Transgender couple celebrates birth of baby, 1st by a trans man in India

New Delhi, Feb 9 (EFE).- A transgender couple in India celebrated the birth of their baby on Thursday, a case that has drawn a lot of attention for being considered the first pregnancy for a trans man in the country.

Ziya Paval and Zahad posted a photo on Instagram of the baby’s hand, still wearing a hospital bracelet in the southern city of Kozhikode in the southern Kerala state, announcing that Zahad, who was born female, gave birth on Wednesday.

Paval, a trans woman, explained to EFE this week that the interest that the pregnancy had generated in India was probably due to the fact that it was the first for a trans man in the Asian country that she was aware of.

The couple has been posting pictures of the pregnancy on social media for the past few weeks.

Both were undergoing gender-transition hormone therapy but Zahad interrupted it a year and a half ago out of the couple’s desire to have a baby.

The support that the couple has received in India, where there is a strong stigma around trans people, has been exceptional.

Trans people in the country face a lot of discrimination even from their own families, which pushes many to prostitution or begging on the streets to earn a living.

In an attempt to reduce this discrimination, which prevented many trans people from accessing public jobs, the Supreme Court of India recognized them as “the third gender” in a historic ruling passed in 2014.

The community also faced criminalization of same-sex relationships for many years due to a law inherited from the British rule that was annulled in 2018.

India has almost half a million trans people, according to the last census published in 2011, a figure that was disputed by several activists who claimed that the number was much higher. EFE

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