By Sarah Hannan
While Sri Lanka is yet to decriminalise homosexuality, the healthcare services and the Ministry of Home Affairs seem to be very accommodating of transgender persons.
Clinics are now providing hormone therapy and when a person registers at the hospital for sessions, they are assisted in processing their identification papers once the procedure is completed.
This week, we spoke to Jaden, a 22-year-old writer who had the fortune of accessing these services quite conveniently as a result of continuous advocacy by the LGBTQIA community since of late.
“As a kid, I did not differentiate between genders in my mind. Up until I hit puberty, I did not feel a difference. I did not feel any dysphoria until I underwent physical changes as a teenager. My body started to change, my face started to change, the way people started treating me changed, and that’s when I realised I was different to the other girls in my class.”
Jaden was always more inclined to boyish ways of behaving. The rapid changes that were taking place in his body made him really uncomfortable. “In general, I am against gender stereotyping, but I somewhat adhered to the concept of binary genders imposed on us back then when I was a teenager.”
Being torn between what he looked like physically and how he felt mentally, created room for depression. It took Jaden some time to come to terms with how he identified himself in realising he was a transgender person.
“I did not relate to the gender assigned to me at birth. Over the past decade, I was fighting a psychological battle about my outer appearance and how I felt mentally about who I was. I was later clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder; it was during this time that my psychologist guided me during the therapy sessions to accept my true identity.”
Supportive friends
Having moved out from his parents’ home, Jaden found comfort with his network of friends who were always supportive. In the meantime, Jaden also started on hormone therapy at a clinic affiliated to the National Hospital.
“With me moving out from my parents’, I had to work two jobs and then attend the clinic regularly, which has left me with insufficient time to attend therapy lately. But like I said, I have a bunch of supportive friends whom I consider family and they have been a great strength to me in my transition.”
Growing up in cosmopolitan Colombo, Jaden agreed that he had more access to information and was able to get expert advice about becoming a transgender person.
“I come from a privileged position as a transgender person and have access to a community that’s engaged with a diverse group of people. They are exposed to varied lifestyles. However, if a person from a rural area decides to be a transgender person, it will take them a long time. They undergo many tragic situations before they are able to fully embrace their true identity.”
Jaden empathised with such people and said that they underwent a lot of hardships to be who they really want to be. “I understand their pain. I only lost a couple of friends on the way, but I have gained more friends ever since. While I live in a bubble of my own, for the transgender people who come from rural areas, they are more exposed to the elements of the society. It could be a matter of life or death for them.”
Recollecting his journey to the transition, Jaden said that not much information was available to him about the transition process. Not many were aware that Sri Lanka can assist transgender people with their transition process and that there are dedicated clinics at government hospitals that provide free hormone therapy for interested individuals.
Limited information
“Many still assume that the process is only available in countries such as Thailand. Even I thought I would have to travel to Thailand to undergo the procedure, perhaps in my late 20s. But later, with my interactions with the LGBT community in Sri Lanka, I learnt that the stages of preliminary and secondary transition can be done in Sri Lanka; about 80% of the transition process.”
Jaden believes that information about the supportive groups and accessibility provided through government healthcare services should be readily available for a person who wants to transition. “Many in the rural areas might not even know about these clinics or support groups in the country. This can cause social stigma around the transgender person trying to figure out what it is within them that makes them feel different. Some go into depression and are forced to live in difficult conditions.”
When asked as to whether LGBT rights activists and advocates were not cascading this information to the key population groups, Jaden responded: “I think these advocates have been constantly asked the same set of questions and they are only given a small window of time to respond. Even if they give interviews, write awareness literature, they do not have the fullest level of freedom to express themselves for another person to fully understand their situation.”
Improving advocacy
Jaden believes that these advocates should not only talk about traumatic issues, social stigmatisation, and what the Constitution has to say about their behaviour, but also focus on how they could help another transgender person access the facilities already available in Sri Lanka. While such information is not out there for everyone to access, Jaden commended the work the activists have put in to raise awareness in the past years.
As an aspiring writer, Jaden said he’s also drafting chapters for a book that would present queer stories to the Sri Lankan reader. “The stories would be told from the perspective of a queer person; these stories will not entirely focus on the mental hardships a queer person goes through, but more in the lines of comedy, mystery, thriller, and sci-fi.”
Reading for a sociology degree, Jaden plans to launch a research project on the sociological issues faced by the LGBTQIA community in Sri Lanka. While there are many social phenomena yet to be uncovered on the many behaviours of transgender persons, Jaden will be exploring these behaviours and create awareness among the public through his research paper.
