Gautam, Executive Board Member, TWEET Foundation (edited, in the speaker's own words):

I identify as a trans masculine person. I work with Safe Access, where I train and bring awareness among queer and affirmative therapies among practitioners, and as a peer supporter. I would like to start with sharing one experience of mine. I have several bad experiences in accessing services, but this one stuck with me.

A few years ago, I was in college and was very sick, possibly from dehydration. I locked myself in my bedroom.

I was refusing to go to a hospital because at that time my identity documents had my dead name. I always avoided to go to a doctor because I knew that they wouldn't gender me correctly, and also because I was binding at the time.

But this situation was very different: I was not able to walk out of my room or leave my bed. My friends insisted that I see a doctor, but I kept refusing.

After a week, when my friends saw my condition and saw that medicines weren't working, they called my mother who was 500 kilometers away.

She came to college and was angry but I told her I didn't want to go to a hospital. Back then she didn't accept me but was aware of my name and pronouns.

So she said, 'If you're not comfortable with your name, I will go to the reservation counters and you just go to the emergency room.'

But unfortunately, when we went to the hospital, the receptionist asked me to show my Aadhar card and started with the misgendering, and gave me a stare questioning why I didn't look like the person on my Aadhar card.

My heart was pounding at the moment, and still is. I somehow finished the registration process and went to the emergency room.

Continued: https://www.pixstory.com/story/transcare-conference-i-was-terrified-thinking-about-how-my-life-would-be-gautam1651861465/98772