When I go to other states, I'm laughed at and stared at. But that hardly happens to me here in Tamil Nadu," says Rose Venkatesan , who adds during the course of our conversation that she is not someone who will "deal with shit". In 2008, Venkatesan created waves by becoming the country's first transgender TV talk show host, anchoring a programme called Ipadikku Rose (yours truly, Rose). Five years later, another member of the transgender community in Tamil Nadu has created history of a slightly different kind. In November, armed with a High Court order, 25-year-old Prithika Yashini became the first transgender in the country to be appointed a sub-inspector of police. Yashini now has her eyes set on becoming an Indian Police Services officer.Like Yashini's appointment, Tamil Nadu has seen a raft of pioneering efforts, both by members of the transgender community and by state governments, for the community. The state has the country's first transgender news anchor, Padmini Prakash, and the only transgender to win the Sangeet Natak Aakademi award, given to Narthaki Nataraj in 2011, for Bharatnatyam. The government, on its part, has set up a Transgender Welfare Board, offers free sex reassignment surgeries at hospitals for trans women, issues family ration cards for groups of transgenders living together and has given free housing and land to some, among other measures. This October, when the state's animal husbandry department invited applications, it was accepting transgenders' applications as well, with the result that some 100 of them applied, according to activist and trans woman Priya Babu. The state has even declared in 2011 that April 15, the date on which the welfare board was set up, would be observed as transgenders' day while Koovagam, a village in Villupuram district in the state, has been hosting a festival for transgenders for years.It's then no coincidence that even the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill 2014 passed by the Rajya Sabha was moved by a DMK member from Tamil Nadu, Tiruchi Siva. The Bill, which provides for reservation in government job, pension and unemployment allowance and the creation of welfare boards at the Centre and in states, is now awaiting the assent of the Lok Sabha.As these steps indicate, members of the marginalised community, shunned by mainstream society and forced to resort to begging and prostitution to survive, aver that they are relatively better off in the state, compared to other parts of the country. Babu, who has written a book published with the support of the United Nation’s Development Programme about this, says there are various reasons for this tolerance, starting from the mention of transgenders in ancient Tamil literature, such as the Tolkappiyam, a treatise on grammar. "Our leaders, like Periyar, and his followers supported inclusivity in society and were aware at ground-level issues,” she adds. The community too began developing itself in the late '90s and the Koovagam festival, where participants "marry" the deity in a reenactment of a mythological incident, became the venue for transgender beauty contests and various awareness campaigns. Yashini's achievement is considered the latest feather in their cap, with the judges who cleared her appointment asking her to work for the welfare of her community.But though their situation might be comparatively better in Tamil Nadu, there is still a long way to go, starting with acceptance by their own families. "Let's be honest, no family wants a trans member — it’s considered a disgrace," says Venkatesan, a prominent figure in the community. Venkatesan, who has done a Masters in engineering from the US and has worked as a website designer, says her family did everything possible to make her remain a boy, from throwing away the girl’s clothes she had procured to taking her to psychiatrists. "Even after 12 years, my mother has not accepted me. My family still addresses me as a boy, they like to ignore my identity," she says.Unemployment and the difficulty of finding a house are other challenges many struggle with. "I saw 25 houses in Chennai but no one was willing to give me one on rent. That's why I was forced to leave the city for Auroville," says Kalki Subramaniam, a transgender activist, writer and public speaker. She draws a difference between tolerance and acceptance of transgenders in the state. "There is social tolerance in Tamil Nadu but do we really have social acceptance? That's still a battle," she says.The state needs to do a lot more, say members of the community. While the welfare board was a pioneering effort when it was set up in 2008, it has hardly met over the past few years, says Subramaniam. "We need short-medium- and long-term plans for the acceptance of the community, both by the state and central governments," she says. A year and a half after the Supreme Court verdict upholding the rights and freedoms of transgender persons and directing the Centre to treat them as a socially and economically backward class, not much progress has been made by states in implementing the verdict, adds Venkatesan. "Whatever has happened so far has been the result of a bottom-up revolution. Even Prithika had to fight at every step to become a police officer but people will now look at her for inspiration," she says.