If you ask me, this is the best Onam we ever had. And, I am sure, next year it is going to be better still. The change that has occurred from last year’s Onam to this year’s is mind-boggling. Just for example: a couple of months ago, we organised India’s first transgender (TG) beauty pageant here in Kerala, the State from which TGIs, until a few years ago, used to flee to Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad for life. In the past, unable to survive in an extremely hostile society, scores of TGIs used to commit suicide each year in Kerala.

The community has come a long, long, long way. From a State notorious for ill-treatment of its transgender citizens, it has become a TG-tolerant place in a short span of time.

Of course, social stigma is still a reality, but TGIs are not hounded out, harassed or physically tortured as in the past. The Kerala society has grudgingly accepted that we are different, that we are of a gender of our own, and that we have the same rights and privileges as the ones they enjoy.

A few months ago, I had moved into a rented accommodation at Aluva with my partner, Smintoj. This would have been impossible a few years ago. Many other TG couples are now finding it easy to live together without the constant fear of attack by the moral police.

You can’t imagine the pain, the harassment and the insults I suffered because my gender identity was different from what people were familiar with.

I was born into a conservative Christian home near Thrissur. At home and in the public space, I was rebuked for behaving like a girl. Walk like a boy, behave like a boy was the constant rebuke I was subjected to. Every time I heard it, I felt insulted and angry. I had a male name and was dressed like a male, but always enjoyed secretly donning female clothes and being with girls. Humiliated and harassed by peers and teachers, I dropped out of school in class IX and fled home for Bengaluru, the best refuge for a young Kerala TG. It was in Bangalore that I realised I was a TGI. This led to a name change to the female Sheethal years later.

Now you can see TGIs in many walks of life, they are emboldened to come out of the closet. In TV shows, TGIs assert the community’s viewpoints and fight for individual rights.

The Kochi Metro initiative to employ TGIs was a big boost for the community. In the wake of the State Government’s 2015 Transgender Policy, the Tourism Department is projecting the TGI talents. What made this huge change in people’s attitude in recent times? Well, first, our own work to assert our viewpoints and to claim our rights and by coming out of the closet.

Then came the April 15, 2014, historic directive by the Supreme Court to treat us a Third Gender. The Kerala Government’s TG policy was a great help. The `State Policy for Transgenders in Kerala 2015’ was the first that any government in the world had come out with. It emphasised the rights of TGs to self-identify as man, woman or TG.

The media, which in the past helped in reinforcing the 'Hijra' stereotype, later on played a very positive role highlighting our rights. The Supreme Court’s recent verdict upholding privacy as a fundamental right is a big legal boost. Now we are awaiting the repeal of IPC Section 377 that criminalises homosexuality.

As told to K.P.M. Basheer, Kozhikode