre and post transition
(APA, 2013). The true number of suicides is often unknown due to a number of reasons,
such as hiding the true cause of death to reduce stigma, for insurance reasons, and accidents
that may have actually been suicides. However, some studies have examined suicidal
ideation and attempts among the transgender population (ClementsNolle et al., 2006; Kenagy,
2005a, 2005b; Testa et al., 2012). Many of these studies are needs assessments (Kenagy,
2005a, 2005b). This may be because of the link between violence and suicide, or the
consideration that suicide may be seen as a self-inflicted act of violence.

Clements-Nolle et al. (2006) found 32% of their sample had attempted suicide at
some point in their lives. Those who had attempted suicide were found more often to be
white, under the age of 25, recently unemployed, with a history of incarceration (Clements-
Nolle et al., 2006). Clements-Nolle et al. also found a significant correlation between suicide
attempts and depression (as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression
Scale) and low self-esteem. Other studies have found that the incidence of suicidal ideation
or attempts have ranged from 30–60% (Grant et al., 2010; Kenagy, 2005a, 2005b; Risser et
al., 2005; Testa et al., 2012). Furthermore, when asked whether they attempted suicide due to
being transgender, between 13% and 67% agreed (Kenagy, 2005a, 2005b). When examined
closer, 32–75% of the MtF and 26–53% of the FtM transsexuals had attempted suicide
because they were transgender (Kenagy, 2005b). In addition, suicide was also an active
concern for this population, as 16% had thought about suicide in the last 30 days (Risser et
al., 2005). Suicide may also be linked with experiences of violence (Testa et al., 2012).
Testa et al. (2012) found among transgender women physical abuse was related to suicidal
ideation, whereas sexual abuse was related to suicidal ideation in transgender men. With
regards to suicide attempts, researchers further found that both types of violence were
associated for both transgender men and women (Testa et al., 2012). Kenagy (2005b)
suggested that the rate of suicide attempts was somewhere around 0.002% among the general
population. With suicide attempt rates of up to 41% for individuals who are transgender
(Grant et al., 2010), evidence points to a need for more supports that members of this
population feel they can turn to in times of crisis.

Gender dysphoria refers to transgender people's feelings of distress because of the

mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity. Gender dysphoria can
take the form of physical dysphoria, which is distress regarding sex characteristics such as
genitals, breasts and facial hair; social dysphoria, which is distress regarding social
interactions such as being perceived as the incorrect gender or being forced to wear clothing
associated with the incorrect gender; or both physical and social dysphoria. All three
transgender groups (transgender men, transgender women, and non-binaries) can experience
gender dysphoria. In other words, non-binary genders are identities like those of “man” and
“woman,” not political statements or fashion choices.

Transphobia. Weiss (2003) examined both transphobia and biphobia within the gay
and lesbian community in the United States. Transphobia is not, as the name would suggest,
a fear of transgender people. The Oxford dictionary defines transphobia as an “intense
dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people” (“Transphobia,” Noun
section, para. 2). The word transphobia, by the use of suffix phobia, implies that it is a
psychological problem (Weiss, 2003). However, as Weiss noted, this “changes prejudice, the
attribution of negative characteristic to a group, and discrimination, the exclusion of such a
group from the benefits of society, into a psychiatric illness, a sickness over which the
sufferer has little control” Transphobia largely comes from the traditional views and attitudes
that people hold with regards to birth sex and gender. Lombardi (2009) examined
transphobia utilizing modified sexism and racism scales among transgender men and woman
who had problems with substance use. It was found that the age of transition either before or
after the age of 30, and whether participants had told their friends about being transgender
were the two highest correlates with regards to participants’ experiences of transphobic
events and the stress associated with them. Overall, older transgender people experienced
more lifetime occurrences of transphobic events, which illustrates the persistence and
continued nature of discrimination. In addition, members of this population have experienced
life at different times and cultures, which may also impact their levels of transphobic events.
Clements-Nolle et al. (2006) also found high rates of discrimination among transgender
people, as 62% of their sample stated that they had experienced gender discrimination at
some point. In addition, transgender individuals who work also experience transphobia,
including discrimination and stigma, as they were at more of a risk of disclosing mental
health problems (Mizock & Mueser, 2014).

