India: "O" Is For "Other"

Voters in India will now have the option of identifying themselves as male, female, or "other" on ballot forms.

Indian election authorities Thursday granted what they called an independent identity to intersex and transsexuals in the country's voter lists. Before, members of these groups -- loosely called eunuchs in Indian English -- were referred to as male or female in the voter rolls. But now, they will have the choice to tick "O" -- for others -- when indicating their gender in voter forms, the Indian election commission said in a statement. "Enumerators and booth-level officers (BLOs) shall be instructed to indicate the sex of eunuchs/transsexuals etc as 'O' if they so desire, while undertaking any house-to-house enumeration/verification of any application," a statement from election authorities said. India, home to more than 1 billion people, has 714 million registered voters.

This summer India legalized gay sex between consenting adult partners.