India has a new Miss Transqueen, and is heading to the world stage, determined to speak for the country’s marginalized transgender community.
Fashion designer Shaine Soni was crowned Miss Transqueen India on Saturday, the country’s beauty pageant for trans women. She will represent India at next year’s Miss International Queen, the world’s largest pageant for transgender women.
Miss Transqueen India was first established in 2017 and includes all the pitfalls of a traditional beauty pageant: photo shoots, talent rounds, elaborate costumes, judges and hundreds of audience members.
This year, organizers were unable to hold the competition due to the pandemic, which caused a national shutdown from late March to May. But Reena Rai, president and founder of Miss Transqueen India, was unwilling to give up; was determined to send a contestant to represent India in the 2021 international competition.
Runner-up in Transqueen India 2020, Reena Rai (founder, Miss Transqueen India), Shaine Soni, Nithu RS (Miss Transqueen India 2019), from left to right. Credit: Miss Transqueen India
“My pageant is not just about beauty, it’s about empowerment and inclusion,” Rai told CNN in a phone interview. “If I’m going to send someone without a contest, I have to make sure she’s a very strong candidate, the best of the best, someone who knows the value of (becoming Miss) Transqueen India.”
Soni looked like that the obvious choice; as a fashion designer and stylist whose work is known on the contest circuit, she has previously helped train contestants and choose their outfits. For years, she remained relatively silent about her own transgender identity as she struggled for acceptance from her family and friends, but Rai encouraged her to move toward the title.
“It has always been a very strong backbone for Transqueen India,” Rai said. “I told him that because you’ve been with us and how important it is, and because you’ve been struggling to get out in public, this might be the best platform to do that because it’s something that a lot of people will take strength and inspiration from.”
Contestants of the Miss International Queen 2020 pageant in Pattaya, Thailand, in March 2020. Credit: MLADEN ANTONOV / AFP / Getty Images
From a harassed child to queen of the pageant
While Soni was born biologically male, she identified as a girl from a young age; she felt confused and dismayed when the people around her began to insist she was a child and told her to act and behave like one.
As she grew older, she faced increasing pressure from family and friends who would discourage her from getting her hair long, wearing “feminine” clothes, or having “effeminate” manners, she said over the phone. “With so many things pressure and bullying around me, I felt desperately that I was different and that there was a problem in me. “
He found some relief when, as a teenager, he began researching and stumbled upon information about gender identity and gender confirmation surgery. He ended up leaving home at 17, pursuing a fashionable education and undergoing hormone therapy a few years later, a process he described as “difficult.”
“A lot of my friends gave up on me, they couldn’t understand it,” he said. “But I was very determined, so I went ahead and did everything on my own.”
Shaine Soni will represent India next year at Miss International Queen. Credit: Courtesy of Shaine Soni
Soni never officially reached her family, but they stayed in touch after she made the transition, with a large “elephant in the room that we didn’t point out.”
He graduated from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, created his own label, won a reality design show and began a career as a stylist; that’s how he met Rai.
“When Reena approached me for Miss Transqueen India during the first season in 2017, I was always there to support her, but I didn’t feel comfortable at the time because of family pressure,” Soni said. He helped direct the program from behind the scenes and at the same time became involved in advocating for LGBTQ people. In recent years, she and other activists in the country they have campaigned for greater LGBTQ representation and accurate information in school curricula and textbooks.
Now, Soni says, she is ready to take the stage publicly as Miss Transqueen India.
“I’m in a place where I can accept that title because I’ve gone through a lot of things and I know how hard it is to be where I am today,” he said. “If someone reads about me and finds comfort, I think my purpose is absolutely fulfilled.”
Violence and fear in the LGBTQ community in India
India’s attitudes towards LGBTQ issues are still very conservative and the transgender community is one of the most marginalized in the country. The social stigma is so strong that many of those who leave are harassed by society, disowned by family members or blocked from accessing education and work.
Some victims of transgender assault have reported it the police do not take them seriously or clear their cases. Even if a case goes to court, the sentence for rape or sexual assault is often milder when the victim is transgender, compared to a cisgender woman.
This is the environment Rai tried to change when she launched Miss Transqueen India in 2017. She identifies as a cisgender, but became familiar with the LGBTQ community after meeting transgender people.
Neetu RS wins Miss Transqueen India 2019 in October 2019 in New Delhi, India. Credit: Raj K Raj / Hindustan Times / Getty Images
“People make fun of them for wearing red lipsticks or putting on stilettos … I wanted to create a platform where people applaud them for wearing red lipsticks and putting on stilettos.” she said. “I wanted to create an awareness that they just need a platform and that they can do anything like the rest of us, if given the chance.”
He faced the reaction almost immediately. The pageant could not attract sponsors or designers, and he recalled some designers told her they wouldn’t provide clothes because “once a transgender woman wears it, normal girls won’t wear it.” Others could not understand why she was involved in the defense if she was not herself transgender. It was so hard that Rai said it he went bankrupt and had his house mortgaged while organizing the pageant during its celebration first year.
But with Soni and other supporters by his side, the show went on – and now it’s the fourth year in a row. Last year they even invited them university and high school students to watch the pageant, hoping to teach younger generations about the LGBTQ community.
This year may not have the glamorous competition of contests and events of several days from previous years, but Rai and Soni are looking to the future and his vision of a more accepting India. They hope the pageant and its advocacy work can help pave the way and influence the way the world sees LGBTQ people in India.
“It’s not just about me, it’s about giving me the opportunity to hear the stories of those who have felt unheard of for years and can’t be vocal about what they feel,” Soni said. “I can be a voice for them.”