Some transgender people find significant mental, emotional, and physical relief
when they begin using a name and pronouns which align more with their gender identity,
rather than with their assigned sex. Trans people may also choose to dress in a way that more
accurately reflects their gender identity, and sometimes to pursue hormonal treatment and/or
surgery which brings their body more into alignment with the gendered expectations
associated with their gender.

One in five trans people has been homeless, either due to housing discrimination or
family rejection. Transgender people are far more likely to live in poverty due to family
rejection, housing discrimination, and employment discrimination. Trans people face
discrimination in health care as well – even when insured (which trans people, who
frequently live in poverty and are uninsured, are less likely to be), trans people face
discriminatory policies about health care coverage and discrimination from health care
professionals.

Transgender individuals of colour encounter more physical and mental health issues
than transgender whites and their heterosexual counterparts. The HIV infection rate for
transgender individuals overall is 2.6%, two percent over the national average. 25% of
blacks, 11% of Latinos, and 7% of American Indians report being HIV positive 2007 analysis
of Medicaid policies found that exclusions on transition-related health expenses, such as
hormone therapy and sex change surgeries, have a disproportionately large effect on low-
income transgender people of colour, leading to increased violence, political
disenfranchisement, and poor health outcomes.
 Bockting, Rosser and Scheltema (1999) implemented and evaluated a transgender
HIV prevention workshop, grounded in the Health Belief Model and the Eroticizing Safer
Sex approach, combined lectures, videos, a panel, discussion, role-play and exercises.
Evaluation using a pre-, post- and follow-up test design showed an increase in knowledge and
an initial increase in positive attitudes that diminished over time. The findings suggested an
increase in safer sexual behaviours such as (mutual) masturbation. Peer support improved
significantly.

The GLBT Health Access Project (2000) aimed to improve the health care received
by trans people by exploring what a TG/TS person experiences when she/he seeks health
care. The study asked participants in four focus groups to report on their experiences in
obtaining routine health care as well as specialty services, and to discuss their health
insurance status. The adult MtF group saw substance abuse treatment and HIV/AIDS care as
being the key issue. The MtF adult group said that endocrinology, mental health and primary
care were their most important health care needs. In all the focus groups, a constant theme
was a perception of vast provider ignorance of trans people and concerns. From the level of
health care systems down to individual providers and frontline staff, transgender reported
provider unawareness of, disrespect toward, and outright refusal of treatment for their health
needs, both basic and trans-related.

One area where transgender people experience discrimination in education is on

school documents. Recognizing that college registration and personnel forms that ask
students, staff, and faculty to indicate whether they are female or male ignore the
complexities of gender and signal that gender variant people do not belong at the institution,
transgender advocates are beginning to lobby school administrators to use more inclusive
language. They are also asking that individuals who are transitioning from one gender to
another be able to have their new gender and name (if they assume a different name) appear
on college documents, including identification cards, transcripts, financial aid and
employment forms, and enrolment records. Besides being a matter of fairness and respect, an
accurate gender designation in school files is critical to avoid outing transgender people and
to help protect them from discrimination when they apply for jobs or graduate and
professional schools, and at any other time that they would need to show a college document.

Many of the issues faced by trans people in higher education, including safety
concerns, bathroom and health care access, and the proper gender designation on records,
also confront transgender students and staff in secondary education. However, public junior
high and high school environments are often more difficult for trans people because of the
greater peer pressure to conform to gender norms, the almost complete lack of knowledge
about transgender issues, and the oversight of generally conservative school boards and
parents. The climate in parochial schools can present even greater hardships for transgender
students and staff.

Fear of using public bathrooms is particularly prominent among trans people. Fifty-
four percent of trans people have reported negative health outcomes, such as urinary tract
infections, from avoiding bathroom use; 58% reported avoiding going out in public in order
to avoid the problem altogether.

