Craving for family support

CHENNAI: For Transgenders, it remains an uphill task to receive acceptance within their families even today.

Says Sudha, a BDS drop out, "After my first year Dental Exams, my gender confusion became apparent to my family. In anger, they chopped off my beautiful long hair. Feeling like an outcast in my own home, I ran away and joined the transgender community. Had my family understood me, I would have been a Transgender Dentist by now," she regrets. Sudha, winner of Miss Koovakam 2009, now works as a counsellor with an NGO. "The last time I went home I had to go dressed like a man and only at night, so that neighbours would not see me," she added.

Sudha has a request for the parents as the countdown for the LGBT Rainbow Parade has started: "Parents accept their children if they are lame or blind and take care of them till their death. Likewise, we too are their

children."

The case of Shankari, a B Com graduate from Tondiarpet, is no different. She said, "After my transition, I continue to live close to my parent's house. When they see me on the road, they don't even look at my face. It breaks my heart every time it happens. "

Selvi, despite being a successful Transwoman Sports Doctor, remains an outcast in her family. "If our parents accept us then, gradually, like a spillover effect the society will start accepting us."

Magdalene Jeyarathnam, Director Center For Counselling, who has been working on LGBT issues, said "If only parents understand and accept that their children are different and give them necessary support, the children will not be forced to run away from their homes."

She points out that parents would also need support to raise a transgendered child.