A transwoman and transman who were in the spotlight recently after they decided to get married have received not just congratulatory messages. Filling up their inboxes, after they announced their decision publicly, are some death threats and abusive messages.
The couple, Sukanyeah Krishna and Aarav Appukuttan, have now lodged complaints with the police cyber cells in Bengaluru and Kottayam to track down those sending threatening messages.
The couple, then known as Chandhu Krishna and Bindu Appukuttan, had met at a Mumbai clinic three years ago, while there for gender reassignment surgery for Chandhu to transform into a woman, and Bindu to a man. They announced their marriage a few weeks ago.
“We did get a few congratulatory messages from friends and well-wishers. But we don’t understand why people would bother to send us threats and abuses. We don’t know what motivates them to do it. Most of these are sent from original Facebook IDs. The police have said that they have reached out to Facebook for more details. I have tried reporting these people to Facebook, for abusive behaviour. But no action has been taken,” says Ms. Sukanyeah.
Fake profiles
Another problem she has been facing is that a number of fake profiles have been opened on Facebook in her name, after stealing photographs from her profile. “I have now locked my profile to just my friends and removed a few photographs,” she says.
The duo also have been struggling to gather enough funds for the remaining surgeries as part of gender reassignment.
“One of our friends has begun an online fundraising initiative,” she says.
Ms. Sukanyeah says that the responses to their decision to get married was generally positive, but there were many who accused them of using it for publicity.
“We thought of going public with this so that more parents would become aware of this. We wanted to be of help to many who are like us,” she says.