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Hijras and the legacy of British colonial rule in India

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Hijras and the legacy of British colonial rule in India

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Hijras and the legacy of British colonial rule in India

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by Sophie Hunter On 6 September last year the Supreme Court of India struck down Section 377 (S377) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), decriminalising homosexuality. Introduced during British colonial...

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The secret language of South Asia’s transgender community

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The secret language of South Asia’s transgender community

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In South Asia, there is a hidden language known only to the region's hijra community.

Found in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, the hijra are an old and marginalized group, whose members identify as men born with the souls of women. Hijras call themselves she-males and effigies, as well as kwaja sera, or the "guards of the harem," a title that recalls their historical role serving monarchs in the region.

These days, the hijra are known as performers and panhandlers. What few know about them, however, is that they are the keepers of many secrets, including the centuries-old language of Hijra Farsi. "It's importance for our people that when we want to talk to our siblings and others from our household ... we speak in our language and others won't know what we're saying," says Deemi, a hijra living in the Pakistani city of Lahore. "It's also our identity."

Hijras in South Asia

Hijras typically dress like women, but no physical transition or change is required to be inducted into the community. In fact, most identify as neither men nor women, but rather as a "third gender," a status that has received legal recognition in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Despite these protections, hijras remain outsiders. Many live apart from society and are excluded from most professions. In addition to panhandling and performing, prostitution is a common way for hijras to earn a living, a circumstance that arguably isolates them even further from mainstream society.

Perhaps because of this marginalization, hijras have done their best to survive and create a supportive, close-knit community. This closeness has been facilitated by Hijra Farsi, which has a history that is as unique and mysterious as its speakers.

The history of Hijra Farsi

Serving as both a secret code and a cultural identifier, Hijra Farsi has murky roots.

Despite its name, the language does not significantly overlap with Persian. No one seems to know when and how Hijra Farsi began, though some hijras say it started during Mughal rule over South Asia. It was then, according to folklore, that the hijra community was founded by a royal eunuch named, Mai Nandi.

Eunuchs, the khwaja sera, guarded the royal harems and had access to the court. Nowadays, hijras view this royal access as a source of pride, with many Pakistani hijras still referring to themselves as khwaja sera. According to Dr. Kira Hall, an associate professor of linguistics and anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who studied Hijra Farsi in India, this might explain why the hijra language is named after Farsi, the court language of the Mughals. "The fact that they call the language Farsi also reflects their own belief that their community goes all the way back to the medieval courts," she observed.

With the fall of the Mughal empire and start of British colonial rule, eunuchs were pushed into a more marginalized position. Colonial laws criminalized their choice of dress, as well as the public dancing they regularly engaged in. The crackdown caused hijras to become protective of their language, which evolved into a survival tool.

While Hijra Farsi has no documented history, Hall has found evidence of hijras speaking their own language as far back as the early 1800s. "What you do find, 200 years ago, are discussions by various colonialist travelers about these hijras ... [indicating they have] a secret language," Hall says.

A complex language

Hijra Farsi began and has continued as a learned, as opposed to a mother, tongue. The language is introduced to newcomers when they enter the hijra community, together with the group's alternative family structure, cultural norms, and other traditions.

Dr. Muhammad Sheeraz, a professor at Islamabad's International Islamic University, conducted a year long study on Hijra Farsi in various Pakistani cities. Dr. Sheeraz estimated that Hijra Farsi has a vocabulary of around 10,000 words, including some absorbed from other languages spoken in South Asia. "It's pretty complicated and it's a massive vocabulary system," Hall confirmed. Much of the vocabulary centers on trade, money, hijra rituals, cursing, and sexuality.

According to Dr. Hall, the most precise way to describe Hijra Farsi is as a register, that is, a variation on a language used for a particular situation or context. Even if Hijra Farsi does not meet all the linguistic requirements of a language, Hall is happy to call it one. "I think it's a language because the hijras call it a language," she says.

Language or not, Hijra Farsi is difficult to teach and learn. Seasoned speakers often tease and make fun of newcomers who have yet to master Hijra Farsi. With no written script or textbook, the learning process is generally an informal one, helped along by gurus, who serve as parental figures. "We are the teachers and we are the book," says Deemi, who is a guru to about ten hijras. "When we speak it with each other in front of new chelas [or inductees], they ask us what it means," she explained. "We tell them and that's how they start speaking it."

