The Other Gender

When you sign up for an account on internet you have to fill in a form, and I bet you must have wondered what that "Other" below "Male" and "Female" meant. I always thought Bhutan will never have to worry about it but looks like the time has come.

Funny No More

All brows in Wandue went up when Dechen first came there from Paro. She was the boy who appeared in headlines following an issue with her school not letting her be a girl. She set herself free by dropping out. Now she runs a BEauty Palour in Wangdue, where she is accepted as she is and doing good business. My wife wasn't very comfortable when I took her to Dechen's saloon for the first time, but later admitted that Dechen had the softest hand. I didn't see the other man people were talking about in Wangdue. He seems to be a taxi driver. who often dresses himself in kira.

While some people find it strange and unacceptable- denial of God's creation, I had to explain to many that they were born with woman's soul and they are NOT pretending to be what they are not. 

Bhutan government has already realized the change that is happening and discussed on the issue sometime last year. I don't know about the content of the talk though but I am happy that things are put into perceptive on time. Because after what I saw around me these days I am seriously worried. Dechen in Wangdue was just the tip of an iceberg.

During our lunch breaks we rest under the tree watching over two hundred girls practice football in Phuntsholing School ground, and the point of worry is that almost half of the girls have denied themselves as girls- from the way they keep their hair, way type of language they use, to the names they kept for themselves.  If it were a few of them I might sympathize with them just like I did with Dechen but here is the case of peer influence or a fashion of sort. Or is it the effect of Football on them? 

I wouldn't want to wake up one day and suddenly find my daughter wanting to be a boy just because it's a fashion. And I don't think the parents of these girls will want that either!