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Transgenders fare better in India where homosexuality is still illegal
Transgenders fare better in India where homosexuality is still illegal
In the Sydney Morning Herald Amrit Dhillon writes:
Quote:India’s transgenders are so despised that they use a little psychological trick to prevent their sense of worth being crushed under the weight of contempt.They never show their hurt. Instead, they smile in public.
What better song then, for the country’s first transgender band to mark its launch than a rendition of Pharrell Williams hit single Happy?
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Quote:The group is the brainchild of Ashish Patil, head of Y-Films, the youth wing of Yash Raj Films, the famous Mumbai studio that makes motion pictures, who wanted to send a positive message out to society about transgenders through the medium of entertainment.Quote:Ashish Patil realised that they were never given a chance on Indian talent shows and yet was sure they had talent. So he asked Bollywood music director and composer Shamir Tandon, to train the group to sing and dance, create an image and compose songs for them, record and launch them.Quote:All the band members say they have grown up feeling male from the outside and female from the inside. Most were thrown out of their homes early because their parents, even if they loved them, feared society’s disapproval.Transgenders, also known as ‘hijras’, live on the margins of society in India. Unable to get work and forced to beg at traffic lights, they go into prostitution or sing and dance at weddings and birth celebrations to earn a little money.
Quote:In a landmark ruling in 2014, the Supreme Court recognised the country’s estimated two million transgender people as a third gender and said discrimination against them, based on their belonging to neither gender, had to stop.These victories, which indicate a slight softening of attitudes towards transgenders, stand in stark contrast to many Indians continuing to regard homosexuality, on the other hand, as a ‘disease’ to be cured. It is still a criminal offence here.
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