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2 Comments

  1. Thank you for this introspective post on how you found your space within the queer community and got involved with activism. I think if LGBT people everywhere were to broaden our perspective on who “people like us” are, we would grow into a much more substantial movement. Gender-fluid, multi-gender, transgender, hijra and agender perspectives, just like lesbian, gay, kothi, bi, pan, sexually fluid, and asexual perspectives all broaden our understanding of the many ways we can be human.

  2. Hi Vikram,

    I agree that it would be painful for a child to be asked not to play a game because it has been earmarked for a particular gender or being forced into playing another which you do never wanted to. Similarly, it is cruel to deny bright colored or soft clothes to a person, because others have labelled him to be a boy. It requires many like to nail it in public mind that apart from ‘his’ or ‘her’, there is a ‘hir’ that deserves equal respect.

    You have triggered my old memories Vikram. I recall games involving throwing an object on a playmate, or those that involved snatching a ball or proving superiority of muscular strength were never liked by me, though quite often, I was at the receiving end, where no offense would have to mean no defense.

    Enjoyable to me were the cooperative games that involved collecting materials from the garden, making a toy home, decorating a tree with papers and threads, watching a pod breaking and releasing seeds, etc. Most of my early childhood playmates were girls in whose company I never felt threatened. They were smarter than me and seemed to know more about the ways of adults, and would sympathize me for my ignorance about these things.

    People wonder why I grew up without ever feeling the urge to ride a bike or watch competitive sports. Interestingly, my peers’ boy-talk about girls’ looks was never fun for me and I would leave the scene at the earliest when they begin to talk “girls”.

    Thanks for stimulating the recall of these old memories of ‘odd’ aspects from my past.