While Sri Lanka is yet to decriminalise homosexuality, the healthcare services and the Ministry of Home Affairs seem to be very accommodating of transgender persons.
Clinics are now providing hormone therapy and when a person registers at the hospital for sessions, they are assisted in processing their identification papers once the procedure is completed.
This week, we spoke to Jaden, a 22-year-old writer who had the fortune of accessing these services quite conveniently as a result of continuous advocacy by the LGBTQIA community since of late.
“As a kid, I did not differentiate between genders in my mind. Up until I hit puberty, I did not feel a difference. I did not feel any dysphoria until I underwent physical changes as a teenager. My body started to change, my face started to change, the way people started treating me changed, and that’s when I realised I was different to the other girls in my class.”
Jaden was always more inclined to boyish ways of behaving. The rapid changes that were taking place in his body made him really uncomfortable. “In general, I am against gender stereotyping, but I somewhat adhered to the concept of binary genders imposed on us back then when I was a teenager.”
Being torn between what he looked like physically and how he felt mentally, created room for depression. It took Jaden some time to come to terms with how he identified himself in realising he was a transgender person.
“I did not relate to the gender assigned to me at birth. Over the past decade, I was fighting a psychological battle about my outer appearance and how I felt mentally about who I was. I was later clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder; it was during this time that my psychologist guided me during the therapy sessions to accept my true identity.”
Supportive friends
Having moved out from his parents’ home, Jaden found comfort with his network of friends who were always supportive. In the meantime, Jaden also started on hormone therapy at a clinic affiliated to the National Hospital.
“With me moving out from my parents’, I had to work two jobs and then attend the clinic regularly, which has left me with insufficient time to attend therapy lately. But like I said, I have a bunch of supportive friends whom I consider family and they have been a great strength to me in my transition.”
Growing up in cosmopolitan Colombo, Jaden agreed that he had more access to information and was able to get expert advice about becoming a transgender person.
“I come from a privileged position as a transgender person and have access to a community that’s engaged with a diverse group of people. They are exposed to varied lifestyles. However, if a person from a rural area decides to be a transgender person, it will take them a long time. They undergo many tragic situations before they are able to fully embrace their true identity.”
Jaden empathised with such people and said that they underwent a lot of hardships to be who they really want to be. “I understand their pain. I only lost a couple of friends on the way, but I have gained more friends ever since. While I live in a bubble of my own, for the transgender people who come from rural areas, they are more exposed to the elements of the society. It could be a matter of life or death for them.”
Recollecting his journey to the transition, Jaden said that not much information was available to him about the transition process. Not many were aware that Sri Lanka can assist transgender people with their transition process and that there are dedicated clinics at government hospitals that provide free hormone therapy for interested individuals.
Limited information
“Many still assume that the process is only available in countries such as Thailand. Even I thought I would have to travel to Thailand to undergo the procedure, perhaps in my late 20s. But later, with my interactions with the LGBT community in Sri Lanka, I learnt that the stages of preliminary and secondary transition can be done in Sri Lanka; about 80% of the transition process.”
Jaden believes that information about the supportive groups and accessibility provided through government healthcare services should be readily available for a person who wants to transition. “Many in the rural areas might not even know about these clinics or support groups in the country. This can cause social stigma around the transgender person trying to figure out what it is within them that makes them feel different. Some go into depression and are forced to live in difficult conditions.”
When asked as to whether LGBT rights activists and advocates were not cascading this information to the key population groups, Jaden responded: “I think these advocates have been constantly asked the same set of questions and they are only given a small window of time to respond. Even if they give interviews, write awareness literature, they do not have the fullest level of freedom to express themselves for another person to fully understand their situation.”
Improving advocacy
Jaden believes that these advocates should not only talk about traumatic issues, social stigmatisation, and what the Constitution has to say about their behaviour, but also focus on how they could help another transgender person access the facilities already available in Sri Lanka. While such information is not out there for everyone to access, Jaden commended the work the activists have put in to raise awareness in the past years.
As an aspiring writer, Jaden said he’s also drafting chapters for a book that would present queer stories to the Sri Lankan reader. “The stories would be told from the perspective of a queer person; these stories will not entirely focus on the mental hardships a queer person goes through, but more in the lines of comedy, mystery, thriller, and sci-fi.”
Reading for a sociology degree, Jaden plans to launch a research project on the sociological issues faced by the LGBTQIA community in Sri Lanka. While there are many social phenomena yet to be uncovered on the many behaviours of transgender persons, Jaden will be exploring these behaviours and create awareness among the public through his research paper.