4 Trans Activists in India Who Are Fighting The Good Fight

The transgender community faces discrimination and harassment on a daily basis in India, where gender norms are forced upon the minorities who dare to retialiate.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 is meant to protect the rights of transgender people and ensure their welfare, however it was met with criticism. Few of the severely regressive provisions of the 2018 bill such as the criminalisation of begging and the establishment of a screening committee on the district level for issuance of transgender person certificates, were done away with.

But, it failed to incorporate the basic principles of the Supreme Court judgement in NALSA v. Union of India, 2014, that guarantee the right of transgender people in establishing their own self-perceived gender identity without undergoing sex reassignment surgery. It also does not provide reservations to the community in jobs and educational institutions. Moreover, less punishment is imposed for crimes against transgender people compared to cisgender people.

In such a scenario, these four trans activists are a beacon of hope. They fight for the rights of their community and stand tall against all taboos and stigmas faced by the community.

Akkai Padmashali

Born in a middle-class family and assigned male at birth, Akkai Padmashali tried her best to conform to her assigned gender identity until she attempted to kill herself at the age of 12. Eventually she chose to confide in her brother who helped her open up with their parents, who refused to accept the reality. Her grandmother, a Carnatic vocalist, who taught other children in the neighbourhood, would not let her learn as she worried the music would influence her wrongly.

She revealed in an interview with The Better India that while travelling to school, she would watch trans women near Cubbon Park, Bangalore and wanted to be like them. Her parents would scold her every time she wore her sister’s clothes or played with girls, which made her childhood confusing and disturbing.

From working as a sex worker while her parents thought she was working in a private company to her parents taking her to various specialists to get her ‘cured’, her gender identity was questioned at several points in her life.

Being in the company of other transgender people while being a sex worker, she realised that government policies were not in favour of their community. Her persistence and strength to overcome the societal stigma made her found an organisation called ‘Ondede’, meaning convergence in Kannada. Her organisation strives to create sexual diversity, and enable people to embrace the gender identity of their choice.

She was even the first transgender person to get a driving license that stated her sex as female. In 2017, when former president of the US, Barack Obama came for his visit to India, Padmashali was invited to be part of the town hall. Additionally, she filed a petition against Section 377 in the Supreme Court as well as the 2014 NALSA judgement, violating the rights of transgender persons. She has received the Rajyotsava Prashasti, the second highest civilian award in Karnataka, and is the first transgender person in the state to register her marriage with her long-time partner Vasu, a trans man.

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Laxmi Narayan Tripathi

Laxmi Narayan Tripathi was the first transgender person to represent Asia Pacific at the United Nations. She has also represented her community on several occasions such as the World AIDS conference in Toronto.

Her autobiography, ‘Me Hijra, Me Lakshmi’, narrates her ordeal of being a hijra by choice, and her journey of fighting against all obstacles that came her way while she tried to gain recognition for her community.

“The book is about my life. It has everything from the numerous love affairs I have had to finding solace in Mumbai’s bars,” she says in an interview with DNA. She adds that from facing mental and physical abuse to finding a life of grace, dignity and fame, the story is about Laxmi, who recognises herself as a hijra proudly.

In 2007, she started her own organisation, Astitva, which works to promote the welfare of sexual minorities and their development. She was among the many people who petitioned the Supreme Court to legally recognise the ‘third gender’ in 2014. Moreover, she was awarded ‘Indian of the Year’ in 2017.

Gauri Sawant

Born and raised in Pune, Gauri Sawant’s mother died when she was very young. She believes that she always had feminine traits, but she concealed who she was. Given that Sawant’s household was patriarchal as her father was a police officer, she left her house at an early age because she did not want to be a disappointment to her father.

At the age of 16, she started visiting ‘The Humsafar Trust’, the oldest organisation fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights, where she learnt to accept herself, after which she made the decision to shed her assigned identity-at-birth. In 2000, Sawant found the Sakhi Char Chowghi Trust, an NGO that creates awareness on safe sex and offers transgender individuals counselling. Subsequently, Sawant adopted a girl whose biological mother, a sex worker died from AIDS, leaving her to be sold in the sex-trafficking industry.

In 2017, Vicks documented her journey in an advertisement showcasing Sawant and her adopted daughter, breaking gender and class barriers that define family and care.

The Election Commission of India also appointed Sawant as one of the election ambassadors from Maharashtra in 2019, making her the first person from the LGBTQIA+ community to hold the post.

Sawant’s life will be depicted by Sushmita Sen in the web series Taali, which is currently in production.

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Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju

From the age of four, Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju was bullied and humiliated every time she tried to wear her mother’s sarees, high heels or anything considered feminine. “My parents saw me as a deficient male,” said Gummaraju to NDTV.

She was molested, shamed by her school teachers, and a psychiatrist even advised her family to expose her to masculine traits.

Gummaraju, who is today a transgender activist, surgeon in training, and an Instagram influencer who is vocal about transgender rights, never believed that she could be transgender. She did not even question the possibility, because of the negative imagery associated with trans individuals, who are often deemed scary, dangerous, and abusive by society at large.

Her admission to a medical school was the first time she earned respect from others. She found a more supportive community there, and even found a queer-affirmative therapist who helped her explore her gender identity.

Instagram gave her a space to freely express herself. Eventually, she came out to her family. She named herself Trinetra–a fierce Indian goddess and seeked hormone replacement therapy and surgery from 2018 to 2019.

Despite the initial backlash and fear she felt due to rape threats under her selfies, her profile on Instagram has grown to a whopping 240K+ following. She is regularly seen advocating for her community through her posts, stories, and reels that amass thousands of likes.

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