Rates of mental illness among transgender people are very high. 55% of transgender
people experience social anxiety. forty percent of American trans people report that they have
attempted suicide. Grossman and D'Augelli (2007) studied the risk factor of suicide among
transgender. Factors significantly related to having made a suicide attempt included suicidal
ideation related to transgender identity; experiences of past parental verbal and physical
abuse; and lower body esteem, especially weight satisfaction and thoughts of how others
evaluate their bodies. Transgender people face unique challenges based solely on their gender
identity. Seil (2004) found that a disturbingly large number of transgender people have other
mental health diagnoses; 37.2% of all transgender patients in his study had secondary
diagnoses other than substance abuse and GID. Also, 32.1% of his study had a positive
history for drug and alcohol abuse (Seil, 2004). There are many reasons that account for these
high numbers. One reason could be the isolation many transgender people experience in
relation to their gender identity. Another explanation could be the guilt that typically
accompanies their cross-gender identification.

LGBT persons experience discrimination, bullying and harassment across the

European Union (FRA, 2009). This often takes the form of demeaning statements, name
calling and insults or the use of abusive language, and also, more worryingly, verbal and
physical attacks. It appears relatively rare to have LGBT friends and acquaintances. Fear of
discrimination, homophobia and transphobia contributes to the ‘invisibility’ of LGBT persons
in many parts of Europe and in many social settings. LGBT persons often adopt ‘invisibility’
as a ‘survival strategy’ because of the perceived risks of being exposed to discrimination
which then can lead to social marginalization.
 In too many cases, lack of legal protection translates into unemployment for
transgender people. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS) found that 15
percent of respondents were living in severe poverty (making less than $10,000/year). For
transgender people of colour, those rates were even higher, with 34 percent of Black and 28
percent of Latina/o respondents reporting a household income of less than $10,000 a year. As
anyone who has experienced poverty or unemployment understands, being unable to afford
basic living necessities can result in homelessness or lead people to engage in underground
economies like drug sales or survival sex work, which can put people at increased risk for
violence and arrest.

The transgender community still faces considerable stigma based on over a century of
being characterized as mentally ill, socially deviant and sexually predatory. While these
flawed views have faded in recent years for, transgender people are still often met with
ridicule from a society that does not understand us. This stigma plays out in a variety of
contexts – leaving us vulnerable to lawmakers who attempt to leverage anti-transgender
stigma to score cheap political points; to family, friends or co-workers who reject transgender
people upon learning about our transgender identities; and to people who harass, bully and
commit serious violence against transgender people.

Polat, Yuksel, Discigil and Meteris (2005) found that in Turkey, an individual with
gender identity disorder is stigmatized and isolated from society. They examined the
acceptance of gender identity differences by the families in 47 relatives of 39 transgendered
individuals who applied to a psychiatry clinic for sex reassignment. Half of the relatives who
came to the interview were mothers. While 85.1% of the families considered themselves as
secular Muslims, 14.9% were very religious. Gender identity disorder was first noticed
during puberty (70.2%) or pre-puberty (17%). In 63.8% it was remarked that it was a
shocking experience. One-third of them felt responsible for it. While 65.9% tried to change
the situation by coercion, only 27.7% adopted a supportive attitude. The majority of families
tried to conceal the situation from their immediate environment and one-third did not even
inform their closest relatives. For half of relatives the mass media was their only source of
information whereas one-third received information from doctors. 40.4% of the families
accepted the transgendered identity and approved the sex reassignment surgery as a final step.

