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Meet Aryan Pasha, India’s first trans man, award-winning bodybuilder, athlete, lawyer, and LGBTQ+ activist in this inspiring Pride Month interview. Aryan shares his journey into fitness, bodybuilding in the men’s category, mental health benefits of training, challenges faced, legal reforms needed for the transgender community in India, and a powerful message for young people questioning their identity. From deadlifts & squats to organizing national cricket tournaments for trans men and mountaineering expeditions, this is a story of resilience, authenticity, and creating safe spaces in sports.
Watch till the end for the fun rapid-fire round!
Watch till the end for the fun rapid-fire round!
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NewsTranscript
00:19today for pride month we have a very truly inspiring guest with us
00:24aryan pasha india's first trans man a bodybuilder an award-winning athlete a lawyer and also a
00:33passionate activist with the lgbtqi plus community thank you so much aryan for joining us today
00:40aryan first i would like to understand from you being india's first trans man bodybuilder also
00:49a lawyer what really sparked that journey towards fear like physical fitness and also to live
00:56authentically because for for the community it to live authentically is one of the biggest challenges
01:03so what really sparked that journey okay so i have been into sports all of my life but due to
01:11my
01:11identity i left sports in my higher education like during the schooling time and after the
01:19transition i felt something is missing and i wanted to continue something in sports so i decided to
01:25just for the sake of fitness i started gymming and later like it changed into my passion and then
01:31i thought why not i i can't participate in the men's bodybuilding thing yeah and like a lot of my
01:40friends my friends my cousin brothers they motivated me they pushed me that you can do it and it was
01:47neither before you have considered yourself as a girl for us you have been since our since our childhood
01:54you have been a male only and you have because in school time also i used to play from boys
02:00basketball
02:00team so they initially they pushed me and then i also decided earlier i wanted to go to us to
02:09participate
02:10particularly for the trans men bodybuilding show but unfortunately and i think it was fortunate
02:17enough that i started competing in india and it was in my mind that i want a change in my
02:24country
02:24and i got acceptance here and i got the platform so that's how it started so basically i wanted to
02:32create a space for trans men okay so basically it doesn't mean like activism doesn't mean that
02:39being on streets or working with a bureaucrat it can be in any way yeah true so being a lawyer
02:48there i used
02:49to work with the ministries and other thing is my bodybuilding through which i'm trying to
02:58make a safe space even into the sports because i also organize different sports competition so
03:05there we have already done two national cricket tournament where more than 100 trans men
03:11came and participated in it we have got teams from seven states and once i took a team for mountaineering
03:19there are 25 trans persons like trans men and trans women both we went for the expedition and it was
03:27the advanced week so we prepared for it for two months like for the stamina for the strength
03:33and we succeeded in that also so yeah it also motivates the community that they are capable of
03:41doing anything they want to do i'm sure i mean it looks like that bodybuilding has been
03:46a major major major part of your life so how has this helped in your transition both mentally and
03:53physically uh so basically i have done my transition at very early age i started i started at 18 okay
04:04and
04:04i started gemming gemming completely from the age of 22 okay yeah because i was focusing more on
04:13studies then i got stable yes that now i can manage both the thing so that time and bodybuilding for
04:21me it is a sort of a therapy because of all the stress or negativity around you generally from the
04:28society so it's a therapy and plus i am working on myself which make me focus towards my goal
04:36yeah okay so this is what like bodybuilding is for me like you uh just mentioned as um how this
04:46was a
04:47type of escape for you from all the negativity and everything so just coming to that point what were your
04:54toughest challenges that you had to face being a trans man bodybuilder and athlete also a lawyer in
05:01india uh as a bodybuilder if i tell you like i haven't faced anything because i think sports it's
05:10something where they see you as an athlete they know the work behind any player like their training
05:19their diet everything so it is more focused on your performance so i have been like appreciated at
05:27every level even like it was state national or international level so they have always like
05:35recognized it that i'm a trans man and i'm competing in men's category and i'm doing good enough that i'm
05:42getting a position among the men's category so that motivated even more to me and i started pushing
05:51other trans men who wanted to do bodybuilding but i wanted to create a separate category for them
05:58because it's a journey and i'm into fitness since my childhood so i did that my training and those
06:05who started their transition at a later age for them like they at least need some more time
06:10to be into men's bodybuilding or anything
06:15um and then since it's a pride month special so what does pride mean to you how significant it is
06:23to you and before starting this interview i did ask you how are you planning to celebrate how do you
06:28generally celebrate or how how are you planning to celebrate this year uh so usually we do a lot
06:35of sessions with multinational companies so it is a sensitization sessions where we try to help
06:42companies to make policy to be more inclusive yeah and but since last two years these sessions have
06:50went down and because of the all the international things going on all the multinational companies they
06:58are not much interested into it because most of the companies are from u.s based out of u.s
07:06so that's
07:07the problem but still we are trying to do a meeting or trying to create a safe space for the
07:16community
07:16it can be at any small place in any cafe where people can come and speak out about their issues
07:23and how they are feeling so that's what we are doing this month um i didn't when you for people
07:31in
07:32your community when you are on a journey as that of yours it it really comes from within that you
07:40do
07:40want to inspire people so that they live their life freely so for you who do you want to inspire
07:47the most
07:47and if you had a chance to give them a message what that message would be uh so my i
07:55wanted to target
07:56especially uh young people who are in their schools they are just trying to figuring out
08:03what they are going through because i know i have been there and people like me we all have
