Gender bender

[Butterfly]

Gender bender
Express Buzz
U Tejonmayam
First Published : 27 Apr 2010 04:37:00 AM IST


http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/gender-bender/168594.html


Think of a transgender and the image of an overly made up, garishly dressed person waiting on the roadside looking for a prospective customer comes to mind. Many of them eke out a living through sex. Though the trade is fraught with risks — landing in the company of thugs who refuse to pay them or even rob their earnings — as they operate alone and wait at designated spots in the city, some of the transgender women claim they make more money than streetwalkers.

Mansi is one of them. She was Kumar till 10 when friends teased the boy for the way he walked. Though he felt bad, he liked the attention he drew. After finishing school he met a few transgender women who explained who he really was. One day he fled to Koovagam and changed his name to Mansi to start a new life.