Revathi: A Life in Trans Activism

One of the most pathbreaking and respected contemporary Indian activists illuminates how the personal intersects with the communal and institutional for trans Indians.

After moving from her family home in south India to a house of hijras in Delhi, Revathi returned to Bangalore to work for an NGO helping trans people like her. There, she progressed from office assistant to director, before eventually deciding to quit and continue her work as an independent activist—including collaborating with a theatre group performing a play based on her life. Throughout, she has been keen to interrogate discrimination within her own community, and opens up her story to include Indian trans men discussing their lived experience in their own words.