A public consultation meeting on the Tamil Nadu LGBTQIA+ draft policy is scheduled to take place in Chennai on January 20. The TN Social Welfare Department has asked individuals and organisations to register for the consultation meeting. The policy was drafted by a 11-member committee headed by the director of social welfare and will be submitted to the government after the consultation.
The state government constituted the drafting committee to finalise the policy for LGBTQIA+ community in July last year. The draft of the policy will be up for discussion during the meeting at 10.30 am on January 20, in the Commissionerate of Social Welfare located in Kamarajar Salai. The government has requested those interested in attending the meeting to register their participation. Only those registered will be allowed to attend the meeting. The registration form can be accessed here.
In October 2022, the State Planning Commission presented a draft policy to Chief Minister MK Stalin, which was then forwarded to the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department. The Director of Social Welfare then sent a proposal to the government for the constitution of a drafting committee including persons from the LGBTQIA+ community, to frame a final policy, based on which a Government Order was passed, constituting the committee in June 2023.
Read: TN’s draft LGBTQIA+ policy suggests horizontal reservation for trans & intersex persons
The committee’s members are transgender activist Kalaimamani Sudha from the NGO Sahodaran; trans man Arun Karthick and psychologist Dr Vidhya Dinakaran from the Tamil Nadu Transgender Welfare Board; vice president of NGO SAATHII L Ramakrishnan; co-founder of Queer Chennai Chronicles Chandramoulee; intersex and Dalit activist Vinodhan; LGBTQIA+ activist Busaina Ahamed Shah; Madras High Court advocate Ajeetha BS; and IIT MAdras Associate Professor Tiju Thomas, with the joint director of Directorate of Social Welfare as the coordinator.