Patriarchy has killed me

My dad once happened to see one of my friend and asked me whether he is a hijra, i replied with a NO and told him it is his choice to live and express the way he wants. Later on he went on ranting that Hijra's do sex work, its not good for one to roam with them and i on the other hand went on clearing all his misconception but my quinquagenarian dad was adamant on his facts and didn't bother listening to me. I was initially scared and terrified of the Hijra’s but after a while i got along with most of them, and to discover more about them i had to learn how to speak like them. I have been into their daily chores and i know that their life isn't any less than an actor's shift. 4 am - 7 am is their morning begging time. Some people wake up by 10 and start begging on respected stations allotted to them by their Guru's. Some people go for begging in slums and some to the traditional badhaai ceremony from where they earn. Most of them opt for Sex work in the ni

Exploring feminine self is/was never wrong. My friend once told  me that she just loves to dress like a girl, “ I want to roam on streets and arouse everyone using my feminity but i am scared that people would label me as hijra and more than that i only want to change my dresses not the genitals". I was stunned, she identifies herself as a Cross-dresser now and she is proud of her newly discovered identity. She says there's lot of pre- conceived notions and misconceptions,"I am like a mystery to every person, for some its how i look without cosmetics and for some its question on SRS". She tries hard to explain about it and most of them aren't interested to listen to her but busy staring at her mermaid- body type. When i discussed about it with a lot of people they just said here cross-dressers are not less than a trans gender person, they do it because they want to be a trans gender and either of them don't deserve to be respected. To which my friend adds