‘Aren’t you a man?’: Kerala MLA PC George insults transgender employee in Assembly

Syama wrote a Facebook post protesting the MLA’s attitude and suggested that the government provide awareness to such legislators.

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He does it again. Just when you think the man has spewed all the venom he possibly could, PC George surprises you by spewing some more.

Syama S Prabha was happy to see MLA PC George at the Kerala Legislative Assembly. She knew him from the time of a reality show in which she was a participant and he a judge.

But it was a different man she met this time. He showed no signs of recognising her. And worse, he asked, “Aren’t you a man? Why are you here? Why are you dressed up? I can see your moustache.”

A shocked Syama said she is a transgender person. When she tried to say more, he mumbled that he was busy and slipped away.

“It is very, very wrong, I tried to tell him. He is a representative of the people and he was questioning my identity. It was absolutely insulting and caused me a lot of pain,” says Syama, who works as state project officer of the Kerala State Transgender Cell, Directorate of Social Justice Department. She was at the Assembly to meet social justice minister KK Shailaja.

Syama was excited to see and experience for the first time what happens in the Assembly. That’s when the George incident happened. In a Facebook post, Syama says she has only pity for such people’s representatives who don’t know the basics of what’s happening in society or about such lives and carry a prejudice.

She wrote that he is leading the group of people who think that this is an act (vesham kettal) or a mental problem. Society has to understand the mental struggles that the transgender community goes through. As a representative of the transgender community in Kerala, she goes on to register her strong protest against the MLA for such an attitude.

“Perhaps he has never heard of the Supreme Court ruling on transgender rights or Kerala’s transgender policy,” she says.

Syama also writes: “It is urgent that the government provide awareness to such legislators. If I have to face such an insult inside the legislative assembly, imagine my situation when I go out in public. You can guess how such an MLA will treat the transgender people in his constituency (Poonjar). We may not even get the rights that we legally deserve. He has broken his vows as a legislator.”

After reading her post, a few transgender persons from Poonjar who were going to meet George called to say they weren’t going anymore.

The MLA had earlier taken the side of Malayalam star Dileep, accused in the Kochi actor abduction case, even going on to say that the survivor had lied about what happened, despite medical evidence confirming the assault. He asked at the time how could she have gone to work the next day if she had been assaulted more brutally than Nirbhaya.

He was later booked for disclosing the name of the actor.

Also read: From an RJ to a lead actor: Meet Kajal, a trans woman from K'taka breaking new ground