While during the last decade or two, there has been much acceptance of gays and lesbians in urban and rural areas in India, acceptance that has come not from within but from global trends, the bisexual and transgender communities still have stigma attached to them.
Though transgenders have long since been an accepted part of Indian culture, that profile has not been respectful but rather based on superstition and fear. Commonly called 'hijras' they are met with dread when they come in groups to beg. Decked in bright cheap feminine clothes more akin to lowly streetwalkers, they live among themselves except when time to panhandle. That does not prevent them from being victimized by men from society's lower strata who use and abuse them as they would use prostitutes. In the west the 'T' in LGBT live normal productive and social lives. You can hardly tell them apart from others unless they let on to you about themselves. Unlike gays who can be identified by their mannerisms, transgenders completely fit into the gender they have chosen. It is high time transgenders in India broke out of the mould that society has cornered them into and became as accepted as anyone else. We are all children of the same God. Roland. Sent from Samsung Mobile