Deemi says it took her only a few weeks to learn the language when she first joined the hijra community. For others, like Annie and Jia, two hijras living in Rawalpindi, it took four or five months. Jia, who learned just by listening to others speak said that "[in] the start, it was difficult, then it slowly became easier."

Hijra Farsi as a community-building tool

Having a language that creates a sense of a community is a necessity for hijras, who typically give up a great deal when they join the community. "They consider themselves completely separate ... from the general community," says Khawar Pervez, who supervises outreach to the transgender community for Dareecha Male Health Society, a Pakistani NGO. "They call everyone else dunya daar [or, 'people of the world']. That's why they have their own culture, and also their own language." Dr. Sheeraz echoes this observation. "Being hijra is speaking this language," he asserts.

Many hijras live with gurus in households called deras. Most find their way to a dera by their early teens. They are typically runaways, or have been left by their families. Once at a dera, young hijras are inducted into their new homes through various rituals, which can include a reenactment of childbirth, payment to a guru, or even a "wedding" ceremony of sorts, which ties the newcomer to their dera.

After a new hijra's induction, the guru becomes her parent and teacher, helping her learn Hijra Farsi, as well as the hijra way of life. Every inductee must follow the rules of the house and hand over all their earnings to the gurus, or risk being ostracized. "With a guru, [a hijra has] a lot of protection," explains Tahir Khilji, the director of VISION (a Pakistani NGO assisting children and minorities) who has worked with hijra communities in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh for the last two decades.

Both the mentorship of a guru and the mastery of Hijra Farsi are critical to a new hijra's success. Many hijras believe, however, that it is important to keep their language secret. "If we want to say something that we cannot say in front of 'people of the world,' we can say it in [Hijra] Farsi," Annie says.

"My own understanding is that this is the only way that they can protect themselves from a threat from the outside world," Khilji explains. This is one of the reasons why many hijras are reluctant to translate Hijra Farsi words for outsiders. "They don't like it when anyone else understands or speaks their language," says Pervez.

Referring to translation requests from outsiders, Annie says, "They ask but we lie to them." She adds that hijras often tell non-hijras they are speaking a regional language instead of telling them about Hijra Farsi. Dr. Hall also said the hijras she spoke to have been "fairly cautious" about sharing details about their language. "They have to be because they're so marginalized," she explains.

But there is much more to Hijra Farsi than just practicality and secrecy. It is a powerful symbol for the hijra community. Given the marginalization they face in South Asian society, hijras see the language as something that is truly theirs, and speak about it with pride. "This is our language," says Deemi. "And it's a very beautiful language."

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The secret language of South Asia's transgender community

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In South Asia, there is a hidden language known only to the region's hijra community. Found in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, the hijra are an old and marginalized group, whose members identify as men born with the souls of women.

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India’s sodomy ban, now ruled illegal, was a British colonial legacy

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India’s sodomy ban, now ruled illegal, was a British colonial legacy

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The Indian Supreme Court has legalized homosexuality, overturning a 157-year ban on consensual gay sex.

In a nearly 500-page unanimous decision issued on Sept. 6, India's highest court affirmed that "whenever the constitutional courts come across a situation of transgression or dereliction in the sphere of fundamental rights which are also the basic human rights of a section, howsoever small part of the society, then it is for the constitutional courts to ensure that constitutional morality prevails over social morality."

Gay rights advocates worldwide celebrated the legal victory, which came after nearly a decade of contentious court battles against a British colonial law criminalizing homosexual acts.

"Our court, our justice system, really believes in the rights of the people," said Kalyani Subramanyam, program director for the Naz Foundation, the primary petitioner in the court case, which could open the door to gay marriage.

And the ruling is more than a human rights win. It is also a restoration of ancient Indian sexual norms.

India, homosexuality and the 'third gender'

In that way, India's ruling differs from recent court decisions legalizing gay marriage in Colombia, Taiwan and Germany - though for LGBTQ Indians, the impacts may be similarly life-changing.

Sexual and gender minorities in India are regularly harassed, assaulted and jailed.

Yet many gender researchers who study India - myself included - argue that India's religious and cultural heritage has long been more accommodating to multiple gender and sexual expressions than Western societies.

According to scholars Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai's groundbreaking 2000 essay collection on same-sex love in India, Hindus embraced a range of thinking on gender and sexuality as far back as the Vedic period, around 4000 B.C.

Richard Mortel via Wikimedia, CC BY

Hinduism's first sacred texts tell stories of same-sex love and gender-morphing figures. The Hindu deity Shiva is sometimes worshipped as a multi-gendered figure composed of Shiva and his wife Parvati together, in what's known as his Ardhanarishvara form.

