Chennai: Transgender fights to get marriage registered

Tirunelveli: Despite abolition of Section 377 of IPC that criminalised consensual  sex of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, and queer), transgender still have miles to go to get their marriages registered in Tamil Nadu, regretted Srija, a 19-year-old transgender woman, who is running pillar-to-post to get her marriage with a 22-year-old youth, B Arunkumar,  legally registered.Srija, daughter of Petchiraman (late) of Sankaraperi village in Thoothukudi district, was in love with Arunkumar, son of Balasubramanian of Mappilaiyoorani village near Thoothukudi, for about two years. They got married on October 31 this year at Sankararameswarar temple in Thoothukudi. 

The sub-registrar, A Arockiyaraj, however, refused to register the marriage under the Tamil Nadu Registration of Marriage Act 2009, since Section 7(1), according to him, prevented giving legal status to a marriage involving a third gender.