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Welcome to #ThrowbackThursday, a new series where we will revisit backlist titles one Thursday every month. This July, we’re looking at A Life in Trans Activism by A. Revathi.
About the book
In A. Revathi’s first memoir, The Truth About Me (2011), readers learned of her childhood unease with her male body, her escape from her birth family to a house of hijras, and her eventual transition to being the woman she always she knew was.
This book charts Revathi’s remarkable journey from relative obscurity to becoming India’s leading spokesperson for transgender rights and an inspiration to thousands. It describes her life as an activist, theatre person, actor and writer. Revathi also offers the reader insight into one of the least talked about experiences on the gender trajectory—those of trans men.
An unforgettable book, A Life in Trans Activism will leave the reader questioning the ‘safe’ and ‘comfortable’ binaries of male/female that so many of us take for granted.
About the author
A. Revathi is an activist working for the rights of sexual minorities, and an author. Her autobiography The Truth About Me (2011) is one of the few autobiographies written by a member of the hijra community. Further, her prose and poetry has been translated into Kannada, English and Hindi. She was also the director of Sangama, a minority rights NGO. Revathi is also an actor—she made her debut in the Tamil film Thenavattu in 2008.
Quotes from readers
Her latest volume, A Life in Trans Activism (Zubaan, 2016) is an unflinching account of her journey towards accepting herself and, in the process, convincing society to accept her as well. Whether she is describing her apprenticeship as a hijra through the abusive guru process; her family’s violent rejection of her identity; or her complex relationship with elite, urban sexual and gender minority rights activists, Revathi is frank and compassionate, even to those who have wronged her. Her honest descriptions make even the most mundane parts of her life, such as her attempts to procure the proper government ID reflecting her new gender, fascinating and heartbreaking. […]Stories like Revathi’s are vital because they make space for other women to feel comfortable in their own skin. – Open Magazine
A Life in Trans Activism is a story that makes you sit up straight and think hard and strong over the years, how we have treated transgenders among ourselves and how much our leaders have done for them. […] So, today I ask you to pick up A Life in Trans Activism and read. Read it for a better world, to open our mind and heart towards fellow human beings whom we have ignored and despised for too long. Their anatomy may seem complicated to you, but once you read about it, you will be one of the many who would have taken a step towards making a country that doesn’t just think in black and white, but also in color.” – Shabd Studio