At least 13 transgender women were murdered in 2014, and 2015 is on track to see

even higher numbers. These women were stabbed, shot, strangled, burned; killed violently by
intimate partners or strangers. According to the 2013 National Coalition of Anti-Violence
Programs (NCAVP) report on hate violence against lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and
HIV-affected (LGBTQH) communities, 72 percent of the victims of LGBTQ or HIV-
motivated hate violence homicides in 2013 were transgender women, and 67 percent were
transgender women of colour. Transgender people have few options for protecting ourselves
from violence or seeking justice. The NTDS found that 22 percent of transgender people who
had interacted with police experienced bias-based harassment from police, with transgender
people of colour reporting much higher rates. Six percent reported physical assault; 2 percent
reported sexual assault by police; and 20 percent reported having been denied equal service
by law enforcement. Nearly half of the transgender people surveyed in the study said that
they were uncomfortable turning to police for help.

The widespread lack of accurate identity documents among transgender people can
have an impact on every area of their lives, including access to emergency housing or other
public services. To be clear, without identification, one cannot travel, register for school or
access many services that are essential to function in society. Many states require evidence of
medical transition – which can be prohibitively expensive and is not something that all
transgender people want – as well as fees for processing new identity documents, which may
make them unaffordable for some members of the transgender community.

Those who identify as transgender at an early age may have troubles when their
identity conflicts with judgment from traditional school protocol, whether public or private.
Discrimination may come from classmates who tease or physically harm transgender people
as a result of transphobia.

Transgender workers can have a difficult time coping with the traditional workplace
due to established gender norms that limit the roles perceived and expected of them. Among
fellow employees, potential teasing and/or discrimination can arise further affecting the
emotional state of transgender workers. Employers at times retract job offers and
opportunities because of discrimination towards workers of varying gender identities.

Some transgender people face disadvantages in the workplace, although black

transgender people are among the most disadvantaged. black transgender individuals reported
more losing their job due to bias, compared to Latino transgender people, white transgender
people. In addition, the unemployment rate for transgender individuals of minority races is
especially high, with blacks, and Latinos experiencing four times higher the unemployment
rate of the general population. Such individuals are also more likely to live in poverty.

Many believe that transgender individuals of colour face additional financial, social,
and interpersonal challenges as a result of structural racism in comparison to the
transgender community as a whole, however many cite a lack of evidence to this belief.
According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, the combination of anti-
transgender bias with structural and individual racism means that transgender people of
colour experience particularly high levels of discrimination. Specifically, black transgender
people reported the highest level of discrimination among all transgender individuals of
colour.

According to the results of a national survey released at the Southern Comfort

Transgender Conference in Atlanta (2002) seven out of ten people included in the report,
"Public Perceptions of Transgender People," say they are familiar with the word
transgender. A majority of respondents believe it is "all right" to be transgendered. Fifty
percent of those surveyed believe transgendered adults should be allowed to teach in high
schools, but only about 40% believe they should be allowed to be elementary school, gym
class, or day care teachers or scouting leaders. 74% say they would be OK working with a
transgendered person;61% favour laws to prevent workplace discrimination; and 68% support
hate crimes laws that cover transgendered people. After respondents were given the definition
of what it means to be transgendered- an exercise that is considered an abbreviated form of
education- they had a somewhat less favourable attitude toward transgendered people.
Additionally, the poll found a very critical correlation between whether the public sees being
transgender as a moral issue and whether they think people have a choice about being a
transgender.

Newfield, Hart, Dibble and Kohler (2006) evaluated health related quality of life in
female-to-male (FTM) transgender individuals, using the Short-Form 36-Question Health
Survey version 2 (SF-36v2). Using email, Internet bulletin boards, and postcards, 446 FTM
transgender and FTM transsexual participants were recruited. Analysis of quality of life
health concepts demonstrated statistically significant diminished QOL among the FTM
transgender participants as compared to the US male and female population, particularly in
regard to mental health. FTM transgender participants who received testosterone (67%)
reported statistically significant higher quality of life scores than those who had not received
hormone therapy.

