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A little bit boy, sometimes, girl
Updated On: 16 February, 2020 12:00 AM IST | | Anju Maskeri, P Vatsalya
In a country where women who don-t look woman-enough aren-t allowed in the ladies loo, a bunch of people who identify as non-binary are coming out and saying, don-t call me he or she, call me "they"
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Swapnil Alizeh, 21, a former call centre employee, is searching for a job at an organisation thats gender forward. Praful Baweja, who conducts a job fair for talent from marginalised groups, says gender-fluid or non-binary persons are hesitant to be frank
Last September, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sam Smith came out as non-binary and asked to be addressed by the pronouns they/them. The 27-year-old wrote on Instagram: "After a lifetime of being at war with my gender, I-ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out." Smith went on to add that on hearing people speak about non-binary identity, which is used to describe those who identify as neither exclusively male nor female, they thought, "f, that-s me."
Sitting thousands of miles away in Panvel, Ria Sharma knew exactly what Smith was experiencing. In 2017, Sharma came out as gender-fluid. As a child, Sharma felt "a little bit boy, and, sometimes, girl". Their parents had sensed the conflict early on, and were accepting of their child-s uniqueness. "It-s not that I was a fan of Smith, but when they made the announcement, I thought it was brave and inspiring," says the 20-year-old. Sharma-s list of queer idols also includes Alok Vaid Menon, a New York-based performance artiste, and Mumbai artist-sculptor Durga Gawde. Both prefer to be referred to by the pronoun, they.
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