00:19today for pride month we have a very truly inspiring guest with us
00:24aryan pasha india's first trans man a bodybuilder an award-winning athlete a lawyer and also a
00:33passionate activist with the lgbtqi plus community thank you so much aryan for joining us today
00:40aryan first i would like to understand from you being india's first trans man bodybuilder also
00:49a lawyer what really sparked that journey towards fear like physical fitness and also to live
00:56authentically because for for the community it to live authentically is one of the biggest challenges
01:03so what really sparked that journey okay so i have been into sports all of my life but due to
01:11my
01:11identity i left sports in my higher education like during the schooling time and after the
01:19transition i felt something is missing and i wanted to continue something in sports so i decided to
01:25just for the sake of fitness i started gymming and later like it changed into my passion and then
01:31i thought why not i i can't participate in the men's bodybuilding thing yeah and like a lot of my
01:40friends my friends my cousin brothers they motivated me they pushed me that you can do it and it was
01:47neither before you have considered yourself as a girl for us you have been since our since our childhood
01:54you have been a male only and you have because in school time also i used to play from boys
02:00basketball
02:00team so they initially they pushed me and then i also decided earlier i wanted to go to us to
02:09participate
02:10particularly for the trans men bodybuilding show but unfortunately and i think it was fortunate
02:17enough that i started competing in india and it was in my mind that i want a change in my
02:24country
02:24and i got acceptance here and i got the platform so that's how it started so basically i wanted to
02:32create a space for trans men okay so basically it doesn't mean like activism doesn't mean that
02:39being on streets or working with a bureaucrat it can be in any way yeah true so being a lawyer
02:48there i used
02:49to work with the ministries and other thing is my bodybuilding through which i'm trying to
02:58make a safe space even into the sports because i also organize different sports competition so
03:05there we have already done two national cricket tournament where more than 100 trans men
03:11came and participated in it we have got teams from seven states and once i took a team for mountaineering
03:19there are 25 trans persons like trans men and trans women both we went for the expedition and it was
03:27the advanced week so we prepared for it for two months like for the stamina for the strength
03:33and we succeeded in that also so yeah it also motivates the community that they are capable of
03:41doing anything they want to do i'm sure i mean it looks like that bodybuilding has been
03:46a major major major part of your life so how has this helped in your transition both mentally and
03:53physically uh so basically i have done my transition at very early age i started i started at 18 okay
04:04and
04:04i started gemming gemming completely from the age of 22 okay yeah because i was focusing more on
04:13studies then i got stable yes that now i can manage both the thing so that time and bodybuilding for
04:21me it is a sort of a therapy because of all the stress or negativity around you generally from the
04:28society so it's a therapy and plus i am working on myself which make me focus towards my goal
04:36yeah okay so this is what like bodybuilding is for me like you uh just mentioned as um how this
04:46was a
04:47type of escape for you from all the negativity and everything so just coming to that point what were your
04:54toughest challenges that you had to face being a trans man bodybuilder and athlete also a lawyer in
05:01india uh as a bodybuilder if i tell you like i haven't faced anything because i think sports it's
05:10something where they see you as an athlete they know the work behind any player like their training
05:19their diet everything so it is more focused on your performance so i have been like appreciated at
05:27every level even like it was state national or international level so they have always like
05:35recognized it that i'm a trans man and i'm competing in men's category and i'm doing good enough that i'm
05:42getting a position among the men's category so that motivated even more to me and i started pushing
05:51other trans men who wanted to do bodybuilding but i wanted to create a separate category for them
05:58because it's a journey and i'm into fitness since my childhood so i did that my training and those
06:05who started their transition at a later age for them like they at least need some more time
06:10to be into men's bodybuilding or anything
06:15um and then since it's a pride month special so what does pride mean to you how significant it is
06:23to you and before starting this interview i did ask you how are you planning to celebrate how do you
06:28generally celebrate or how how are you planning to celebrate this year uh so usually we do a lot
06:35of sessions with multinational companies so it is a sensitization sessions where we try to help
