CHENNAI In a submission made before Justice N Anand Venkatesh of Madras High Court in a case related to LGBTQIA + community, the state government said Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) had notified ‘conversion therapy’ as professional misconduct and disciplinary action would be taken against the doctors performing the therapy.
TNMC’s notification follows a similar one issued by National Medical Commission (NMC) earlier.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) S Silambanan, representing the state, filed two status reports on the matter on behalf of the social welfare department on Friday. He said action is being taken to notify the final version of the Tamil Nadu Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2022 in the government gazette after getting approval from the Law department.
Referring to the policy for LGBTQIA+ community, the AAG informed that the state planning commission had presented the draft to Chief Minister MK Stalin on October, 27, 2022 and it was sent to the social welfare department for further action. The director of social welfare department convened a virtual meeting of the stakeholders on December 1, 2022 and sent a report to the government, he said.
Granting three months time to the government, the judge said, “The government of TN is taking a sincere effort in addressing the issues faced by LGBTQIA+ community and it is evident from the steps taken. One such step taken by state government was to bring in the rules.”
The judge described the framing of the rules as a “giant step” towards empowering the transgender persons. The state government had also said more than a lakh teachers were trained on sensitising the students on LGBTQIA+ issues. Advocate S Manuraj represented the petitioners in the case.