After repeated online harassment, trans actor and activist Negha has filed a complaint with the cyber police wing. In her police complaint, Negha says that she had been receiving repeated transphobic harassment from the social media handle purportedly belonging to a man named John Sandy. The harasser, she adds, kept misgendering her and used transphobic slur words.
Speaking to TNM, Negha recalls that she had recently reposted a clip of a speech she had made on Vijay TV a year ago. In the clip, which went viral, she talks about the critical importance for families to be safe places for trans children. John Sandy harassed her repeatedly on this post. “Slurs, misgendering and bullying are the reasons my schooling and college studies suffered. I have made a name for myself as an actress and an activist, but the harassment continues. Even though I tried pointing out to the man that what he was doing was in violation of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, he did not stop. I hope the complaint can set a precedent against such harassment of trans people.”
Further, speaking along the same lines in an Instagram Reel, Negha adds, “I was thinking is it not possible to stop such harassment. Do we need to put up with it generation after generation? At that a trans woman advocate from Kerala, Padmalakshmi encouraged me to file a complaint under the Section 18D of Transgender Persons Act. I gave the complaint in the hope that bullying, slurs, misgendering and deadnaming of trans people can be stopped.”