Historical Win for Transgender Software Engineer. HC Allows Change of Sex & Name on School Documents

Source:- thebetterindia.com

Born a woman, S Rekha Kaliamoorthy identified as female in her early years, but always felt and lived like a man. Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana passed the order on the petition filed by him under his current name K Gowtham Subramaniam.

Rekha, as she was known then, graduated from Anna University with BE (computer science and engineering) degree with distinction in 2012. Under the advice of a surgeon, she was urged to opt for hormone therapy, and then, to undergo an official sex reassignment surgery. She was issued a certificate stating that she was a transgender upon the completion of the hormone therapy and the surgery. In an official move, he moved on to changing his first name from Rekha to Gowtham, which was published in the Tamil Nadu government gazette.

Gowtham entered his job at a private company as male. However, when he went back to his school administration to make the necessary changes to his documents, the authorities refused to do so stating the ambiguity of the law on this. The response enraged Gowtham who thereon decided to file a petition.

Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana passed this historic judgement and ordered the authorities to change the sex as well as the name on the paperwork, according to Gowtham’s current identity.

She called out the officials and expressed her disappointment of authorities who did not make the requested changes in the first places. According to a Deccan Chronicle report she said, “Merely because the petitioner belongs to the third gender, he or she cannot be made to run from pillar to post on the ground that there are no rules available permitting such changes.”

“He has also produced sufficient documents to prove his identity and the authorities ought to have considered his application on merit. In fact, the authorities, in the nature of the present case, should readily extend their helping hand rather than denying the same looking down upon them,” she added.

The court has ordered the necessary changes be made within eight weeks.

More power to K Gowtham who will be remembered for his persistence to claim his right.

For those who wish to reach out to organisations that support transgender rights in Chennai, contact Sahodari Foundation. It is one of the pioneering organizations in India, which has been working for the welfare of the transgender community since 2007. It was founded by Kalki Subramaniam, a successful transsexual woman from Pollachi, Tamilnadu. The focus is on education, arts & literature and media for transgender people in the country.