Even as India marks June as the Pride month, its a long uphill climb for our Trans citizens. A trans activist in Pune, was at the receiving end of hate messages and life threats, after starting an online fundraiser.
Rishikesh Raut, who goes by Rishi, a 23-year-old non-binary trans person sought to crowdfund ₹7 lakh to aid in the gender affirming process. After their fundraiser was shared by several social media influencers, they started to receive a lot of hate in the form of name calling and abuses, resulting in the entire effort taking a toll on Raut’s mental health.
In an interview to The Wire, Raut said, "I feel like they target my confidence and want to break me as a person. They feel scared that a trans person is confident and is occupying space in society. They don’t want that; they find me disgusting” "It’s very sad, but they feel I’m not equal, that I’m disgusting, that I’m a creep. There have been horrible threats", they added.