Hindu texts from around 1500 B.C. likewise show that the "third gender" - individuals sometimes called " hijras," who do not fit into the categories of man or woman - were integrated into India's political and social life.

In the Kama Sutra, India's famed erotic guidebook, the character Svairini is described as as a liberated woman who lives either alone or in union with another woman.

"Male-male attraction" is also "one of the themes of pre-colonial Urdu poetry" writes Vanita in her book about Indian Islamic literature from the 18th and 19th centuries.

India's Khajuraho temples, built in Madhaya Pradesh state between 950 and 1050, even include depictions of homosexual orgies and fellatio, among other erotic sculptures and scenes.

Some scholars of Islam, India's second-largest religion, also find acceptance of gender fluidity in the Koran, which says that Allah "shapes you in the wombs as He pleases."

Indeed, in India's 16th-century Mughal courts, hijras and eunuchs often held positions of high esteem as advisers or emissaries between men and women.

The British preferred the binary

India's fluid gender and sexual norms did not fit into Britain's strict Victorian conceptions of appropriate sexual behavior.

As the British empire grew more powerful in the Indian subcontinent in the early 19th century, so did their ideas about culture, society and law. Viewing local notions of sexuality as barbaric, British officials imposed Western, Judeo-Christian sexual norms on colonial subjects.

Before the British, homosexuality was not illegal in India.

But by 1861 the British had consolidated their rule over India and were enforcing Section 377 of their penal code, which could punish those who committed sodomy or other homosexual acts with life in prison.

When India gained its independence in 1947, this statute remained, becoming Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

Istaunch.com/, CC BY

Author unknown, CC BY

Britain's anti-gay colonial legacy

India was not the only British colony where formerly acceptable sexual behaviors and identities became criminalized.

Section 377, or a similar statute, was imposed in 42 former colonies, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Nepal, which was never formally colonized by Great Britain, also adopted anti-sodomy laws based on India's British-influenced penal code.

In 2007, the Nepali government became the first in South Asia to re-recognize a third gender category. Today, Nepal's Constitution specifically protects LGBTQ people from discrimination and abuse.

Neighboring Pakistan, like former British colonies Bhutan, Uganda and Singapore, still criminalizes homosexuality under Section 377. This "unnatural offense" is punishable with up to 10 years in prison.

But in 2018, Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country, passed the historic Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, allowing Pakistanis to choose their gender on government documents and prohibits discrimination in employment and public accommodations on the basis of gender identity.

The future of gay rights in India

Despite India's legalization of gay sex, the path toward full acceptance of LGBTQ rights is complicated.

For more than a decade, India's right-wing Hindu nationalists - who espouse a fundamentalist interpretation of Hinduism called Hindutva - have worked to portray homosexuality as a reprehensible Western import.

AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist elected in 2014, is himself a follower of Hindutva.

In July, as India's Supreme Court was preparing to hear arguments on the gay sex ban, Subramanian Swamy, a high-ranking member of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, retorted that homosexuality "is not a normal thing."

It's "against Hindutva," he said.

After the ruling against Section 377, an armed Hindu nationalist group called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh declared that "same-sex marriages and relations are not in consonance with nature."

Traditionally," read the Sept. 8 public statement, "Indian society has not supported such relations."

Historic evidence says otherwise.

"India's pre-colonial sexual history is important," Chaitanya Lakkimsetti, a Texas A&M professor who has studied the fight to end Section 377, told me.

Yet, she reflects, "This is not just about hearkening back in time."

For Lakkimsetti, the legal victory shows that "the Indian constitution is a living document that protects minorities." In legalizing gay sex, then, the Supreme Court is not just recognizing India's rich past - it's also "looking forward."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
India's sodomy ban, now ruled illegal, was a British colonial legacy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Indian Supreme Court has legalized homosexuality, overturning a 157-year ban on consensual gay sex. In a nearly 500-page unanimous decision issued on Sept.

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Transgender in Bangladesh: First school opens for trans students

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Transgender in Bangladesh: First school opens for trans students

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By Sanjana Chowdhury
BBC Bengali, Dhaka

Bangladesh's first religious school for transgender people has opened in Dhaka.

More than 150 students will study Islamic and vocational subjects free of charge at the privately-funded seminary, or madrassa, in the capital.

Many in the transgender community identify as a third gender which is now officially recognised in the country.