A group of four graduate students in the Master of Social Work programme at the
University of Maine (May, 2011) conducted a survey from five countries to study the factors
that influence how transgender individuals' social and personal life experiences may impact
their view of the overall quality of their lives. Transgender individuals who report initially
recognizing their gender expression to be different from peers between the ages of 11-15
years old were significantly more likely to have lower QOL scores than those who report
discovering this between the ages of 0-10 years old. There was a significant relationship
between an individual’s sense of connectedness to family, friends, communities and his/her
subjective assessment of quality of life. There was a significant relationship between
increased reports of depressive symptomology and overall lower QOL scores. 81% also
reported their overall health status as good to excellent.

Many believe that transgender individuals of color face additional financial, social,
and interpersonal challenges as a result of structural racism in comparison to the transgender
community as a whole, however many cite a lack of evidence to this belief. According to
the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, the combination of anti-transgender bias
with structural and individual racism means that transgender people of color experience
particularly high levels of discrimination. Specifically, black transgender people reported the
highest level of discrimination among all transgender individuals of color. Studies on the
transgender community are extremely rare, and even fewer studies have been conducted on
the experiences of transgender individuals of color. However, some literature has
documented the experiences of certain minority groups and the unique challenges they face in
everyday life. The majority of the discussion in this section is based on findings from the
National Transgender Discrimination Survey, due to the extreme rarity of data available on
this subject.

Transgender is an umbrella term that can be used to refer to a number of different

groups of people. However, in this study I use this term to refer to those who do not feel that
their internal gender matches with their biological sex. These people experience a number of
problems, including, discrimination, violence, and mental health concerns. Due to the fact
that transgender people often challenge societal expectations of gender and the general
population’s assumption that gender and sex should match, it can be argued that transgender
people’s experiences would be unique and differ from other marginalized populations.
Therefore, it is important to look at how this population is treated and what their experiences
are, that they may face.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In the following study, a researcher would mainly focus on finding issues or problems which
are faced by transgender in their daily routine. This study focuses on societal behaviour
towards transgender and psychological and economic challenges faced by transgender and
how much government is actively promoted their rights and how they cope up with these
problems.

OBJECTIVES

1. To find out the problems of transgender

2. To know the Attitude towards transgender in the family and society
3. To examine the Quality of Life in transgender
4. To find out their experiences regarding violence

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What kind of behaviour transgender faces while living in the family and society?
2. Identify the problems faced by the transgender? And how they cope up with these
problems?
3. What kind of experiences transgender faces regarding violence and discrimination?

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

CONCEPTUALIZATION

1. Hijras

The Male to Female (MtF) Trans genders commonly known as Hijras are one of the
hardly researched, and callously neglected groups in Society.

2. LGBT
An abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender and in this study is used
as an inclusive term to refer to the community as a whole (UCDavis Lesbian Gay Bisexual
Transgender Resource Center, 2010, ¶ 6).
 Lesbian and Gay
To be lesbian or gay means that a person’s primary sexual and affectional orientation
is toward people of the same gender.
Bisexual
To be bisexual means that a person’s primary sexual and affectional orientation is
toward both people of the same gender and people of the opposite gender. For most lesbians,
gay men, and bisexuals, sexual identity includes more than just sexual attraction and
behavior. Research points to the importance of additional dimensions, such as emotional
preferences, psychological attraction, falling in love, and self-identification (Klein, 1990).

Transgender

The word “transgender” – or trans – is an umbrella term for people whose gender
identity is different from the sex assigned to us at birth.

OPERATIONALIZATION

Socio-demographic dependent variables Independent variables

variables

Age Transgender Lack of acceptance

Gender identity Identity documents

Education Poverty Inequality

Race health care Mentality

Employment status Problems face by transgender

Current living situation Harassment and stigma Illiteracy

Relationship status Lack of legal protection Gender bias

Country of birth Poor Living standard

METHODOLOGY

This study will be based on qualitative methodology for the purpose of getting deep insight
and subjectivity of the issue (Creswell, 2003). The target population will have comprised
those transgender people who were facing challenges while living in society. purposive
sampling technique will be used. For meeting these objectives, in depth interviews will be
conducted. Furthermore, Islamabad will take as the universe for this research and the area is
selected on the basis of higher level issues facing day by day.

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