Recently, Bangladesh Government passed a law which declared hijras a separate gender. Hijras, a formal term that will be used to address them, will be given similar rights as any other man or woman residing in the country, in terms of education, job facilities, housing and health.
This is a very good news for LGBT community as a whole, as Bangladesh is officially recognizing hijra as a separate gender. However, in the contest of Bengali urban culture, I personally find the word 'Hijra' to be insulting, almost synonymous to a 'racial slur'. Even when they're spoken without any intention of insulting a minority person, I still don't like the implications at least officially. I proposed that the word 'hijra' to be replaced by more humane terms. Here is my write-up on this:
Regards
Avijit
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