CHENNAI, April 13 -- Gopi Shankar doesn't like to be identified as male or female but would prefer being called a genderqueer person (one who doesn't fit into the binary structures proposed by the community when segregating genders). The gender activist came out of the closet when ze (a gender neutral pronoun) was about 19 years old and since then has been helping those feeling the heat of gender issues, such as the LGBTQIA (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual) community.

"At that time I was at Ramakrishna Mission as a pre-probationer. I wanted to explore myself and other possibilities in life before being a monk," says Shankar, who is presently a research scholar at The American College, Madurai.

Ze is known for supporting athlete Santhi Soundarajan, who was stripped off her medal following a failed gender test after the 2006 Asian Games held at Doha. On the issue, ze says, "Santhi is a woman. It is sad that the International Olympic Association doesn't understand that gender is a complex issue and just because Santhi doesn't conform to their preset standards, it doesn't mean she is not a woman or that whatever she won doesn't have any merit anymore. What is even sadder is that the government didn't lobby for...