Kolkata : While the LGBT community across the world is busy celebrating “Pride Month”, a Kolkata-based transwoman’s account of how she was asked questions about her breasts, sexuality and ability to give birth during interviews for a teacher’s post has again brought into the open the attitude towards sexual minorities in the country.
Hiranmay Dey, who underwent a Sex Reassignment Surgery last year and became Suchitra Dey, said she was humiliated by the interviewers in various Kolkata schools, reports IANS.
“One of the interviewers at a well-known Kolkata school asked me to wear male outfits because all my mark sheets and certificates say that I am a man. In each of these interviews, I faced the worst kind of humiliation. The male principal of one of these schools asked me whether I can bear a child. He also asked me if my breasts are real. Would these questions be asked if I wasn’t a transgender woman?” Suchitra said.
Ironically, the unsavoury experience Dey went though earlier this month coincided with the celebrations of the “Pride Month” that commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots in the US and is considered a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement.
“I see that the mindset of people about transgenders has not changed yet. Teachers are considered future generation makers. If the educated people have this kind of mindset then what should one expect from the commoners?” she asked.
Dey, an active member of the LGBT forums here, said the condition of transgenders in West Bengal is vulnerable and urged the society to accept the sexual minorities like her with more humility.