They have the right to vote and to stand for election, but conservative social attitudes still make it hard for them to access jobs and education.

Some migrate to cities and support themselves by singing and dancing at weddings and births, by begging or through sex work.

The government says Bangladesh has about 10,000 hijras, as transgender people are known in South Asia. Other estimates put the number at more than 50,000.

Almost all have transitioned from male to female.

'No age limit'

School officials, local councillors and hijra community leaders attended the opening day at the Dawatul Koran Third Sex Madrassa, which is near Lohar bridge in the Kamrangirchar area of Dhaka. Classes in the three-storey building begin on Saturday.

Funding for the madrassa comes from a foundation set up with money left by the late Ahmad Ferdous Bari Chowdhury, a businessman who wanted to educate the hijra community.

Until now there has been no school exclusively for transgender people in Bangladesh.

People of any age in the hijra community can enrol at the school. It is hoped that after studying there, students will have a chance to enter a number of different professions.

"Whether or not someone is of the third sex is identified at a fairly mature age. That's why we don't set any age limit. Anyone can be admitted here as soon as a transgender person is identified, no matter what age they are," the madrassa's education and training secretary, Mohammad Abdul Aziz Hussaini, told the BBC Bengali service.

One new student at the school, Shilpy, said most of the trans community were illiterate.

"No one wants to hire us. If we had some education, we could have worked somewhere better. There is no education system.

"That is why we still do what our ancestors did and earn money by dancing and singing," Shilpy, whose name means "artist" in Bengali, told the BBC.

'We want to walk with dignity'

Shilpy went to school until the age of nine, but dropped out because of bullying.

"When I realised I was a transgender person, then everyone in the school hated me, was afraid, criticised me.

"That's why I didn't study any more. If there was a separate reading system for us, no one would tease."

In Bangladesh, hijras suffer from neglect in the family and socially, said Mr Hussaini.

"If a transgender child is born in a family, the parents often do not want to accept them. What else will outsiders do? But they are not to blame.

"We want them not to be a burden to the society. We decided to set up this madrassa... so that they can learn the Koran and work with dignity."

Shilpy welcomes initiatives - whether government or private - to spread education among the third gender population.

"We also want to be like other people, to walk with dignity. We also want to stand on our own two feet. If I get a chance, I will go that way."

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Transgender in Bangladesh: First school opens for trans students

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By Sanjana Chowdhury BBC Bengali, Dhaka Bangladesh's first religious school for transgender people has opened in Dhaka. More than 150 students will study Islamic and vocational subjects free of charge at the privately-funded seminary, or madrassa, in the capital. Many in the transgender community identify as a third gender which is now officially recognised in the country.

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An Obscure Perception of Transgender in Islam: A Case of Hijra in Bangladesh An Obscure Perception of Transgender in Islam: A Case of Hijra in Bangladesh

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An Obscure Perception of Transgender in Islam: A Case of Hijra in Bangladesh An Obscure Perception of Transgender in Islam: A Case of Hijra in Bangladesh

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Adams et al., 2016

USA

339

57.2% male, 42.8% female

University students enrolled in introductory psychology courses.

35% Catholic; 32%, Protestant or "other Christian"; 4%, Jewish; 3%, Mormon; 11%, "other"; 17%, atheist or agnostic.

9-item Transphobia Scale (Nagoshi et al., 2008).

Twenty-item Religious Fundamentalism (RF) Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992).

18

Canada

74

56.8 % male, 41.9 % female, 1.3% unspecified

Not reported.

Psychiatrists (faculty members) and psychiatry residents at university).

Not reported.

32-item Genderism and Transphobia Scale (Hill & Willoughby, 2005).

Assessed by asking "How much guidance does religion provide in your day-to-day living?" ("None at all," "Some," "Quite a bit," "A great deal").

15

Elischberger et al., 2018

USA and India

USA: 218; India: 217

USA: 45.8% male, 50.5% female, 3.7% unspecified; India: 59.4% male, 37.8% female, 2.8% unspecified

Community

Not reported

7-item scale measuring disapproval of gender atypicality (self-developed) and the 32-item Genderism and Transphobia Scale (Hill & Willoughby, 2005).

2-item religiously motivated disapproval of gender nonconformity scale (self-developed).

17

Fisher et al., 2017

Italy

310

29.7% cisgender men, 31.0% cisgender women, 20.3% transwomen, 19.0% transmen

Gender dysphoric individuals, health care providers, and community.

