Heena Sharma Blog

Cricket Australia (CA) on Thursday announced the direction for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse cricketers in elite and community cricket. Starting consultation with key stakeholders in October 2018, CA has developed an elite cricket policy and guidelines for community cricket to support players electing to participate in cricket in line with their gender identity, whether or not this aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. The elite cricket policy aligns closely with the International Cricket Council's (ICC) eligibility criteria on the basis of gender recognition and provides transgender and gender diverse cricketers guidance on how they can compete at the highest levels of the sport, consistent with their gender identity. As an additional measure, a referral process to an Expert Panel has been established to ensure fair and meaningful competition. The guidelines for community cricket will assist clubs, players, administrators, coaches, an...

On Monday, the Lok Sabha passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016. In the eyes of transgender and gender non-binary activists, this is an act of doublespeak because the Bill, if it goes through the Rajya Sabha, will not only fail to protect the rights of transgender people in India, it will actively violate these rights. Activists from the community have condemned the passing of the Bill in its current form, and are calling on the government to withdraw it from consideration in the Rajya Sabha and instead pass the private member’s bill drafted by Tiruchi Siva in the Lok Sabha. Why should a community so vociferously oppose a Bill that is drafted in the name of the protection of its rights ? For those who celebrated the passing of the 2014 Supreme Court judgement affirming the rights of transgender people (colloquially called the NALSA Bill), the answer is obvious. Although the NALSA judgment was flawed in its own ways, it made some incredible str...