Thinking Outside the Gender Box

An article from BBC reports that India, in a land mark ruling, recognizes transgender persons. This is an incredible policy change! India has a huge population of transgender folks. This is particularly meaningful to me because I lived in India.  I remember encountering eunuchs coming to the coffee shop I worked at to collect the money due them.  What I mean is that this group was so ostracized that the only choices they are given to survive are prostitution and begging, as the article points out.  However, many eunuchs and transgender Indians commonly make deals with shop owners to give them an allotment of money every week so that they won't cause a scene in front of their shops and deter customers.  This sounds like shady blackmail, which is what my first reaction was. But the compassionate coffee shop owner I worked for redirected my judgmental perspective. He looked at paying these people as a duty because he knew this group was oppressed. 

I also, remember a story he (the coffee shop manager who will remain anonymous) told me that I think will always remain with me because it was so striking and really explains the level of shunning transgender Indians experience. He told me of a woman that was recently in the news because she was forced to give up her child, who was transgender, to the eunuch community.  The doctors call this community whenever they deliver a baby that is transgender or eunuch because they know and the parents know that the child will have no life and no chances outside of that community.  This was a heart-breaking story to me. Even if she wanted to keep the child, she couldn't.  The coffee shop manager told me that this is what was best for the child. You see, in India, the eunuch community is much like the leper community.  They have their own schools and schools.  It's a community on the outskirts that learns to survive with others like them.

I'm sure not every transgender person lives in these communities. However, I think this article shows a turning point.  When I read it, all these memories of people I encountered came rushing back.

  All the compassion and sorrow I had felt over their plight turned into a brimming hopefulness.

That the child I was told about might have a different future; that the eunuchs that came to our shop every week might have a chance to work in the coffee shop one day.  

This is even more poignant because this marginalized group has deeply touched me these past few weeks as I have studied and learned about what incredible strength and resiliency this group has despite the injustices they face every day.  I am honored to learn about them and from them and I hope to continue to advocate, educate and support transgender folks everywhere. 


References: 

Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27031180