{"id":3290,"date":"2016-05-21T10:51:32","date_gmt":"2016-05-21T05:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3290"},"modified":"2016-05-21T10:51:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-21T05:21:32","slug":"trans-acceptance-377-verdict-transgender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3290","title":{"rendered":"Despite 377 Verdict, It\u2019s Not All Rainbows for Trans People Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

H<\/span><\/p><\/div>

arshini Mekala wanted to be a lawyer when she was growing up, but like so many people who come to Mumbai, today she has dreams of being an actor. She\u2019s not a <\/span>star kid<\/span><\/a>, and doesn\u2019t have an <\/span>industry godfather<\/span><\/a>, but winning a <\/span>beauty pageant<\/span><\/a> could provide the right platform to break into showbiz. A lucky break could be right around the corner, as she\u2019s in the finals of an all-India pageant, the winner of which will get to represent the country at an international event in Thailand. Harshini is in the running to become Miss TransQueen India 2018, a title she\u2019s hoping to bag despite modestly referring to herself as \u201cmedium-beautiful\u201d during our conversation.<\/span>\n\nWinning the pageant would be sweet \u2013 even sweeter was the feeling Harshini had yesterday when the <\/span>Supreme Court<\/span><\/a> finally struck down Section 377, ending decades of legal discrimination and harassment of the LGBTQ community. Speaking to me over the phone, Harshini told me how the ruling fills her with hope for society becoming more welcoming toward transgender individuals, now that India\u2019s foremost judicial body has issued such an unequivocal \u2013 and poetic \u2013 statement of acceptance.<\/span>\n\nWhile the Supreme Court\u2019s statement was undoubtedly historic, it will take more than a single law being struck down to eradicate <\/span>homophobia and transphobia<\/span><\/a> from our culture. Against the backdrop of all the celebrations and parades being thrown in metros in the country and diaspora communities abroad, the knowledge that Indian society has a long way to go to catch up to the <\/span>forward-thinking Indian judiciary<\/span><\/a> is a sobering thought.<\/span>\n\nHarshini knows the difference between mind-sets in <\/span>supposedly liberal cities<\/span><\/a> and rural areas better than I ever could. She was born in 1989, in a tiny village called Balusupadu in Andhra Pradesh, with \u201ca female heart, but in the wrong body.\u201d This was a very different world from the one she currently inhabits in her role as an executive assistant at the real estate giant Jones Lang LaSalle. She\u2019s undergone surgery so that her body can truly reflect her female identity. Reena Rai, the founder of the Miss TransQueen India pageant, came across her photos on social media and invited her to be a part of the show.<\/span>\n\n

“Transgender people don\u2019t just want to beg or do sex work. They need opportunities to show the world what they can do”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThings weren\u2019t always this rosy, however. In the village where she was born, she couldn\u2019t be Harshini, the beauty pageant contestant with aspirations to stardom. There, she was forced to conceal her identity, attending school in a boy\u2019s uniform, only to sneak on her sister\u2019s dresses at night. Her father failed to come to terms with her gender orientation and would beat her when he caught her growing out her hair or wearing girls\u2019 clothes. As she grew older, things worsened. By the time she reached her teenage years, she was facing harassment from boys in the village. <\/span>\n\nShe was traumatised, confused, and alone. There was no one else in the village like her. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nThe only silver lining during those years was her mother. Harshini\u2019s mother accepted her no questions asked, right from the time she began identifying as female at five years of age, leaping to her child\u2019s defence to fight with family members and neighbours who passed any comments or judgments. It was her mother who supported Harshini\u2019s education, ensuring that she received an MA in Economics. Harshini recalls that her mother would often say, \u201cMera bacha na male hai na female, bas mera hai.\u201d<\/span>\n\nWhen she talks about her mother, Harshini\u2019s voice starts to crack. Nobody had given her unconditional love like her mother, not her father, not her ex-boyfriend, not her peers. Her mother\u2019s passing left a hole in Harshini\u2019s life, one that nearly swallowed her. She attempted suicide. Luckily, she survived, and was able to move to Mumbai. <\/span>\n\nBut for a 20-year-old outsider and a trans-person, Harshini found her options narrowed down to either begging or sex work. Even when she was able to land interviews for jobs at <\/span>call-centres<\/span><\/a>, society\u2019s transphobia crippled her prospects. Though by this point she had undergone surgery, her marksheets still bore her male name. That was enough to scare off any would-be employers. Thankfully, all that changed when she landed her present job that allows her to support her younger brother\u2019s education. \u201cTransgender people don\u2019t just want to beg or do sex work. They need opportunities to show the world what they can do\u2026 There is a transgender judge in Assam, there are transgenders in politics, Anjali Ameer is a big transgender actress,\u201d says Harshini. <\/span>\n\nI find a stark contrast in the celebrations around me and the stories of years of marginalisation and ostracism that Harshini has had to bear. While our privilege allows us to celebrate the end of Section 377, the truth is that beyond our sanitised bubble, there is the world which Harshini has survived, and triumphed against. A world that mocked her for who she was born as, that forced her to conceal who she was in public, that denied her a job because of who she is.<\/span>\n\nThough yesterday\u2019s abolishment of 377 delighted her no end, Harshini didn\u2019t have time to celebrate in the streets; she\u2019s holding a full-time job and canvassing for votes for her bow in the Miss TransQueen pageant. The merrymaking in the cities is warranted, but she knows the real victory will be when all of society becomes accepting of individuals like her. \u201cChange aayega, I\u2019m positive,\u201d she promises. The Supreme Court verdict is just the beginning.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It will take more than the historic 377 verdict to eradicate homophobia and transphobia from our workplaces. Just ask Harshini, a trans-person who now holds a corporate job, after years of being turned down by employers who held her identity against her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":3291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[6407,377,6408,664,1102,6409,19,419,420,80,951,6410,6411,1267,6331,6412],"class_list":["post-3290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender","tag-andhra-pradesh","tag-boycottamazon","tag-harshini-mekala","tag-homophobia","tag-homosexuality","tag-human-rights","tag-india","tag-lgbt","tag-lgbtq","tag-mumbai","tag-supreme-court","tag-third-sex","tag-trans","tag-transgender","tag-transphobia","tag-transsexual"],"yoast_head":"\nDespite 377 Verdict, It\u2019s Not All Rainbows for Trans People Yet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It will take more than the historic 377 verdict to eradicate homophobia and transphobia from our workplaces. 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