India’s first transgender dance troupe performed last week as part of an event for Mumbai Pride to highlight the stigma that sexual and gender minorities face in India face.
The event was supported by US LGBT+ advocacy group—the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)—and included a range of traditional dances, led by transgender activist Abhina Aher.
“It was not been an easy journey for my troupe of talented dancing queens,” Aher writes on the .
“We had to train transgender women and hijras - who were begging on streets and often engaged in sex work and had no formal dance training - to become professional dancers.”
Aher notes that the troupe has come a long way since it started in 2003 with just three transgender women who “had a passion for dancing”.
The group now has between 20-25 members who aim to raise awareness about the discrimination their community faces in Indian society.
“Transgender women and especially hijras* (an ancient third gender identity in South Asia for people who are outside the traditional male or female binary) in India have traditionally used dancing and singing to beg for money for their survival,” says Aher.
“Hijras face constant humiliation, violence and rejection from society and their own families.”
Aher's own family is supportive of her gender identity—her 70 year-old-mother—Managala Aher—is even part of the Dancing Queens troupe, telling a journalist at the event, “I dance with my transgender daughter because I want to show my strength and happiness in accepting my kid as she is!”
Aher says she told a journalist at the recent event in Mumbai, “I dance with my transgender daughter because I want to show my strength and happiness in accepting my kid as she is!”
