Visibility definitely gives you better acceptance. If the world knows that we are everywhere and that we co-exist just like everyone else, it might be more accepting.
I wish I could be as colour blind; I guess life will be easier. But I do not have that privilege, my brown self follows me, clings to me, like the aroma of my Bengali cooking does to my winter coat. So it is not possible for me to talk about my gender and gender presentation without talking about my race.
Whenever Shouvik asked Shambo to meet him, he always had some excuse ready and the two times when he finally could meet him, he was already with his partner.
My gender identity issues started since I was only three or four. I always wanted to dress up like a boy. I identified myself as a male person. My mother never understood me and thought something was wrong with me.
Homophobic jokes have become a part of everybody’s lives, because people end up using them consciously or unconsciously, because society questions the sexuality of someone who opposes such demeaning things, because ‘gay’, ‘homo’ and ‘hijra’ are used as derogatory terms.