Six years ago they started as Facebook friends and today have tied the knot. Seems quite common a thing? No, the couple Preethisha and Premkumaran is not the usual one; they are the first transsexual man and woman to join their hands in marriage in the State. Preethisha is a trans-man whereas Premkumaran is a trans-woman. Their wedding took place on women’s day in Chennai which also transcended caste lines and religious ceremonies.
Peethisha was born in a small village in Tirunelveli district. When she was fourteen she came to realise that she wasn’t a man anymore. She left her house and went to Puducherry and later moved to Pune with fellow trans-men. There in Pune most of the trans-genders were into either sex work or begging. Preethisha didn’t want to be one among them. She tried to earn a living by selling key-chains and cell phone covers in suburban trains. Her fellow trans-genders didn’t like this particular sheep preferring her own path away from the herd. Though vendors were strictly prohibited in trains, Railway officials and police were somewhat lenient towards Preethisha and she managed to earn 300-400 rupees a day.
With the money, she saved she underwent a sex-change surgery when she was 17. In a positive turn of events, she found herself among transgender artists. She joined a troupe and was part of performances in and around New Delhi. After a few years, she returned to Chennai. Preethisha, a stage artiste since her school days, took to acting in Chennai, she also teaches acting. Now she is a fulltime actor and teaches acting too.
Image Credit: Newshunt
Premkumaran is from Erode. He met Preethisha on Facebook in 2012. Though born as a woman he was not comfortable with being so. He shared his feelings of masculinity with Preethisha. He too went for a sex-change and it was at the time around the surgery he met Preethisha in person. Prem’s family know about his sex change whereas his relatives and friends still think he is a woman working in a faraway town.
Image Credit: Facebook
During a usual phone chat, Preethisha asked Prem the unexpected question, “We are being sidelined and ill-treated for the same reason, then, why don’t we live together?”Prem too thought over it and the rest is part of a distinguished but courageous love story. Both Preethisha and Permkumaran knew that their parents won’t approve their marriage, so, they managed it on their own with the help of friends and well-wishers.
Life of transsexuals is not a bed of roses; the newlyweds too aren’t an exception to this. The couple is subjected to taboos. They come across sneers, and there is cussing behind their back. But seemingly odd but bound by true and compassionate love, this couple is determined to face all these and march ahead.
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