Hijra isn’t the only transgender identity. There are others, such as female-to-male transgenders, who don’t draw attention to themselves, and struggle to find recognition as anything but a ‘deviant’ community, writes Gee Ameena Suleiman.
There are several transgender identities that exist in South India. There are the female to male transgender identities of Thirunambigal in Tamil Nadu, Magaraidu in Andhra Pradesh and Gandabasaka in Karnataka. Then there are male to female identities such as the kothi, hijra (also called Aravanis and Thirunangaigal in Tamil Nadu), Jogappa in Northern Karnataka, Jogatha in Andhra Pradesh and Shiva Shakti in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
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