It is heartbreaking how our society treats transgenders. It shames and harasses them at every step of life. From facing vile name-calling to verbal harassment, transgenders face injustice every day. It breaks our hearts how words like “Ch*kka” and “Fagg*t” are thrown at them as if it is the most normal thing to do.
It takes a lot of courage to be a transgender in a patriarchal society like ours. And, one such soul is Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju. Being a trans-woman, she has been a victim of a lot of online harassment and bullying. Recently Trinetra, who is also a medical student and an intern at Kasturba Medical Hospital, Manipal, recently shared a very empowering post on social media.
With the simple yet powerful message, Trinetra shut the mouth of her harassers and bullies. In her simple post, she mentioned:
“Enough with the name-calling. It’s time to call me “Doctor”.
While talking about how people should stop shaming her for making her choice about her body, she writes.
“A child understands their gender around age 3, and I did too. I shouldn’t be punished and humiliated and scrutinized and measured and poked and prodded until you’re convinced. How I present myself, what my identity is, what my relationship with my body is – you get to have absolutely no say over. That is for me, and me alone to figure out.”
Many people came forward to shower their love on Trinetra’s post.
At IFORHER, we are in awe of Trinetra for not letting society’s negative voice break her down. How she stood for herself and her choices is a great example of immense courage. We hope society would seek inspiration from this post and stop the harassment and abuse that it subjects to the transgender community!