59.4 % agnostics/atheists, 37.1 % Christians (99% Catholics and 1% orthodox), 2.6 % Buddhists, 0.6 % Hindus, and 0.3 % Jews.

20-item Attitude Toward Transgendered Individuals Scale (Walch et al., 2012).

Italian version of the 12-item RF Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992). Religious belief was measured with a single item (I do [not] have a religious belief). Religious services attendance was measured on a 4-point Likert-type scale (I do not attend religious services; I attend only for the main festivities; I attend about once a month, I attend about once a week). Religious education was measured on a 4-point Likert-type scale (not at all; a little; enough; a lot).

19

Garelick et al., 2017

USA

287

38.7% male, 61.3% female

University students

Not reported

9-item Transphobia Scale (Nagoshi et al., 2008).

12-item RF Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992).

Religiosity (fundamentalism): Transphobia was significantly and positively correlated with RF for women ( r = .35, p < .001), but not for men ( r = .14, p > .05). RF predicted transphobia in MRAs ( ß =.17, p < .05).

15

Grigoropoulos & Kordoutis, 2015

Greece

238

39.9% male, 60.1% female

University students

Most participants ( n = 229) were either Christian or Orthodox Christian. The remainder ( n  = 9) did not respond to this item.

32-item Genderism and Transphobia Scale (Hill & Willoughby, 2005).

2-item religiosity scale (self-developed): items related to self-identification as religious and frequency of attendance at religious services. Participants reported their religion (if any) with an open-ended measure.

17

Haupert, 2018 (unpublished manuscript)

USA

442

36% male, 63% female, 0.4% genderfluid, 0.2% non-binary, 0.2% do not know 0.2% choose not to answer

University students

Not reported

9-item Transphobia Scale (Nagoshi et al., 2008). 32-item Genderism and Transphobia Scale (Hill & Willoughby, 2005).

Self-report if religious (and if so, self-reported religious affiliation).

Religiosity: Transphobia (measured by both scales) was positively correlated with self-identification as religious ( rs = .19 & .26, respectively). Transphobia (measured by the Transphobia Scale) was higher for religious participants ( M = 2.82) than non-religious participants ( M = 2.40; t(400.93) = −3.78, p < .001). Transphobia (measured by the Genderism and Transphobia Scale) was higher in religious participants ( M = 3.701) than non-religious participants ( M = 3.161; t(429.93) = −5.4528, p < .001).

N/A

Kanamori et al., 2017

USA

483

44.3% male, 55.7% female

Not reported

Community

52.4% none, 47.6% Evangelical Christian

The 29-item Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (Kanamori et al., 2017), comprises 3 factors: interpersonal comfort; sex/gender beliefs (dichotomy vs continuum); and human value (transgender persons' intrinsic human value).

Self-report of religious affiliation (and then only participants who identified as Evangelical Christian or non-religious were included).

Religious affiliation: A gender by religion ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for religion for all three attitude - Evangelical Christians scored lower than did non-religious people on all three factors: interpersonal comfort, F(1, 479) = 99.71, p <.001, d =.91; sex/gender beliefs, F(1, 479) = 164.38, p <.001, d = 1.17; human value, F(1, 479) = 21.21, p <.001, d =.42. No gender differences existed ( p s > .115).

20

Lewis et al., 2017

USA

1,020

Not reported.

Not reported.

National representative sample.

Not reported.

Feeling thermometer (range: 0-100): positive values indicating relatively warmer feelings toward transgender people.

Participants self-reported belonging to a denomination of Christianity (if any) or as being non-religious. Religiosity was measured by frequency of religious attendance on a 6-point scale from "never" to "more than once a week".

16

Mao et al., 2018

USA

319

29.78% male, 70.22%

Not reported.

Self-identified cisgender heterosexual students

1% Buddist, 29% Catholic, 1.9% Muslim, 0.6% Hindu, 6.4% Jewish, 22.9% Protestant, 10.2% another religion, 28% no religion.

9-item Transphobia Scale (Nagoshi et al., 2008). 32-item Genderism and Transphobia Scale (Hill & Willoughby, 2005).

Religious affiliation was self-reported. 20-item RF scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992).

Religiosity (fundamentalism): Transphobia (measured by both the Transphobia Scale and the Genderism and Transphobia Scale) was positively correlated with RF ( rs = .407 & .475 respectively). Religious affiliation: Different religious groups reported varying levels of transphobia (F(4, 247) = 421.6, p < .001). Protestants > other religions > Catholics > no religion had higher levels of transphobia (all p s < .001).