06:42companies to make policy to be more inclusive yeah and but since last two years these sessions have
06:50went down and because of the all the international things going on all the multinational companies they
06:58are not much interested into it because most of the companies are from u.s based out of u.s
07:06so that's
07:07the problem but still we are trying to do a meeting or trying to create a safe space for the
07:16community
07:16it can be at any small place in any cafe where people can come and speak out about their issues
07:23and how they are feeling so that's what we are doing this month um i didn't when you for people
07:31in
07:32your community when you are on a journey as that of yours it it really comes from within that you
07:40do
07:40want to inspire people so that they live their life freely so for you who do you want to inspire
07:47the most
07:47and if you had a chance to give them a message what that message would be uh so my i
07:55wanted to target
07:56especially uh young people who are in their schools they are just trying to figuring out
08:03what they are going through because i know i have been there and people like me we all have
08:08gone through the same journey so i just wanted to give them a message like this is a time to
08:14focus
08:14on their education because transition won't happen even like till until they are 18 years of age
08:21so better to focus on your education first complete your graduation post-graduation and meanwhile or
08:30later after your studies are done then you can start your transition don't push or just don't make it
08:37your focus that you have that transition is the only goal yeah because anyhow you will do your
08:45transition yeah it can be done at any point of age but once you miss your studies then your career
08:56is not like it could be better but you can spoil your career wise because we don't know whether your
09:04family is going to accept you or not whether your friend will stay with you whether you will get
09:10good colleagues who support you in this cause or who understands your problem so once if you are
09:17financially stable then you can do your transition at your pace whenever you want you can get anything
09:26any sort of surgery whichever suits you whether you want to do it or you don't want to do it
09:31because
09:32at certain age you are mature enough to take your decision i'm sure yeah i didn't um for you
09:40because i did go through your instagram page and is it safe to say that 80 percent of it is
09:46bodybuilding yes it is because i think that's my personal space i have never tried to share what i do
09:55for the community it is because of few allegations i have posted few things because someone like they
10:03put a case against me that why i am a part of national council the first national council created by
10:10ministry of social justice because uh i have because like linkedin is something different and instagram
10:17is totally different so i have created that page for my bodybuilding thing only yeah aryan i wanted to
10:25know what is that one workout for you that makes you feel unstoppable when it comes to bodybuilding so
10:32i just want to know that everybody has that one go-to workout so what is that for you
10:37uh for me like i like lifting heavy weights so deadlift and squats that's the two things i love the
10:46most and mostly like
10:48people out try to avoid it but that's the that these two exercises give you the best structure
10:54the strength wise you improves a lot more and it involves your full body okay i didn't um
11:03for us also like even though uh i'm a journalist i i read i try to keep myself
11:11up to date and uh uh i want to be self i i want to keep the awareness there but
11:18still at some point
11:19we fail when it comes to misconceptions so for the trans community what is the biggest misconception
11:27that you would want that you would want that people would understand more i think the older generation
11:32thinks it's a western concept although we were always there but we were hidden in the larger population
11:41and through this pride we wanted the basically this pride month is just a protest yeah it's a protest
11:49for our identity it started from stonewall yeah it was against the police they were like harassing them
11:57in the gay bards so that's how it started and it's a fight for the like for our rights like
12:05basic human rights
12:06for the social justice social equality and this is something we want and people think we are like
12:17some maniacs okay and i don't know why they wanted to put everything into the boxes
12:24because it is a spectrum and because they don't want it to change they don't want it to broaden
12:34their mentality and they don't want even others to explore it yeah so to focus on the education
12:44so that we can at least teach younger generation not to bully but still they wanted to neglect it
12:52because i have seen this uh transgender amendment act and i came to realization where people think
13:00those who are transitioning basically anyone like trans men or trans women those who want to transition
13:07they are not like true trans men yeah even they themselves like the people involved in the in
