Transgender people in India seek religious parity
Overseers at a key holy festival refuse to recognize transgender people because it goes against centuries-old Hindu tradition.
Transgender activists take a dip in the holy waters of the Shipra River at a Hindu festival in Ujjain, India, on Friday. A landmark 2014 Supreme Court ruling recognized a third gender. Washington Post photo by Annie Gowen
BY ANNIE GOWEN
THE WASHINGTON POST
Posted Yesterday at 7:58 PM
Updated April 22
UJJAIN, India — In the waning heat of the evening, a group from India’s transgender community clambered down steep steps to a holy river in India, their multicolored saris catching the breeze before they plunged joyfully into the glittering waters of the Shipra.
India’s transgender people have long lived on the margins of society and are a familiar sight at traffic stops or weddings, where they sing and dance and ask for money. But the group – known as “hijras” – have made huge strides toward greater inclusion in recent years, culminating with a landmark decision in 2014 by India’s Supreme Court that recognized a third gender that is neither male or female.
Friday, the hijras took their fight for equality to the riverbanks of one of India’s biggest holy festivals – a gathering called the Kumbh Mela. Millions of Hindu saints, holy men, seers and pilgrims will come for a month of worship, including a ritual river bath to purify body and soul.
The hijra leaders, fresh from their historic court recognition, began thinking about starting their own group to participate in the Kumbh Mela last year, according to Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, one of India’s best-known transgender activists.
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/04/22/transgender-people-in-india-seek-religious-parity/
