Trans-Conversation
Susmita Reddy
“Hey, have a look at this paper!” my colleague cried.
‘Transgender cries rape’, read the headline.
“Reminds me of…”
“Julie?”
“Yea Julie, a lively and positive girl who changed my perspective on transgenders. Interesting person”
“What’s so interesting about her? Who is she?” asked my junior as she walked into the room with a patient’s blood sample in hand ready to be sent to the laboratory.
“It’s a long story, some other day “I said.
“I have all the time. I am done with today’s work” she cried.
“Okay. Julie is a transgender. I clearly remember the first time I saw her in the OPD, she had come with complains of weight loss and multiple swellings in the neck. On investigation, she was found to be HIV positive. She followed with us for 2 years before moving to another city in search of a better job. But here comes the best part about her. She is a brave woman who fights for the rights of other transgender rape survivors. Having suffered through similar trauma as a young girl who at that time couldn’t speak for herself, she now stands as a pillar of support for hundreds of young transgenders.”
“Rights of trangender rape victims! I never knew that such rights existed! Do they even need it? I guess they are physically strong enough to defend themselves”
“Well, even my thoughts were the same before I met her. But Julie changed my perspective. I remember each and every word of what she said.”
“As a community, we face higher rates of poverty, stigma, hate-violence and marginalization, which puts us at greater risk for sexual assault. Moreover, the ways in which society hypersexualizes LGBTQ people and stigmatizes our relationships can lead to intimate partner violence that stems from internalized homophobia and shame.”
“Oh,” she exclaimed. “Now I understand. I wish someone had sensitized us during our undergraduate days. Their needs are so different and they seem to suffer silently.”
“Yes indeed. They are silent sufferers. Here, have a look at these statistics” I said as I passed on my mobile to her.
The CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found for LGB people: 44 percent of lesbians and 61 percent of bisexual women experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 35 percent of heterosexual women 26 percent of gay men and 37 percent of bisexual men experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 29 percent of heterosexual men 46 percent of bisexual women have been raped, compared to 17 percent of heterosexual women and 13 percent of lesbians 22 percent of bisexual women have been raped by an intimate partner, compared to 9 percent of heterosexual women
“This is insane! Do they ever get justice?”
“Very few of them actually come out in the open and as far as justice is concerned……”
“Doctor” shouted the nurse from the next room. “The patient of Bed Number 5 is deteriorating.
His pulse is hardly traceable.”
“Let’s put a central line and……..”
The author and the entire team of Lexicon would like to thank Prof. Manobi Bandopadhyay, India’s first transgender principal of Krishanagar Women’s College, West Bengal, for giving her valuable input to this article.
