gamegyro56 t1_ir2xjhm wrote
Hi! I'm also an anthropologist studying transgender communities (I'm ethnically Indian, though study Native Americans).
How do people in the transgender community reconcile their lives/identity with their religious/cultural upbringing?
Luigi_Conte OP t1_ir4kfhp wrote
That's quite a controversial topic:
they consider themselves Muslims even if this can be problematic as for all LGBTQI+ and they mostly pray at Sufi shrines, where Islam is often preached in a softer way.
On a broader cultural perspective I would say that they have a role when it's about marriages, and marriage is a cornerstone in Kashmiri society. This doesn't solve everything of course...families mostly do not accept their children when they realize they are non-binary and teasing at school is an ordinary thing, so self acceptance is anyway a difficult psychological path. During the teenage many of them find protection from a transgender guru and go to live in a queer family cluster, while some neighborhoods in main cities have become somehow queer-friendly, so that they keep attracting newcomers
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