13:15policy making like bureaucrats so they themselves don't have a proper understanding to distinguish
13:23between intersex person and a transgender person they are just focused towards the intersex community
13:31and trying to put them and like trying to put them as a trans person although their needs are totally
13:40different different so problem is not ours it is their problem that they are not properly educated
13:49about this topic they are not sensitized enough and instead of learning from the people those who have lived
13:58experienced they try to like right now also they are trying to portray themselves as the protector of the community
14:08although they are not protecting us and it's an irony that being a trans man or any trans woman
14:15who doesn't want to go into socio-cultural groups or they are not intersex person we have been outcasted
14:24and we have been thrown out from the definition itself yeah so you just it's not our problem it's their
14:33problem
14:35you just pointed out the legal so sorry i'm cutting you in between you just pointed out the legal aspect
14:41of it so i just wanted to understand from the lawyer point of view that how the legal system could
14:49have
14:49better itself to support the lgbtqi plus community uh to to make the inclusivity much more better for
14:57everybody including trans men and women and like for the whole lgbt community if they really wanted to
15:05make some amendments they should have come up with better policies okay like right if we start from
15:12medical policy like in insurance it doesn't cover gender affirmative surgeries at all and they are
15:21very expensive they could have come with a guidelines for the medical council because in india we don't
15:29have any such policy and doctors are doing anything and whatever they want to do there is no proper
15:36training for the techniques of these surgeries and these are very complicated surgeries and like there is
15:45no insurance there is no policy there is no proper guidelines for the transitioning for the
15:51from the medical point of view there is no housing facility like no reservations in the jobs
15:59and no scholarship for trans kids like trans students no anti-bullying policy yeah so basically there is
16:09nothing for the community so they could have done something for us yeah instead of narrowing down the
16:16definition yeah it would be yeah because they have like in this duration also they had particular budget
16:27which is unspent so you could not reach out the community there are people they have
16:33make the system of getting the transgender identity card it is so complicated you have to go online and
16:42register yourself and then get a certificate from the dm so it is not easy for everyone to fill that
16:50form
16:50yeah because education level is very low and everyone is not tech like techy to fill out that form plus
17:01language is one of the barriers yeah
17:04yeah so too many things like they could have done so many things so but bringing this and
17:12the name is transgender protection of rights amendment act so what to whom they are protecting protecting
17:21yeah they like do they really want to protect trans trans people like and like this is not a good
17:30thing for the
17:31community for the like in the last few years we thought we are the global leaders in the trans rights
17:40but
17:41it was just for the namesake and they have taken everything and again we have went back like decades back
17:50yeah from where it started and right now where we are standing is the same position
17:59are in before i let you go um first i would like to thank you for your precious time but
18:06before i let you go i just want to have this one segment with you it's a this and that
18:11segment wherein i'll give you two options you have to choose one and it's it has to be rapid and
18:17quick
18:17and you don't have to give an explanation for your choice okay okay so first option that you get
18:24is uh weight lifting for life or cardio forever uh weight lifting i knew this was coming uh so uh
18:33protein
18:34shakes every morning or uh if you're a non-vegetarian butter chicken unlimited uh boiled chicken instead
18:44i'm allergic to whey protein okay yeah okay um let me think of one more would you fight a bro
18:54in your
18:55gym who has uh misgendered you or would you rather argue with a strict judge inside a court
19:04uh i will argue no i think i will fight first because you started misgendering me and then i will
19:13go to the
19:13court okay okay thank you so much aryan uh for your time it was uh you your journey your story
19:22is truly
19:22inspiring and i personally feel india has a long way to go to make it safe inclusive for everyone
19:32especially for the lgbtqi plus community and i hope uh the awareness increases the societal change
19:39that's required that comes and laws need to be stronger and more than that police sensitization
19:46is also something that needs to be there uh so i i hope you all the best i wish you
19:53all the best
19:53for anything and everything that's supposed to come your way and thank you so much for your time
20:01you
20:02you
20:02You
