by DK Cowan
Om gam ganapataye namaha!
Ganesha is set in the middle of the circle and the cloth is removed. One minion paints a Tilak on his mask, another gives him a sacrifice of coconut, another of candy.
I was first given life by Parvati in order to serve as the guardian of her privacy while she bathed. I was a beautiful boy, sensitive and devoted. But there were those who could not respect that sensitivity, who felt no need to honor my mother’s wishes, even among those who were closest to me. And so it came to be that my own stepfather cut off my head because I honored my mother’s charge over his desire. So you might say that I know something about being bullied as a youth, of being rejected by those who one should be able to trust. Homophobia is rooted in sexism, in the fear that one’s existence challenges another’s notions of masculine privilege. If you wish to protect the youth of tomorrow, you must learn to see your obstacles in their entirety.
But wait! My story, It Gets Better! When Parvati learned of what Shiva had done, she was inconsolable and told Shiva that if He didn’t fix this, He was (sung) Never gonna get it….again. So Shiva sent his ganas to bring back the head of the first creature they could find. They brought back the head of a female elephant, sewed it onto my body, and breathed back my life into me. So now I am both transgender *and* transspecies. You can’t get any queerer than that!
I am known as both the Remover and the Creator of Obstacles. But this should not surprise any of you. After all, those in your community who are like me are seen in exactly the same way. It is easy to honor them in a historical context as the removers of obstacles; to refer to that night in 1969 when a bunch of drag queens and transsexuals rioted in New York City as “the beginning of the Gay Rights movement.” But today they are treated like the creator of obstacles. “Why can’t *those* people act normal like the rest of us? Why are they always parading around in their feather boas and assless chaps? Can’t they see that this is why middle America hates gay people? How are we ever going to get same sex marriage with *them* on the TV?” And so the oppression begins within your own community.
What is forgotten is that “those people” are out there every day questioning the norm and so removing societal barriers for finding and expressing one’s true self for everyone. If it were not for “those people,” then the “normal gays” of today would still be considered “those people.” The cultural shift that “those people” enact is both more enduring and more profound than any short term political battles that may be lost because of them. So honor your freaks, your transfolk, your drag kings and queens, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the leather daddies, and the dykes on bikes, for without them there could be no movement, no removal of obstacles.
Remember this: I was a household Deity with no festivals and no major following until 1893, when a wise man used my image and fesival and to unite the people in Maharashtra against the British colonial rule. So I know something about struggles for equality. One must be memorable before one can become an icon. Which of your icons is most memorable? A congressman from Massachusetts? No. A former boy band member who was outed by his boyfriend? No. A round-bellied, dog shit eating Drag Queen who called herself Divine? Now that one has possibilities.
