‘sandhya subedi’
“Let’s go through this way, we will find some enjoyment.”
“What is so special about this road?”
“You will see some six, hahaha”
I puzzled for a moment.
My friend was talking about transgender community.
Transgender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not confirm to their assigned sex. Simply, transgender is a term used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they are born with. In some countries, third gender is often used to indicate transgender community. The word ‘sexual minority’ includes all those who are lesbians, gays, bisexuals, intersex and transgender.
I am not here to tell you what really it is and how it happens. I am not an expert of these things. I am just trying to share some experiences about sexual minorities that I have collected till today which, in fact are so hurtful and bad. The first example clearly indicates how our attitudes about transgender people or sexual minorities are.
When I listen to the people around me or read comments on social networking sites, I find a lot of disrespect, judgments and hatred towards sexual minorities. Though well educated people don’t seem speaking loud against them but are still whispering on each other’s ear like “Do you know this man is gay, He is like chhakka, and they are hijra and so on.” The words like Gay, Chhakka etc. are used to portray mockery and irony to people whom people don’t like. They are the ones whom the world laughs at. I keep thinking that why we have problems with other people who are different from others.
People have perception that sexual minorities are involved in crimes and unethical works. Does being good or bad have anything to do with gender or sex? Isn’t it an individual factor? There are so many criminals, murderers, rapist and abusive people who are male and so many criminals and characterless people who are female. So why are we doing negative judgments on sexual minorities? I have read that in some cases even without any evidence of guilt, police arrest and misbehave transgender people as if they are born or made for criminal activities. When will our attitude change?
Sexual minorities are disdained and teased on purpose in public areas. They are misbehaved in workplaces and often kicked out from the job if the so called ‘sinful secret’ of them is exposed. Getting respect has been a dream instead they are humiliated. So isn’t it clear that our society is intentionally pushing them to prostitution and like activities? And again we hate them.
The convention on human rights states that all human being are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Even though covering half portion of the total population, women are still fighting for rights. Many women still do not realize that they are being abused and others still accepting their inferiority to man. In this situation, I wonder when sexual minorities will enjoy their rights.
Just think once. What if you give birth to a sexual minority? How would you feel if people misbehave your child for not confirming the assigned role? What if your child do not get job just because of not confirming the assigned gender roles? Won’t those terrible words that once you have used to hurt sexual minorities kill you inside?
So, everyone should think about this issue. If we are real human being and if we have something like humanity inside of us, we should be honest with everyone regardless of their gender identity and sexual orientation. Nothing can happen until we accept their existence, respect them for who they are and break the silence against this discrimination and injustice from an individual level.