The phase three of voting ended the day before and Kerala did exceedingly well compared to any other state in the country. Amidst all the extreme climatic conditions and all the obstacles including standing in a queue for more than seven hours, Kerala had the highest vote percentage of 77.68% of the 2 crore above voters, reported the electoral officer. The state of Assam had a good 74.35% close to Kerala.

It was during the voting day when fifteen transgender people walked in to vote at Thiruvananthapuram’s Fort School. Some of them had even voted previously but unfortunately had two options to choose from – male and female. Trans males would opt for male and the trans women would opt for female.

 

“Earlier, trans men had chosen the gender identity of male and trans women had chosen the column of female. But for the first time a third column was given as an option, and quite a few trans people have chosen their gender identity as transgender. About 40 trans people should have voted from the state this time,” says Sreekutty, who is state president of Sexual and Gender Minority Federation, and also part of the Oasis Cultural Society, an organisation for the welfare of trans persons in Thiruvananthapuram, reported The News Minute.

Sreekutty further added, “The Supreme Court had in 2014 recognised the right to self-identify as transgender. I chose my identity as female, and there are trans men who chose the identity of male among us. But we had been asking the government to include a third column for the transgender identity ever since a transgender policy was passed by the State in 2015. And the government has helped in sorting out all the legal issues.”

This new addition allows a person to have self identity which is very crucial for every state to adapt to.