A. Revathi

Revathi was born as Doraiswamy in Namakkal district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and was assigned a male gender based on physiology. As a child, Revathi experienced violence in her school and within her family for her "feminine" ways. She preferred playing with young girls over boys and dressed up as a woman in her mother's clothes, distressed by the feeling of being a female trapped in a male body. Her personal and social hardships affected her academic performance, and she had to drop out of school as a result, having failed the tenth grade.{{Cite web |url=http://eprints.manipal.edu/139765/1/WIC-Prabhu.pdf |title=Writing a Life Between Gender Lines: Conversations with A.Revathi about Her Autobiography "The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story" |last=Prabhu |first=Gayatri |date=2014 |access-date=14 November 2018 |archive-date=17 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517091408/http://eprints.manipal.edu/139765/1/WIC-Prabhu.pdf |url-status=dead }} However, when she first met a group of people from the kothi community during a school trip to Nammakal, she felt a sense of kinship and decided to run away to Delhi with them so that she could be true to her gender identity.{{cite web|url=http://jaiarjun.blogspot.in/2011/10/on-revathis-truth-about-me-hijra-life.html|title=Jabberwock: A. Revathi's A Hijra Life Story - a long journey to self-acceptance|date=13 October 2011}}

In Delhi, she met a group of people belonging to the Hijra community and began living with them.{{cite book|title=Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story|first1=A.|last1=Revathi|first2=V.|last2=Geetha|date=1 August 2010|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn = 978-0143068365}} She later underwent a sex-change operation, which was considered a rite of passage to get formally initiated into the hijra household. After her operation, she was rechristened as Revathi by the guru or head of the household. Though she could finally be true to her gender identity, Revathi discovered the harsh realities of life as a hijra, where social exclusion, violence and sexual assault were all too common. She had to resort to several odd jobs to survive including dancing at weddings, begging and sex work. After some months, tired of her life in Delhi, she ran away and went back home, where she discovered she was not welcome.{{cite journal |last=Kannabiran |first=Kalpana |date=August 2015 |title=The complexities of the genderscape in India |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283793900 |journal=Seminar a Journal of Germanic Studies |volume=672 |access-date=24 February 2021}}

She subsequently left her home in Tamil Nadu and moved to Bangalore for work. While she initially took to sex work, she finally got a job at Sangama, an NGO working for the rights of sexual minorities. Here, she was exposed to activist meetings and learnt more about her rights. While she started off as a peon in the organisation, she rose in the ranks and finally ended up as the director.{{cite web |url=http://www.countercurrents.org/sikand080810.htm |title=The Truth About Me—A Hijra Life Story Book Review By Yoginder Sikand}}{{cite web |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-we-want-to-live-as-women-and-we-want-our-dignity-a-revathi-1418572 |title=We want to live as women, and we want our dignity: A Revathi - Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis |date=4 August 2010}} Two sources mention a brief marriage with a coworker at Sangama. She works now as a transgender-rights activist based in Bangalore.{{Cite web |author=Govindan, P. |author2=Vasudevan, A. |date=2008|title=The Razor's Edge of Oppositionality: Exploring the Politics of Rights-Based Activism by Transgender Women in Tamil Nadu |url=http://www.lassnet.org/2009/readings/govindan-vasudevan2008razors-edge.pdf |page=20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921100239/http://www.lassnet.org/2009/readings/govindan-vasudevan2008razors-edge.pdf |archive-date=21 September 2018 |access-date=18 March 2021}}

Revathi published her first book in Tamil, Unarvum Uruvamum (Our Lives, Our Words), in 2004. It is a collection of real life stories of the people belonging to the Hijra community in South India.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/Voice-for-visibility/article15902951.ece|title=Voice for visibility|last=Mayanth|first=Nithin|date=4 September 2010|work=The Hindu|access-date=14 November 2018|issn=0971-751X}} She credits the book with inspiring other hijra writers to publish their own books, such as Priya Babu's Naan Sarvanan Alla (2007) and Vidya's I am Vidya (2008).

Following this, she decided to write about her own experiences. She published her second book, The Truth about Me: A Hijra Life Story, in 2010.{{cite web|url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/article188732.ece?service=print|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806124000/http://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/article188732.ece?service=print|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 August 2016|title=The life of a hijra and a tale well told}} The book was written in Tamil and translated into English by feminist historian V. Geetha. According to Revathi, she initially released the book in English and not Tamil to avoid conflict with her family, who featured in her book and did not speak English. The book was eventually published in Tamil as Vellai Mozhi in 2011. She cites a very prominent Tamil Dalit writer Bama as one of her main inspirations.{{Cite news|last=Mayanth|first=Nithin|date=4 September 2010|title=Voice for visibility|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/Voice-for-visibility/article15902951.ece|access-date=10 June 2020|issn=0971-751X}}

The American College in Madurai has included The Truth about me: A Hijra Life story as a part of its third gender literature syllabus.{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/making-gender-flexible/article6527959.ece|title=Making gender flexible|date=23 October 2014|newspaper=The Hindu|last1=Shrikumar|first1=A.}} In 2019, her name was put up at Butler Library in Columbia University, along with names like Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison and remained there throughout the fall semester.{{Cite news |last=Kannadasan |first=Akila |date=14 October 2019 |title=Transgender activist Revathi's name is up on a banner at Columbia University alongside the likes of Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/phenomenal-woman-thats-her/article29679044.ece |access-date=11 June 2022 |issn=0971-751X}}

Revathi made her acting debut in the 2008 Tamil film Thenavattu.[http://www.filmibeat.com/tamil/news/2008/aravanis-transgender-thenavattu-paal-190508.html Two trans-genders to play lead roles in Tamil films], 19 May 2008, Filmibeat.com, Retrieved 12 June 2016 In 2022, she appeared in the Malayalam movie Antharam, which starred Negha, a transgender actress from Tamil Nadu.{{Cite web |date=26 March 2022 |title=P Abhijit's 'Antaram' to be screened at International Film Festival {{!}} P Abhijit's movie named 'Antharam' will be screened at the International Film Festival |url=https://time.news/p-abhijits-antaram-to-be-screened-at-international-film-festival-p-abhijits-movie-named-antharam-will-be-screened-at-the-international-film-festival/ |access-date=11 June 2022 |website=Time.News}}

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Category:Writers from Bengaluru

Category:Hijra (South Asia) people

Category:Transgender women writers

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Indian transgender writers

Category:21st-century Indian LGBTQ people

Category:Indian transgender actresses

Category:Indian LGBTQ rights activists

Category:Transgender rights activists

Category:21st-century Indian women writers

Category:21st-century Indian actresses

Category:Indian film actresses