LGBTQI is a term that is grabbing much of media attention, the title of ‘First Transgender Lawyer of India’ is becoming a controversial topic in this election season.
On one hand Sathyasri Sharmila, from Tamil Nadu, has been given this title and on the other Megh Sayantan Ghosh claims herself to be the first tansgender lawyer of the country. Few people from the community itself have come out to stand by the truth and according to their claims Sathyasri Sharmila is the first transgender lawyer of India. Now, let us know the facts of both the candidates standing for the title ‘First Transgender Lawyer of India’:
With an interaction with Begum Jaan, a transgender activist and artist, says, “I will always be with the truth. I respect Megh Sayantan for being who she is but as far as the title is concerned, Sathyasri Sharmila is the one who is the first transgender lawyer.”
Sathyasri Sharmila, born as Uday Kumar, has gone through a tough time where she had been abused and bullied for gender. She went out from her home at the age of 18 years. And later she joined college in Paramakudi and completed B.Com. She wanted to help her community and thus she wanted to pursue law. This is one common link between Sathyasri and Sayantan that they both have done the law course to help their community.
As told to livelaw.in, Sathyasri stated, “I was still not confident about the treatment meted out to the transgender community in the society. But I believe things are gradually changing for us. We are beginning to be recognised after the Supreme Court registered us as third genders in 2014. Therefore, I thought the time has come to register myself as a lawyer. Serving the community is my priority now.”
When a journalist from Woman Times, back in 2018, asked Megh Sayantan about her journey, she stated that she is a woman from heart caged in a male body. But in real she has confessed that she has opted for ‘others’ in her Aadhar card through affidavit. In a recent byte given to a local media house Sayantan has slammed media saying, “I never told that I am the first transgender lawyer of India but that I am the first lawyer to win a case, it is the media which misinterpreted. “
After contradicting her own statement when she was asked about her own profile bio she bluntly replied, “I did not have much space to write on the Facebook bio section hence I had kept it like ‘first trangender lawyer of India’. “
She also defended herself saying, “I was not well aware of the terms – transgender, transwoman and transmen. Later Ranjita Di (Sinha), explained me the meaning of the terms.”
The terms transgender, transwoman and transmen all come under LGBTQI and there are attempts by the media houses and social activists to make people aware and pull the community out of the darkness. But before that an individual must take the issue seriously as a gender identity first depends on own identification and acceptability.
