LGBTQ in Modern India
[Music]
i’m really happy to be part of this tedx
thank you for having when people ask me
that how did i enter the social sector
it’s a very big thing you know in my
life that right from being
a model coordinator being on the sets of
bollywood
and then being in the field working with
sex workers transgender women
and the marginalized community where
there is no glamour
it happened so that with sabina we all
had started the
thai welfare society and i was one of
the board members but not very active
but slowly and slowly because i used to
meet the hijra community the trans
community
always in functions parties organized of
the community
and for the first time in my life
when i went to the red light district in
mumbai
my whole attitude towards the community
changed i was shocked to know that
people
in those days when i’m talking about 98
99 when people
when hiv was one of the dreadful
diseases
infections i believe you know that time
doctors used to not even touch anybody
in that time
i was taken aback
chevina said why don’t you join be a
peer educator
then from being a peer educator and
being the president of the organization
was a long journey but i understood
that life looks glamorous from outside
but within there was a different story
altogether
which moved me completely to be with the
community
to stand together with the community
because
it’s not easy it’s not at all easy
to be in this world
without understanding the pain and who
was in pain
my own people my own community
when we talk about entertainment
business
the saddest part is that till date
the trans community has been portrayed
a position of mockery disgust
and non-acceptance there are serials
which are
you know people top stars have played
in the south india and north india but i
believe that the people should be more
sensitive now of course things have
changed
there are few good movies and serials
which are coming but i believe that
there should be more sensitivity towards
the whole topic of
lgbtiq people should not be
used the creators in the entertainment
fraternity the producers the directors
the scriptwriters
should understand that they should treat
the community lgbtiq community with lot
of respect and dignity
we are not people from mars
your ideas shouldn’t ridicule us
in public it should be respectful
when you talk about entertainment and
when you talk about being respectful one
thing which comes biggest is education
without educating yourself you’re zero
ugc played a very important role for the
trans community
to acquire education they they created
all the platforms whether having
sponsorship whether
you know proper research
to be done about the trans community
people everything
loans on zero percent loans
i request that people from my community
should go and
shouldn’t be a dropout there are many
ways to acquire knowledge and without
knowledge we will be zero
i always believe that nobody
we all have the soul and the soul is
what decides with gender we are a man
has his own a woman as
his own i believe my soul had that
i always say it is the hedge in me the
hedge is my soul
the trance is my soul and that’s why i’m
a transgender
my soul decided to be a transgender
person
and i’m happy with that and everybody
nobody says what is normal abnormal i
don’t believe in these words
and now the world is also understanding
we all as as
human as anybody else nothing in this
world changes
what changes is the mindset and the
mindset if it doesn’t change
then we tend to
stigmatize discriminate and at time
we ourselves ostracize our own people
sad thing is there that the world
now today india is one of the leaders
in the transgender movement in giving
acceptance by judiciary but still
till we don’t change the mindset of the
people
till we don’t take our own initiative in
understanding the community
nothing will change there are many
communities there are communities
of the transgender venues there are
traditional communities the hijrahs
the kindness the
[Music]
across india there are many communities
and all communities are subset
of the big transgender community
help when people tell lakshmi did you
receive any help yes i received help
i received help with people who
wanted the change to happen who were
ready to
accept without any inhibitions people
who wanted to see the change the first
help i received was from my parents who
accepted me as i was
the second help i received from all my
friends who didn’t threw me out of this
circle
whatever i was whatever was my gender
and my sexuality was for me
not for people who loved and cared me
they all stood by me people who stood by
you
or who stand by you create the biggest
difference
who knows the better pain of
ostracization than
trans people we had
those burns on our body but we learn to
heal it
with a struggle today in my community
there are many different type of people
from different cars creed religion
everything is different but one thing
which bind us is the pain
when people talk about orthodox india in
open india orthodox india was the same
india which
had created a space for trans people in
the
society i believe the orthodox
india is created by the british not by
indians themselves
the world is changing the
judiciary has shown such a big
door and pathway of change
and that change
was not is not enough
the change what judiciary has shown it
is necessary
that we there are many judgments right
from privacy section 370 same
nonsense judgment of the transgender
india has opened india has gone back to
its roots in accepting everyone as a
family
on the books by policies by act
but now it’s a time for we all indians
to not have that notifications in
ourselves or that cliche attitude
towards certain communities certain
humans or certain communities
it’s necessary that we change our way of
looking
it’s necessary that we stop
saying that they and us the day
we stop saying they and us
and we learn this word of we as a
community
then india will be a different place and
then you don’t need to you know say
about advocacy and acceptance
we only have to learn one word
we as a community we as an indian
so much has changed the youngest civil
rights movement
of transgender or sexual minority lgbtiq
in this country
has got some space we have achieved so
much but yet
lot of things has to be achieved
we have just created a foundation the
building has to yet to be built
there are many things
there are many things what i said has
brought the change
there was one gap where people were
blackmailed for being gay
lesbian whatever section three judgment
has pulled out that fear of living
being an indian still living in fear
people blackmailing you people
ostracizing you people
bullying you but after reading down
section 377 things
changed the knowledge has regiment after
70
plus years of independence transgender
people got their right
it’s a change privacy act
is a change and we all in this
generation
have witnessed the change we are living
in that generation of india
which brought lot of changes
beautiful changes the time of corona
also taught that what is more important
is our family and our neighbors
we as a society have to be strong
when we did the biggest
operation of providing dry russian to
the transgender community it was the
mainstream society
who came for help and they helped us out
of the world people have class
we all when you know people ask me how
how to understand lgbt how to um
know somebody you know why you have to
understand anybody’s sexuality or gender
why can’t you just accept the person as
the person is
a true friend is a friend who will never
change a friend
according to his friends and fancies
a true friend will accept a friend
as a friend is
if you start judging don’t forget to
judge yourself first
to understand lgbt iqp a person
you don’t require a big bible or begita
for it
you have to become human i
from this tedx platform
would like to again urge that we as
indians
have to understand ourselves more how to
broaden our horizons to understand
gender equality to respect
people’s sexuality and to believe
and to practice that we all
are indians that’s the beauty of being
an indian
jai hind