Match made in heaven

All the six transsexual women who have registered themselves with the website have “transitioned” (completed the process of sex change) successfully. “However,almost all of them are economically downtrodden. These women have been abandoned from their biological familes because of their gender identity. Family and relationships are just distant dreams for them,” says Kalki.

Kalki,who is a transsexual woman too,makes it clear that these women only seek emotional sustenance. “It’s not financial support they are looking for. They want to be in a loving relationship with men who will respect them and their decisions. It’s very easy to exploit transsexual people in this country because there aren’t any laws supporting us. There are innumerable cases where transsexual women have been duped by men who promise the world to them and initiate them to the flesh trade. This website aims to help these women find a reliable life partner,” Kalki says.

As of now,thirunangai.net is a Tamil website with an English page. “Tamil people are slowly starting to accept transsexual women,recognize our gender identity. The government of Tamil Nadu recognizes transsexual. We have worked hard for this change. The government of Tamilnadu,the media,NGOs and number of human rights activists has understood our struggle and has been supportive in many ways,” says Kalki.

However,the website has been flooded with queries from all across the country—men who want to marry the featured women in the website,and transsexuals who want to put up profile in the website. “We have a strict screening procedure and we try our best to ensure that the profiles featured in our website are genuine. Similarly,we painstakingly skim through all the respondent’s applications,” says Kalki.

The enthusiastic response from Tansexual women from different corners of the country has prompted Kalki to reconsider the scope of the website. “We welcome profiles from other parts of the country too. Though that will mean a lot of hard work for us— we personally verify profiles— we are open to the challenge. Maybe we will insist on a recommendation letters along with profile applications,” says Kalki. Yet,the legality question does creep into one’s mind when the talk is about a transsexual matrimonial website in India. Are transsexual marriages legal in our country? “There is nothing explicitly against transsexual marriages in our law. Moreover,our marriage laws have a lot of loopholes which can be used to facilitate such a marriage,” says Saptarshi Mandal of the Lawyers Collective,non-government organization (NGO) focused on providing legal services to the marginalized groups.