Gopi Shankar Madurai
| Gopi Shankar Madurai | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born |
Sarvapunya S Mukhopadhyaya April 13, 1991 Madurai, India |
| Education | American College, Madurai, University of Cambridge |
| Occupation | Writer, Speaker, Equal Rights Activist |
Gopi Shankar Madurai is an Indian equal rights activist, he was one of the youngest, and the first openly intersex and genderqueer, candidates to contest in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 2016. He is also the founder of Srishti Madurai Student Volunteer Collective.
Gopi was born as Sarvapunya S Mukhopadyaya in Sellur slum at Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He was raised by his maternal grandparents who belongs Kattunayakan and Vaduge community. He identifies himself as Tamilian of Telugu and Bengali origin. At the age of fourteen he started volunteering Ramakrishna Mission later he was accepted as a probationer for being a monk at Ramakrishna Math. He studied Religion, Philosophy, and Sociology at The American College in Madurai later discontinued it. Gopi is a student of Yoga for past 15 years and Yoga Instructor for past 5 years. He taught Yoga and Indian Philosophy to more than 5000 students & "Indian Religions" class for many westerners including Tony MacMahon of Ireland. He partly freelance dailies and the New Horizon Media Pvt Ltd (Tamil Publications).
Gopi is founder of Srishti Madurai Volunteer Movement one of the inclusive non-funded pro bono group of its kind which has involved academicians, Independent scholars, human rights activist, environmentalists, animal rights activists and LGBTQIA, genderqueer activists aiming to protect the Indigenous traditions. On October 2011 he launched India's first helpline for genderqueer, LGBTQIA people at Madurai. Later in June 2013 the helpline turned to offer service for 24 hours with a tagline "Just having someone understanding to talk to can save a life. He also organized Asia's first Genderqueer Pride Parade at Madurai. Gopi also introduced LGBTQIA courses in few schools and universities curciculam He was also a young panelist to share chair in University Grants Commission of India (UGC) and Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR) sponsored National Seminars in India, he conducted more than 85 Seminars, Interactive sessions on Gender & Sexuality for 8000 students in Madurai. He coined the regional Tamil terms for genderqueer people and wrote the first book on Gender-Variants in Tamil. In April 2015, Gopi was invited by Tiruchi Siva to witness the passing of historical Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014 at Rajya Sabha upper house of the Parliament of India. For his contributions as a gender minority to Hinduism, he was presented “Young Hindu Award” by writer Aravindan Neelakandan, Joe D Cruz at 6th Hindu Spiritual Services Fair. He petitioned the case of Asian Games medalist Santhi Soundarajan who was stripped off her medal after a gender test to the State and Central Government.
...
Wikipedia