PRESS REVIEW – Friday, March 27: We look at reactions in the Indian press after parliament approved a controversial law which critics say will curtail the rights of transgender people. The International Olympic Committee makes a landmark ruling to forbid transgender female athletes from participating in female events, beginning with LA’s 2028 Olympics. A bandaged Lindsey Vonn graces the cover of Vanity Fair and talks about her Winter Olympics ordeal. Plus: Japan’s viral Punch the monkey has found love!
India‘s parliament has passed a law that will roll back rights for transgender people. The move is sparking a lot of reaction. As Human Rights Watch explains, the bill amends the 2014 law in which the Indian government recognised transgender people as a third gender. Under the controversial legislation passed this week, it will now remove the right to self-identify and limit recognition to those defined by physical or biological traits. There are an estimated 2 million transgender people in India, although the real number is believed to be much higher.
Indian MP Derek O’Brien writes in the Indian Express that the bill will require the mandated reporting of gender-affirming surgery by the medical board and local authorities. He says this will violate the principles of personal liberty and essentially force people to disclose their transgender identity. Authorities say it will better protect them, but O’Brien argues that it will reinforce the conditions that make protecting them necessary.
The Hindu, another Indian paper, reports that the bill now awaits the approval of Droupadi Murmu, the Indian president. Amidst widespread protests, the All Indian feminist alliance penned a letter to her, urging not to sign it. They condemned the “undue and unjustifiable haste” with which the bill was passed.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee has moved to ban transgender female athletes from competing in future women‘s Olympic events. The Guardian reports that Kirsty Coventry, the IOC president, said the landmark decision was taken because it is not fair for biological males to compete in the female category. The IOC’s decision will ban transgender women athletes from the female category of events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and future Games. Athletes who wish to compete in the female category will have to undergo a one-time SRY masculinity gene test. The decision also extends to DSD athletes, those with differences of sexual development such as Caster Semenya, the South African athlete who identifies as female but has some male chromosomes too.
The Guardian, in an analysis piece, calls the decision “seismic”. It notes that four and half years ago, the IOC was hailing the participation of Laurel Hubbard, the transgender weightlifter from New Zealand. Now with this decision, it has made one the most astonishing U-turns from a governing body in modern times. The decision also reflects a changed political climate.
Elsewhere, Vanity Fair‘s new cover features Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, just weeks after her horrific crash in Milan Cortina. She talks about the moments after that crash, the pain, nearly losing her leg to amputation, her long road to recovery and why she hasn’t ruled out a comeback.
Finally, a baby macaque at a Japanese zoo who went viral for cuddling a plush toy has reportedly found love. You might remember Punch the monkey – we talked about him here on the press review several weeks ago. He melted hearts with his cuddling of an orangutan plush toy after being rejected by his tribe. The Times of London says Punch’s many superfans can rejoice because it appears he has found love with another primate. He’s been seen getting cosy with a female macaque at the monkey mountain enclosure. In an Oedipal twist, it appears that his new lady looks a lot like his mother!
You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.
