Kiki Switch

Trans

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MUMBAI: Often still on the fringes of society, their voices and aspirations unheard, the city's trans women and men came into the spotlight on Sunday. The Italian Cultural Center in Mumbai held an exhibition, 'Transgender Voices' at Colaba on Sunday. Curator of the exhibition Diana Linda, an Italian designer, organized the exhibition displaying 20 picturesque transgenders, in bold and alluring photos captured by Domenico Puglise, an Italian photographer.
"The motive to showcase how these portraits expressed the way each transgender felt brave to let out who they are, has been a heartwarming experience." said Linda who approached them during the Pride March in Mumbai in February.
She spoke of fragile stories of each transgender who was homeless, disowned by family, raped and faced struggles but never gave up. Also, Linda's poems capturing the persona of the one in frame were displayed with quotes from their interview. The exhibition was sponsored and supported by the consul general of Italy, Stefania Constanza.
"These are not just faces photographed to make a statement, but it is the real us, out, loud and proud," said Yogi who shared the gripping story of him and his twin brother who belong to the trans community.
The exhibition saw transgenders who attended the event to talk of their experience. "Even after section 377 was scrapped, we are still not accepted in society. This needs to change." said Ganga

When all the doors were closed, going online proved to be the best remedy for the community. A city-based transgender youth Sophie Dawud and her friends have launched a website that caters to the needs of the transgender community.

The country's first online helpline, transgenderindia.com, offers legal and medical aide to those from the community. The aim of the website is to teach the trans youth and help them.

"The website recommends specialists in case a person is interested in undergoing a sex-change operation. The site also offers guidelines and precautions that one needs to take while changing their gender in the legal documents. People were scared to even talk about us, so we have surfaced online so we can help each other out without seeking help of anyone," said Dawud, 24.

The website contains archives and anecdotes shared by other transgender persons. It offers guidelines, for instance to any trans woman who may want to change her gender in a legal document. The information is contributed by other transgender youths themselves.

The community has started helping and empowering each other. But some have even gone beyond their own community. Last month, Palghar's dream of 'home toilets' has come true with participation of 22 transgenders from Mumbai.

The transgenders came together to build as many as 7500 toilets in the area. The people from the transgender community educated the villagers about importance of cleanliness. The transgender community has long accepted their fate, but continue their fight for a status as people continue to look at them from a distance.

It depends on the surgical technique. Other than from the cowper gland that produces pre-cum, a trans woman who received vaginoplasty via the penile inversion technique will most likely not produce enough self-lubricant for penetration.

Although me personally, as long as my cowper gland stays fully intact/functional and I'm thoroughly turned on, I'd probably have enough self-lubrication for penetrative sex, because as a pre-op trans woman, I already leak a crazy amount of pre-cum.

Then there's the sigmoid colon graft where a piece of intestine is used for the vaginal canal instead of inverted penile skin, and this technique has self-lubrication. However, there's a risk of complication of the outer edge looking like a herniated butthole, and smelling just as bad, and this vaginal canal isn't as sensitive compared to the penile inversion technique (but it feels more realistic, and pleasurable for the cis guy, post-op trans man, or pre-op trans woman penetrating). I'm sure this doesn't happen to every trans woman who opts for the sigmoid colon graft, but it happens enough that most surgeons prefer to avoid that technique, unless there's not enough skin for penile inversion.