PadmaLakshmi Jaya Mohan’s life is a testament to how children fly if their parents support them unwaveringly. Many LGBTQIA+ community members struggle to battle violence within their families. They fight battles around forced marriage, house arrest, the halting of education or work. Not so PadmaLakshmi, whose parents’ names — Jaya and Mohan — stand proudly alongside hers. “My parents are my inspiration. They are the real fighters in my life,” Kerala’s first transgender lawyer tells me. She’s 27 but prefers to think of herself as an always smiling three-year-old because that’s when she officially began her transition.
About 96% of the transgender community are denied jobs in India, the National Human Rights Commission found in 2018. About 92% are deprived of the right to participate in any form of economic activity. A Dalit trans woman recently resigned from the Tamil Nadu police force after harassment from an inspector about her caste and gender traumatised her.
PadmaLakshmi, who recently enrolled with the state bar council and practises in the Kerala courts, has parents who have always believed in her. Jaya, a law clerk, and Mohan, a daily wage welder in Cochin Shipyard, struggled to eke a living but they always prioritised the education of their three children. They didn’t follow any caste or religious practices. PadmaLakshmi frequently refers to them as the “rarest of rare”. “I’m not interested in being a usual person,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to be rare, unusual, uncommon like my parents. I haven’t met a more empathetic person than my father. He feels the pain of others.”
