Sexuality is not a choice. It is something we are born with. So it’s high time we stop discriminating against transgenders and start accepting.
Sexuality is not a choice. It is something we are born with. So it’s high time we stop discriminating against transgendered people.
I see them everyday at the traffic signal on my way back home. Wearing a sari, clapping their hands and asking for money at the glass doors of the halting vehicles. They get a few notes from some men so as to get away from them, while some other men move away so as to avoid them.
Many a times I have hesitated to face them, either because I was afraid of being pushed for money, or just because they were different. Maybe I held back myself due to the subtle disdain passed onto us through the societal stereotyping.
This video made me think as a mother – what if my child was one among them. Today we may either cry at the fate bestowed on us or if we are progressive enough, provide silent support to the child; but we would not be vocal about it.
Why can’t we be proud of their choices and their personalities just like we do with any other child? Transgendered people are of many kinds, with hijras being one of them. Many are born with biological traits of one sex but feel part of another; unable to disclose their true feelings, they are left confused in their youth.
As a family, shouldn’t we support and help them embrace their identity? There are a lot of hurdles for a woman to live freely in this society; let us spare them the added discrimination that comes being a trans woman.