This link gives an optomistic outlook towards Indian eunuchs and travestites by a segment of Indian society.
For India’s hijras, who number from 50,000 to two million, what happens in the Koovagam temple every April is a life-affirming act of high spiritual significance. On the night of the festival, hijras come dressed as brides to offer themselves in marriage to the warrior deity of the temple, Lord Aravan.
Koovagam is living proof that a basic Indian philosophy is still in place, one that envisions a universe boundlessly various, including all possibilities of being, allowing opposites to confront each other without resolution.
The fact that the local people accept the hijras year after year with such openness and anticipation is an optimistic sign in a country struggling with issues of identity and gender.
But why are some eunuchs so aggressive. Have you come across some the eunuchs in Delhi? If you have a ceremony in your house (like the birth of a child or a marriage), the eunuchs will descend in front of your house in droves and try and extort money out of you. They will start to take off their clothes, sing loud rowdy song, dance in a lewd way knowing that your grandmothers and children are watching. My point is that the eunuchs and transvestittes (I know I am generalising but stay with me) do not exactly help their image by extorting money from you. To change attitudes, you have to change your life style. I know that there are very little ways for a enuch to earn money but (oops…..I did not complete my post!!!) the last thing you would want to do is to antagonise people.
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