Anne Ogborn, Trangendered Activist

[Lesley (imported)]

Hi to all and anyone who knows about Anne Ogborn?

I understand that she went to India in the early 90's and became accepted into a Hijra community/ashram. This sounds like a fascinating story and I was wondering if anyone had anymore information about her adventures.

For a Western person to be accepted into a Hijra community would be amazing as this would entail a totally open mindset.

Awaiting further information.

[transward (imported)]

Hi to all and anyone who knows about Anne Ogborn?

I understand that she went to India in the early 90's and became accepted into a Hijra community/ashram. This sounds like a fascinating story and I was wondering if anyone had anymore information about her adventures.

For a Western person to be accepted into a Hijra community would be amazing as this would entail a totally open mindset.

Awaiting further information.

http://www.isna.org/files/hwa/winter1995.pdf

"Going home

Anne Ogborn

It’s March, but already the sun is beating

down on this little open footpath, sandwiched

between two single room houses

in the Nehru Stadium basti. The light

stanchions of the stadium frame the sky.

I’m in New Delhi, working. My job?

Sacred dancing eunuch.

I peek into the dark interior of the house.

Sonna is arguing with a woman in

Bangla. The woman keeps pulling the

end of her cotton sari over her head with

one hand, while holding a baby wrapped

in a blanket in the other. Finally she

capitulates and hands the infant to

Sonna.

I can understand her reluctance. Sonna

isn’t exactly a person whose appearance

inspires trust. She says she’s fifty. She

looks much older. By looking at her,

she’s half monkey and half child.

Actually, she’s one of the most delightful

people I know. Sometimes she shows me

how to play traditional Indian children’s

games. I’m getting pretty good at playing

jacks with chips of broken concrete.

Always dressed in an androgynous kurta

styled salwar-kameez, she looks like neither

a man nor a woman.

And in truth she isn’t. We’re all Hijras—

members of a religious order that is

closed to men and women. For the last

2,400 years we’ve maintained the customs

and beliefs of one of the oldest spiritual

orders on earth, an order whose

truths are inscribed not in words, but on

our bodies.

Sonna, like most of my sisters, has no

genitals. She has a urinary meatus with a

faint ridge below it. I’m different. I have

roughly female-looking genitals, courtesy

of western sex change doctors. They

love me anyway.

I’ve seen her genitals often. We curse

people when they won’t let us dance by

showing them our genitals. This makes

people infertile. No, really—hey, reading

about Renee Richards eventually made

me infertile.

Everybody in my dance troupe joined

later, but I met people who were raised

from infancy as Hijras. Because nontransgendered

people don’t understand

us, we always say, “We were born this

way,” when they ask us if we have been

castrated and penotomized.

Anyway, Sonna takes the infant and

holds it, puts a mark of vermilion and oil

on it’s head, and looks at its genitals.

Boys get one blessing. Girls get another.

Everybody else we take with us to raise.

This one’s a boy, she decides.

Look down and be proud."

Transward

[Lesley (imported)]

Thanks transward.

In another life time I could see myself being a Hijra or a Western version of them. Or starting a Western version of them.