Just concluded: Historic meet of Transmasculine, Intersex and Intergender people, Mumbai 2014

Hearty congratulations to Sampoorna for convening the first-ever event of this kind in South Asia: the Sampoorna Transmasculine, Intersex and Intergender meet from May 30 to June 1, 2014.  Held at the  Tata Institute of Social Sciences [TISS], Mumbai, the meet brought together forty participants from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and the U.S. Indian participants came from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, Delhi, West Bengal, Goa and Maharashtra. Languages translated at the meet were: Bengali, English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Nepali, Tamil and Telugu.

Some highlights, as shared by Sampoorna:

* Dalit, bahujan and adivasi trans brothers put forward their struggles against multiple oppressions of caste, class and ableism and asked the question: Who is representing who?

* The Intersex panel, with two intersex women and one intersex, inter gender person, helped unravel the unending diversity amongst us

* Who names us – What we want to name ourselves – Why? One of the most vibrant sessions was, Whats in a Name?

* Similarities and differences of trans*, intersex and intergender experiences in Nepal and Sri Lanka helped build a larger South Asian perspective

* Peer to peer sessions on Gender Affirming Surgeries and Legal Documentation Change processes, were led by transmen

* An interest to have more such meetings, organised for, by and of us, was expressed by many at the meet

Thanks to Gee, Kondaiah, and Satya of the Sampoorna Transmasculine, Intersex and Intergender Meet – Working Group, for making this event happen: we await their detailed report!

For more information, contact the Sampoorna group <sampoornaindia@yahoo.com>