While there have been scattered hijra pageants in India in the past, earlier this week, Mumbai hosted the nation's first formal transgender pageant. Auditions for "Super Queen" have been taking place across the country for the past several weeks; contestants had been handpicked from ten Indian cities. Veteran actor Zeenat Aman and starlet/LGBT activist Celina Jaitley were on hand as judges.
The event has been organized by 12 Noon entertainment; some of you may be familiar with its CEO, trans-activist Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi. Impressively, theyhave been able to garner support from the likes of Salman Khan and even Pratibha Patil, the current President of India. While we at Queeristan are sorting through the media trickling in, we have been by conflicted by the dichotomous the use of "eunuch" by some sources and "transgender" by others. From our knowledge, the pageant did not require contestants to be hijras; however, if any of our readers know more information, please do share.
Regardless, it is extraordinary that such an undertaking has gained so much (positive) media buzz both within Indiaas well as abroad. We send our congratulations to the winner, Bobby, and all the contestants. We would take this chance to drop the word "fierce", but it's not 2006.
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2 comments:
this is amazing, that even two bollywood actress had actually suppported such an event.
GO BOLLYWOOD GO!! KEEP SUPPORTING :)
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