Transsexual Indian flees to Britain, fears deportation

A transsexual who had fled to Britain from India after the media reported that he was actually born a woman, now faces deportation.

Sameer Neelam was born female and was secretly living as a man with another woman in Hyderabad. Neelam said he was subjected to violence and harassment after the Indian media brought out that he was not a man, BBC reported.

The transsexual thus sought asylum in Bradford fearing that he will have to live in India as a woman.
According to British government guidelines on asylum applications from transsexuals, an applicant may claim asylum when he or she fears persecution on the basis of his or her actual or perceived gender identity.

Neelam said that after media exposed his real gender identity, he wanted to kill himself, but since moving to Britain, he had been able to live openly as a man. "I'm enjoying my life as a man. If somebody calls me 'Mr' or says 'he' I feel energetic," Neelam was quoted as saying.

"Here I'm considered as what I am. In India, I can't dress like this. Nobody counts me as a man," Neelam said. Neelam, however, has not undergone surgical procedures to change his gender, reported BBC Thursday.

Stephen Whittle, professor of equalities law at Manchester Metropolitan University who underwent transition from a female to male in 1975, said it was quite an unusual situation because they do not often have people making it to Britain to apply for asylum.

"For many transgender people in their home countries, life is just very hard," Whittle said. "In fact, inevitably, they do not ever manage to make the transition and have their  gender reassigned. It's as it was here 40 to 50 years ago," Whittle added.

A spokesperson for the British home office was, however, quoted as saying, "Britain has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need it and applications are carefully considered before a decision is made."

"It would be inappropiate to comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing," the spokersperson said.