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Shinta Ratri strives to give trans children a better future
Transgender activist Shinta Ratri, who won the Front Line Defenders Award this year, has gone the extra mile to help the transgender youth gain family support and acceptance.
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Shinta Ratri (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)
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ransgender activist Shinta Ratri, who won the Front Line Defenders Award this year, is going the extra mile to help transgender youth gain family support and acceptance.
For Shinta, the leader of Yogyakarta-based Al Fatah Islamic Boarding School for transgender women, parents are supposed to take care of their children no matter what.
Such is not always the case, as parents have been known to kick their children out of the house because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
This, she says, results in many talented trans children who cannot realize their dreams as they lack financial, psychological and social support from their family.
“At 4:30 a.m., somebody knocked on the door. When I opened it, a crying transwoman from Temanggung, Central Java, with a suitcase asked for permission to stay here temporarily because she did not know where to go,” she said.
With nine other waria (transgender women), Shinta stands on the front line of helping trans children return home.
Shinta and the nine transgender women are part of the Family Support Group (FSG). Through the FSG, they try to get parents to understand their children better and accept them.
