Ankush Kumar

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International Cricket Council bans trans players from women’s cricket

The International Cricket Council has imposed a ban on transgender players from international women’s cricket if the player has gone through male puberty.  The elite council, in a statement, said it has decided after an extensive scientific review and a 9-month consultation, to “protect the integrity of the international women’s cricket matches, safety, fairness and inclusion.”  “The new policy is based on the following principles (in order of priority), protection of the integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness and inclusion, and this means any male to female participants who have been through any form of male puberty will not […]

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Transgender Pakistanis face uncertain future

The transgender community’s history on the Indian subcontinent spans thousands of years. The community has historically thrived, but discriminatory colonial laws left it isolated and trans people faced violence in the subcontinent. Pakistan is no exception. A group of 26 tribal clerics in Pakistan’s Khyber province on July 7 banned trans people from dancing and playing music during weddings. They ruled clergy would not perform wedding rituals at any marriages that included dance and music. The clerics in their decree said they will not perform the last rites of an entire family if any one of them disobeys the decision. […]

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New initiative seeks to improve LGBTQ news coverage in India

In journalism, words matter. They can heal, hurt or excite. Journalists report stories with facts and context that carries emotions and truth about an event.  The world is changing, and inclusion matters in the changing world. But what if, in the changing world, the journalists who report stories that shape our perspective about LGBTQ people do not use the appropriate terminology. Three India-based news outlets, the News Minute, and partner organizations Queer Chennai Chronicles and queerbeat have started a new initiative to help Indian news media become more inclusive while covering LGBTQ stories.  The project will publish a guide, glossaries, workshops and fellowships for Indian […]

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Singapore high court dismisses challenges to sodomy law

Singapore’s highest court on Monday upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss three challenges to a law that criminalizes sexual relations between men. While delivering the judgment, given by a bench of five judges, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon of the Singapore Court of Appeal said that the appeals are not about “whether (Section) 377A (of the penal code) should be retained or repealed, that being a matter beyond our remit.” “Nor are they about the moral worth of homosexual individuals,” said Menon. “In the words of our prime minister, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, homosexual individuals are ‘part of our society’ and […]