It was at lucknow’s hazratganj that Lisa (Right) came out in the open. Stylishly dressed, she was full of confidence as she walked the streets. The feeling only grew from that day. Her parents found out that she was a woman trapped in a man’s body in 2009. After the Delhi High Court order on reading down Section 377, a cousin saw her on a popular Punjabi news channel, PTC, and told her father.
“He called me up, and said that I spoke well. That was the turning point in our relationship. Despite this, my parents advise me not to come home as Lisa,” she explains. They worry about their child. What will happen to her in the future, who will look after her when they die? There is also pressure to marry a girl. But Lisa is comfortable. She doesn’t regret the transformation. She has accepted her real reality, and it is something she doesn’t wish to change.
Like most members of LGBTQ, Lisa was bullied in school, and discriminated against. Then she came to Delhi, and visited Naaz Foundation, and other NGOs. In Mumbai, she associated herself with Humsafar Trust. She understood who she was. After the high court order, the Supreme Court overturned it in 2013. That’s when the blackmails began against the community. After the 2018 SC judgment, things changed again, but only legally.
Socially, there are issues. Societal changes are difficult, and take time. Despite the legal freedom, everyone cannot go out and publicly reveal that they are gays or lesbians. Hence, people feel depressed; they don’y know what to do, and where to go. These are reasons why those like Lisa get involved in activism to spread the knowledge, and educate and help the society. “This motivates me every morning. I know that I do things that benefit the members of my community. It gives me inner strength,” she says.
When we did this photoshoot, we met her as a man outside a budget hotel in New Delhi. As she got ready with her make-up, we saw the change from a man to woman. Suddenly, she seemed confident, and comfortable. This is what she does regularly. Behave like a man during the day, and in offices. And, on weekends, change her personality, and walk the streets like a woman, as she did that evening in Hazratganj. We realized that the two genders coexist wonderfully in her body, mind, and soul.
Unfortunately, we also understood that individuals like Lisa have a long way to go. In fact, the society has a long way to walk for people’s lives to change on the ground. As Lisa posed outside the hotel, onlookers stopped in their tracks to gawk at her. For them, she was a novelty, a stranger, and not a normal individual. She was different, and that’s what is wrong with us. We still can’t mainstream them.
