In March, India’s parliament passed the Transgender Persons Amendment Act that rolls back the legal right to “self-identification” as the opposite sex.
The new law marks a reversal of a 2019 law that itself was passed after India’s supreme court ruled in 2014 that transgender people represent a “third gender” with constitutional rights.
On the “Washington Watch” program, Dr. David Closson, director of Family Research Council's Center for Biblical Worldview, said the new law now requires a medical review and government-approved certification rather than “self-identification.”
“The big takeaway for me with this story,” Closson shared, “is that lawmakers in India concluded that ‘self-identification’ alone is not a sufficient basis for legal recognition.”
On the program, guest host Casey Harper pointed out India’s 180-degree change on transgender ideology happened in a nation that is predominantly Hindu, not a Christian one based on a biblical worldview.
India’s lawmakers, he said, apparently concluded their national law based on “whims” and feelings doesn’t work.
“You can push against the created order, and you can suppress and deny biological truth, only so long,” he observed. “The created order in reality, has a way of pushing back.”
Looking at the transgender movement and its multi-gender ideology, Closson said India’s new law is evidence that common sense prevailed.
“The new ideology about transgenderism is actually very new and very novel,” he said. “It keeps popping up, actually to the detriment of every civilization that adopts it, but it goes against what we know to be true.”
Citing the reversal of transgenderism in India, Harper pivoted to the United States and to controversy over same-sex marriage here. He pointed out polling shows support for same-sex marriage has dropped sharply in recent years.
According to a new Gallup poll, first reported by Fox News, support for same-sex marriage peaked in 2022, after the landmark Obergefell court ruling in 2015, but it has dropped six percentage points since then.
Among voters who are Republican, support plummeted from 55% just four years ago to 37% now.
“Why do you think that is?” Harper asked.
“I think a lot of Americans are looking at how these ideas affect real-world issues, like sports, like parental rights, like privacy, like the health and well-being of children,” Closson advised.
Going back to India’s law, he said, you can only “suppress and deny certain truths” until time runs out and reality hits.
