Following on from the remark about all-purpose charity ribbons in the previous entry, I have to of course admit to my own cause celebres, like anyone else, based on my personal experience, interests and beliefs.
The one story in the news which I do follow and harbour passionate feelings about is the arrested transman case in Lahore, Pakistan.
A couple who married for love, Shumail Raj and Shezina Tariq, have been sent to jail. Their crime is merely being different. The 31-year-old handsome groom, Mr Raj (who looks vaguely like a Pakistani Jake Gyllenhaal), was born a woman, but after two sex-change operations he’s lived as a man for 16 years. The couple married to prevent Ms Tariq being forced into an arranged marriage with someone else.
Mr Raj initially went to the courts – Wilde-like- seeking protection from harrassment of his father-in-law, who was rather unsympathetic about the union. The father voiced the specifics of his complaint in return, and the courts got in a doctor to decide Mr Raj’s gender. He was declared legally female, despite his operations and male appearance (including a beard few biological men of my acquaintance could match). Now the judge has sent them both to jail as perjurers (“lying” that Mr Raj was male), and for committing “unnatural lust” – the court sees them as lesbians – which is also illegal. On top of which, sex-change surgery is against the law in Pakistan.
For an encore, the judge has ordered police to arrest the doctor who performed the gender reassignment surgery on Mr Raj and anyone who had sheltered the couple, including a charity worker. (Source: The Times)
“The couple told journalists that no boundary can separate them as they deeply love each other and cannot live without one another… They said that President Musharraf who believes in enlightened moderation must support them in such dire consequences… They have appealed to the International Communities to help them.” (Source: Pakistan News)
If this isn’t a human rights issue, I don’t know what is. Count me in on this one.
My credo is individualism against the crowd, style against fashion, standing out against fear of difference, being oneself against the odds. I view transgenderism as a truly noble and Utopian form of being true to oneself, and true to one’s heart when Nature gets its combinations in a twist. Changing one’s sex should be as easy and as affordable as changing one’s hair colour, and attitudes towards it should be no different.
Collector types who boast ‘some of my best friends are…’ are always depressing and should be slapped, but I am proud to know (and to have dated) transsexuals from all kinds of backgrounds and countries, and I support various transgirl and transguy-related causes and campaigns.
One of my proudest moments over the last year or so was when my manliness was brought into question by a typical shouting man, sticking his head out of a passing bus window (actually, he looked like an aging punk). I was standing at a bus stop with a young male friend who happens to have been born female. He had begun his course of testosterone injections that very day; I gave him a ‘Happy Puberty Day’ card.
That this passing heckler was shouting at me for looking effeminate, while my transgendered companion remained unjudged, pleased me enormously. Though I did consider asking to share his testosterone supply.