16

Mbote et al., 2018

Kenya

212

85.8% male, 11.8% female; 2.4% did not report their gender.

Not reported.

Religious leaders from registered churches and mosques.

59.0% Protestant, 22.1% Muslim, and 18.9% Catholic.

Three-items (self-developed) assessing beliefs and attitudes towards gender nonconformity.

Self-report.

Religious Affiliation: No difference between the three religious groups on overall attitudes of transgender people ( p > .05). Muslims > Catholics > Protestants felt that it was morally wrong for a man to present himself as a woman χ ²(2) = 18.47, p < .05, and for a woman to present herself as a man χ (2) = 22.52, p < .01). These opinions were notably strong.

19

Nagoshi et al., 2018

USA

294

36.4% male, 63.6% female

University students

Not reported

9-item Transphobia scale (Nagoshi et al. 2008).

20-item RF scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992).

14

Nagoshi et al., 2008

USA

310

50.6% male, 49.4% female

University students

35% Catholic, 32% Protestant or "other Christian", 5% Jewish, 3% Mormon, 12% "other", and 14% atheist or agnostic.

9-item Transphobia Scale (Nagoshi et al., 2008); items adapted from the Flexibility of Gender Aptitude Scale (Bornstein, 1998).

20-item RF Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992).

14

Riggs & Bartholomaeus, 2016

Australia

96

28% male, 72% female

Mental health nurses

Not reported.

20-item Attitudes Towards Transgender Individuals Scale (Walch et al., 2012), and the 20-item Counselor Attitude Toward Transgender Scale (Rehbein, 2012).

Participants were asked their degree of religiosity (not at all, somewhat, quite, very).

Religiosity: Positive attitudes towards transgender people were negatively correlated with religiosity ( r = −.330, p < .05).

17

Skarsgard et al., 2014 (unpublished Conference Poster)

USA

318

38.68% male, 61.32% female

61.64% university students, 38.36% community sample

Not reported

30-item Prejudice Towards Transsexual Women Scale (Winter et al. 2009).

Religiosity was rated on a likert scale.

14

Solomon & Kurtz-Costes, 2018 (Study 1)

USA

274

41.2% male, 58.8% female

Community sample

48.5% Christians, 35.8% atheists, 15.7% Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and other non-Abrahamic religions.

20-item Attitudes Toward Transgendered Individuals Scale (Walch et al., 2012).

Religious affiliation was self-reported. Most participants identified as Atheist ( n = 98) or Christian ( n  = 133), resulting in comparisons between these categories Religiosity was assessed by asking participants how important religion was to them on a 1 to 10 scale.

Religious affiliation: Christians ( M = 3.50, SD = 0.99) reported more negative attitudes towards transgender people than Atheists ( M = 4.31, SD = 0.70; F(1, 229) = 47.51, p < .001, d = .94). Religiosity: For Christians, positive attitudes towards transgender individuals were negatively correlated with religiosity ( r = −.24, p = .006).

20

Worthen, 2017 a

USA, Italy and Spain

1311

Not reported

University students

Not reported

Attitudes Toward LGBT People Scale (Worthen, 2012).

Respondents were asked how often they attend church on a scale ranging from 1 ( never) to 5 ( every week). Respondents were also asked if they believed that "The bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word" were coded as (1) for Biblical Literalism while others were coded as (0).

20

Worthen, 2017 b

USA

1,940

42% male, 58% female

Not reported

University students in the Bible Belt in the southern USA.

Not reported

Attitudes Toward LGBT People Scales (Worthen, 2012).

Religiosity scale included questions about general religiousness, church attendance, biblical literalism, and attitudes toward biblical passages about "sin" and "homosexuality" (Worthen, 2012).

19

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A systematic review of the relationship between religion and attitudes toward transgender and gender-variant people

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Adams et al., 2016 USA 339 57.2% male, 42.8% female University students enrolled in introductory psychology courses. 35% Catholic; 32%, Protestant or "other Christian"; 4%, Jewish; 3%, Mormon; 11%, "other"; 17%, atheist or agnostic. 9-item Transphobia Scale (Nagoshi et al., 2008). Twenty-item Religious Fundamentalism (RF) Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992).

# data[].attributes.headline
The social struggle of being HIJRA in Bangladesh- cultural aspiration between inclusion and illegitimacy

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The social struggle of being HIJRA in Bangladesh- cultural aspiration between inclusion and illegitimacy