"More than just an autobiography or memoir, this is a powerful and passionate account of one woman’s battle to claim her identity and place in society. In A Small Step in a Long Journey, Akkai Padmashali, a trans rights activist and campaigner, thinker, writer, poet, and actor, throws out a challenge to society, demanding not sympathy or pity but acceptance, recognition, and respect.
Brutally honest and self-critical, Akkai’s writing is a political act in which she lays bare the hurt, humiliation, confusion, insult, love, solidarity and joy that went into making her who she is today.
Time and again Akkai asserts that her story is not just her story. What we call gender and sexuality, she says, ‘is a journey we all travel’, one that connects our personal and political lives, and one that helps us to face difficult, disturbing questions about prejudice and privilege."
She has also received an honorary doctorate from the Indian Virtual University for Peace and Education. Founder of Ondede, a human rights organization, Akkai’s was among the leading voices opposing Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalized homosexuality. She has been a strong critic of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and the 2018 and 2016 bills that preceded it."
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