Factors that transformed Thirunangai to a Transgender activist

Grace Banu (thirunangai) is a Dalit and transgender activist who works as a software developer in India. She was the first transgender person in Tamil Nadu to be accepted into an engineering college. She finished her studies at Sri Krishna College of Engineering in 2014. Thirunangai is from the Tamil Nadu district of Thoothukudi.

Thirunangai on Twitter

Grace Banu is quite active on twitter and she has been followed by more than 14k people. She can be reached at @thirunangai on twitter.

Activism of Thirunangai

Thirunangai feels that, in the end, reservation, or designated spaces for members of certain groups, is critical to the advancement of transgender individuals. “Reservations have a transgenerational influence that no number of transitory governmental or non-governmental programmes can match. Reservations are required, “she explains. She has been an outspoken advocate for Dalit and transgender rights, arguing for reservation based on gender identity as well as caste with other transgender persons.

The intersectionality of various oppressions, according to Banu, is crucial. She feels that Dalits might be transphobic, and that the transgender society mirrors caste power hierarchies. Brahminism, she claims, is brought into transgender cultural, community, and organising spaces by upper-caste transgender persons.

Despite being pressed, upper-caste transgender women dominate all leadership posts, call the shots, and define the community’s demands.” She compares denying caste to “hiding a full pumpkin in a dish of rice” in the transgender community.

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Early life

Banu was born and raised in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district. She claims that as a Dalit, she was not allowed to attend school between the standard hours of 9.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. from the time she was in elementary school. Thirunangai was told that in order to attend school, she had to agree to arrive at 10 a.m. after all of the other students had arrived and settled, and to depart at 3.30 p.m. before the other students had finished.

Other students were warned that interacting with her would result in punishment. This sense of untouchability, which was based on both her caste and gender identity, drove her to try suicide and abandon her plans to graduate high school. Banu’s family disowned her after she revealed her gender identity to them in 2008.

Grace completed a Diploma in Computer Engineering despite financial hardships and hostility from peers and lecturers. Thirunangai was the first transgender person in Tamil Nadu to be accepted into an engineering college.

Thirunangai struggled financially to stay in college because she didn’t have any financial help from her family at the time. In response to her plea for assistance, a local businessman established an internet fundraising drive to help her finish the course. Tharika Banu, her adopted daughter, is the first transgender person in India to enter secondary school.

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Education and profession of Thirunangai

Banu was chosen to work for a software corporation after excelling at a campus interview after obtaining her Diploma with honors (95 percent). She worked as a coder until she was fired for allegedly discriminatory reasons.

She requested information under the Right to Information Act (RTI) to see if Anna University allowed transgender students. When she discovered they didn’t, she applied nonetheless, breaking their regulations, and was accepted into Sri Krishna College of Engineering, a private affiliated college.