India has recently crowned its first transgender beauty queen in the city of Gurgaon. The pageant, joined by transgenders in the South Asian nation, aimed to celebrate equality and improve the presence of the Lgbt Community in the region, CNN reported.
Nitasha Biswas was hailed as Miss Trans Queen 2017 last Sunday. This 26-year-old trans woman came from Kolkata, another Indian city, and she has just completed her management studies. She moved to Delhi to pursue a fashion degree, The Better India reported.
It was the country’s first ever Transgender pageant competition.
The winner of the beauty contest will represent India at the upcoming Miss International Queen event that will be held in Thailand in March 2018, CNN added.
Biswas told The Better India that at a very young age, she knew she was a “gender dysphoria.” She said she always wanted to change the stigma, and at the same time, finish her studies.
No communication with her father
The competition held last August 27 in a hotel in Gurgaon had a judging panel that included an LGBT activist and winner of Miss Transsexual Australia Gauri Sawant. After a long process of deliberation, Biswas was declared as India’s first transgender pageant queen, the report added.
The country is one of the many nations in the world that still has no strong laws protecting the rights of the LGBT community.
According to CNN, a law was passed in 2014 which provided India’s transgender groups to be identified as a third sex. But despite this, the community still faces tough discrimination every day in the nation.
Biswas lost her mother while she was still young, leaving her father to take her of care independently. She shared how it was difficult to her father to accept her transformation, and there was even a moment when her dad stopped talking to her for almost seven months, The Better India said.
The article also pointed out how she lost her friends, during her transition from male to female. However, it all changed when she clinched the coveted title.
Proud of her achievements
Miss Transqueen India was created by a former business person who used to sell tortillas. Reena Rai took inspiration from the transgender community in the country called the hijra.
This community has been ostracized because of their sexual orientation, CNN reported.
During the event, there was a small but supportive audience, mostly coming from the friends and relatives of the pageant contestants. Biswas’ father changed his demeanor when she started reaping achievements from these kinds of events. Today, her father has been in full support of her journey, participating and celebrating with her as she pursues her life-long dreams, the report pointed out.
