Muthukumar is a transgender activist who works for the rights of sexual and gender minorities in Tamil Nadu, India. In 2019 Muthukumar was awarded an Activist Fellowship with SAATHII, an Indian LGBTQI organisation. Through the Suki Sandhu LGBTQI Asia Fund, GiveOut supported SAATHII to establish the LGBTQI activist Fellowship Programme in 2019. This seeks empower grassroots activism through arts and culture, sensitisation projects and advocacy.
Muthukumar recently spoke with GiveOut about this experience and their advocacy for the trans community in Tamil Nadu.
How did you become an activist?
At the age of 17, I got in touch with my Kothi friends in a park. I was happy that I met people like me, who were born as male and felt female. I enjoyed the group’s talk, feminine gestures and laughter. Every day this meet happened from 7pm to 9pm, and I started going every day. After a few days when I was returning home, I was threatened by a man saying that he would reveal all the “details” about the gathering at the park to my family. So I gave him 200 rupees. After five days he again came and asked for 50 rupees. I stopped going to the park and meeting Kothi friends for more than six months. But I was not able to be at home without meeting friends, so I prepared myself to face any violence or threat. When the man came back, I shouted at him and told him he can go to my home and tell, but before that I will go to the police station to complain about him. He kept quiet and left. I started feeling the power of courage to face violence, and its positive results. That is where my activism started!
When I was 23, my parents started marriage arrangements for me with a woman. I revealed to them that I am not attracted to women and have only desire for men, and also have a male partner. This created a big fight within our family. My parents were not able to tolerate this and asked me to leave the home. When I refused, I was forcefully thrown out by my parents and relatives. So I was living alone and started thinking seriously about starting a group for my friends, and that is how I started Lotus Sangam at my hometown of Kumbakonam in the Thanjavur District of Tamil Nadu in 2000.
What sort of activism do you engage in? How does this help you connect with people?
From the beginning, my work was always connected with people. Initially my focus was educating trans communities on basic rights and training our community to face violence and discrimination. After twenty years of work, now our trans community members are confident enough to face the problems pertaining to our identities. Though stigma and discrimination still exist, we have to agree that this has reduced to a measurable extent. In 2000 every month ten to twenty violence cases were reported, but now it has reduced to two or three per month!
I also advocate with youth, local authorities and government staff in getting welfare measures for our community members. During the period of 2008 and 2009 we educated 270 panchayat leaders (elected government representatives at villages) in 75 panchayats in three districts of Tamil Nadu. We also created awareness on Transgender issues and needs through street theatre. One panchayat has given free land to a group of transgender people and landlords started renting homes to transgender people, and thus acceptance has increased.
As well as this, I work with state and national level leaders on issues like trans health needs and repealing the homophobic act IPC 377. For example, in 2004 we were the first group to conduct the first public meeting against Section 377, which criminalised homosexuality. I have also released two documentaries one on “Why transgender people are going for begging” and another one about the “Negative portrayal of the transgender community in Tamil Cinema”. These videos advocated for acceptance and educated people how transgender people are affected by social stigma. Thus, I am trying to take all possible ways to engage myself in activism!
I am trying to take all possible ways to engage myself in activism
What did the Activist Fellowship support you to do?
The main intention of the Fellowship was to educate our LGBTQI communities on existing legislative and legal rights. So, I organised meeting with LGBTQI communities on recent developments such as the Transgender Bill and Section 377 judgement which decriminalised same-sex relations. I also took the initiative to talk with local Social Welfare Officers about the needs of transgender people who have not gone through a surgical transition. At that time, officials expected transgender people to undergo surgery to get a transgender identification card. But through this training, seven people who have not undergone surgical transition were able to get their card, allowing them to access government welfare schemes. This was a major achievement!
I was also able to conduct sensitisation training with village leaders, youth leaders and educational institutions. These groups have the capacity to influence people at the village level to improve the situation for transgender people. This was very successful. In one case, a transgender family who had been made homeless were welcomed to a new home thanks to support from local youth leaders. And one of the schools I worked with agreed to support trans students to ensure that they can continue their education. The importance of working with educational institutions have become clear to me over the Fellowship period, and I will continue to do more work in this area.
As well as this, I have taken part in various other activities such as supporting a research to finalise a survey of the LGBTQI community. I have also worked with various stakeholders on violence towards the transgender community. This ranges from domestic abuse to extortion to discrimination. We handled 23 cases over the fellowship period, and we conducted meetings with the community on how to handle crisis situations.