I experienced many mixed emotions when reading A. Revathi’s A Life in Trans Activism, but I will start with the good. Revathi’s book is half memoir, and half interview-based coalitional research project regarding the lives and experiences of transgender men in India. Roughly, the first half follows Revathi through her abusive upbringing, her running away to Hijra communities and entwining with their culture (for better or worse), and her entry into and departure from queer Indian NGO activist spaces. The second half is a collection of interviews, stories, and activist pieces from trans men Revathi has come into contact with in the hopes of shedding more light on FTM experience in India. Initially I was worried that the shift between the memoir side and the interview side would be jarring to experience, but Revathi actually makes both sides flow beautifully into one another, citing her own experiences with lack of visibility as a gender-variant child as her motivation to use the platform she has to share the stories of transgender men.
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