I come from a country regarded as one of the friendliest towards the LGBT community; though there is still discrimination, the community is tolerated. Members of the community are integrated into the rest of the society economically and socially, typically visible in occupations involving beauty and show business.
On my first extended trip outside my country, I stayed in a suburb in Sydney where my professor said the highest concentrations of same-sex couples lived. Each night, when I walked back from Uni to the terrace house I was staying at, I could hear flamboyant productions being performed at a pub along King Street with "It's Raining Men" being the song the performers close every single night I was there. And I was thinking then, "Don't they know other songs?!? Why do they always sing this when I walk back from school?!?" I didn't know then that it was a gay bar. Melissa had to point it out to me when I told her about my observation.
Anyway, my prior exposure to cities where LGBT are fully assimilated into society is why I felt a conceptual discordance in Kolkata upon seeing men dressed as women, with voices as low as men's, begging from people in vehicles when the cars were halted at red lights. To me, it seems that these individuals are not accepted by society; hence, they resort to begging. But then, my Asian history lessons back in high school (if my memory serves me correctly) said that eunuchs (who are included in this classification of transgenders) were well-respected back in the day. So I was wondering what happened so that they're now treated this badly.
Apparently, my first impression is flawed. A bit of digging shows that these transgenders, known as hijra, kothi, kinnar, shiv-shakti, and aravani, actually are legally recognised since 2014. However, there seems to be a discomfort with being labelled as the "third sex", perhaps (among many more practical reasons) because of the long historical significance of these groups of people in Indian society and the current labels used on them are based on Western ideological constructs of gender. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg, a pondering triggered by seeing two men dressed as women, and I don't claim that I understand the deeper cultural contexts of this particular societal sector. So don't expect an academic treatise from me. I am not well-read into the topic, which is why I have difficulty processing what I saw on the streets of Kolkata.
I don't know if LGBT communities in other countries realise how fortunate they are. Whenever I watch their rallies and parades for equal rights and freedom of expression in the news, I've always thought that these are just a show of flamboyance (with their flags and their beautiful costumes); however, encountering these transgenders in Kolkata made me do a double take. Life is hard for these people and I hope that each time the LGBT people organise rallies, they also dedicate such demands for equality for their brethren who don't enjoy the same rights that they already have and who end up begging in order to survive.
On my first extended trip outside my country, I stayed in a suburb in Sydney where my professor said the highest concentrations of same-sex couples lived. Each night, when I walked back from Uni to the terrace house I was staying at, I could hear flamboyant productions being performed at a pub along King Street with "It's Raining Men" being the song the performers close every single night I was there. And I was thinking then, "Don't they know other songs?!? Why do they always sing this when I walk back from school?!?" I didn't know then that it was a gay bar. Melissa had to point it out to me when I told her about my observation.
Anyway, my prior exposure to cities where LGBT are fully assimilated into society is why I felt a conceptual discordance in Kolkata upon seeing men dressed as women, with voices as low as men's, begging from people in vehicles when the cars were halted at red lights. To me, it seems that these individuals are not accepted by society; hence, they resort to begging. But then, my Asian history lessons back in high school (if my memory serves me correctly) said that eunuchs (who are included in this classification of transgenders) were well-respected back in the day. So I was wondering what happened so that they're now treated this badly.
Apparently, my first impression is flawed. A bit of digging shows that these transgenders, known as hijra, kothi, kinnar, shiv-shakti, and aravani, actually are legally recognised since 2014. However, there seems to be a discomfort with being labelled as the "third sex", perhaps (among many more practical reasons) because of the long historical significance of these groups of people in Indian society and the current labels used on them are based on Western ideological constructs of gender. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg, a pondering triggered by seeing two men dressed as women, and I don't claim that I understand the deeper cultural contexts of this particular societal sector. So don't expect an academic treatise from me. I am not well-read into the topic, which is why I have difficulty processing what I saw on the streets of Kolkata.
I don't know if LGBT communities in other countries realise how fortunate they are. Whenever I watch their rallies and parades for equal rights and freedom of expression in the news, I've always thought that these are just a show of flamboyance (with their flags and their beautiful costumes); however, encountering these transgenders in Kolkata made me do a double take. Life is hard for these people and I hope that each time the LGBT people organise rallies, they also dedicate such demands for equality for their brethren who don't enjoy the same rights that they already have and who end up begging in order to survive.
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