Transgender Activist Urges Children to Interact with the Trans Community at ‘A Very Young Age’

A transgender activist proposed that children should be introduced to the transgender community “at a very young age” during a recent virtual lecture at the University of South Florida. 

Kalki Subramaniam, a self-described recognised Indian transgender activist, artist, entrepreneur, poet, actor, and inspirational speaker, spoke at the USF Department of Women’s and Gender Studies about “The Power of Art in Social Change.”

Subramaniam, who lives in India and founded the Sahodari Foundation, spoke about the “Walls of Kindness” campaign, in which many transgender activists travel to isolated rural and tribal areas to paint school walls with art and meet with staff and young children.

One of the project’s goals, according to its website, is to connect with kids in order to refute transphobia and destroy prejudices about transgender people and establish that they are good contributors to the community.

“We establish that transgender people can be changemakers,” the website added.

“We do it because at one side we wanted to give something to the society,” Subramaniam said of the project during the lecture at USF. The activist went on to say that painting the walls of the rural schools also gives the children they interact with “an opportunity for them to learn about us, for those children to learn about trans community at a very young age.”

“They have an exposure to people like us, and I think it will stay with them for the rest of their lives because we gave them a very beautiful memory,” Subramaniam added.

Subramaniam spoke for more than an hour while sitting next to a portrait of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara about how, “as an artivist, she has broken stereotypes and continues to establish social acceptance in India by encouraging transgender persons to get involved in activism through art and performances.”

Subramaniam noted during the presentation, “We were not born as women. We don’t have a womb, but we are women. It’s just that we are women of another type.”

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