08:08gone through the same journey so i just wanted to give them a message like this is a time to
08:14focus
08:14on their education because transition won't happen even like till until they are 18 years of age
08:21so better to focus on your education first complete your graduation post-graduation and meanwhile or
08:30later after your studies are done then you can start your transition don't push or just don't make it
08:37your focus that you have that transition is the only goal yeah because anyhow you will do your
08:45transition yeah it can be done at any point of age but once you miss your studies then your career
08:56is not like it could be better but you can spoil your career wise because we don't know whether your
09:04family is going to accept you or not whether your friend will stay with you whether you will get
09:10good colleagues who support you in this cause or who understands your problem so once if you are
09:17financially stable then you can do your transition at your pace whenever you want you can get anything
09:26any sort of surgery whichever suits you whether you want to do it or you don't want to do it
09:31because
09:32at certain age you are mature enough to take your decision i'm sure yeah i didn't um for you
09:40because i did go through your instagram page and is it safe to say that 80 percent of it is
09:46bodybuilding yes it is because i think that's my personal space i have never tried to share what i do
09:55for the community it is because of few allegations i have posted few things because someone like they
10:03put a case against me that why i am a part of national council the first national council created by
10:10ministry of social justice because uh i have because like linkedin is something different and instagram
10:17is totally different so i have created that page for my bodybuilding thing only yeah aryan i wanted to
10:25know what is that one workout for you that makes you feel unstoppable when it comes to bodybuilding so
10:32i just want to know that everybody has that one go-to workout so what is that for you
10:37uh for me like i like lifting heavy weights so deadlift and squats that's the two things i love the
10:46most and mostly like
10:48people out try to avoid it but that's the that these two exercises give you the best structure
10:54the strength wise you improves a lot more and it involves your full body okay i didn't um
11:03for us also like even though uh i'm a journalist i i read i try to keep myself
11:11up to date and uh uh i want to be self i i want to keep the awareness there but
11:18still at some point
11:19we fail when it comes to misconceptions so for the trans community what is the biggest misconception
11:27that you would want that you would want that people would understand more i think the older generation
11:32thinks it's a western concept although we were always there but we were hidden in the larger population
11:41and through this pride we wanted the basically this pride month is just a protest yeah it's a protest
11:49for our identity it started from stonewall yeah it was against the police they were like harassing them
11:57in the gay bards so that's how it started and it's a fight for the like for our rights like
12:05basic human rights
12:06for the social justice social equality and this is something we want and people think we are like
12:17some maniacs okay and i don't know why they wanted to put everything into the boxes
12:24because it is a spectrum and because they don't want it to change they don't want it to broaden
12:34their mentality and they don't want even others to explore it yeah so to focus on the education
12:44so that we can at least teach younger generation not to bully but still they wanted to neglect it
12:52because i have seen this uh transgender amendment act and i came to realization where people think
13:00those who are transitioning basically anyone like trans men or trans women those who want to transition
13:07they are not like true trans men yeah even they themselves like the people involved in the in
13:15policy making like bureaucrats so they themselves don't have a proper understanding to distinguish
13:23between intersex person and a transgender person they are just focused towards the intersex community
13:31and trying to put them and like trying to put them as a trans person although their needs are totally
13:40different different so problem is not ours it is their problem that they are not properly educated
13:49about this topic they are not sensitized enough and instead of learning from the people those who have lived
13:58experienced they try to like right now also they are trying to portray themselves as the protector of the community
14:08although they are not protecting us and it's an irony that being a trans man or any trans woman
14:15who doesn't want to go into socio-cultural groups or they are not intersex person we have been outcasted
14:24and we have been thrown out from the definition itself yeah so you just it's not our problem it's their
14:33problem
14:35you just pointed out the legal so sorry i'm cutting you in between you just pointed out the legal aspect
14:41of it so i just wanted to understand from the lawyer point of view that how the legal system could
14:49have
14:49better itself to support the lgbtqi plus community uh to to make the inclusivity much more better for
14:57everybody including trans men and women and like for the whole lgbt community if they really wanted to
15:05make some amendments they should have come up with better policies okay like right if we start from
15:12medical policy like in insurance it doesn't cover gender affirmative surgeries at all and they are
15:21very expensive they could have come with a guidelines for the medical council because in india we don't
15:29have any such policy and doctors are doing anything and whatever they want to do there is no proper
15:36training for the techniques of these surgeries and these are very complicated surgeries and like there is
15:45no insurance there is no policy there is no proper guidelines for the transitioning for the
15:51from the medical point of view there is no housing facility like no reservations in the jobs
15:59and no scholarship for trans kids like trans students no anti-bullying policy yeah so basically there is
16:09nothing for the community so they could have done something for us yeah instead of narrowing down the
16:16definition yeah it would be yeah because they have like in this duration also they had particular budget
16:27which is unspent so you could not reach out the community there are people they have
16:33make the system of getting the transgender identity card it is so complicated you have to go online and
16:42register yourself and then get a certificate from the dm so it is not easy for everyone to fill that
16:50form
16:50yeah because education level is very low and everyone is not tech like techy to fill out that form plus
17:01language is one of the barriers yeah
17:04yeah so too many things like they could have done so many things so but bringing this and
17:12the name is transgender protection of rights amendment act so what to whom they are protecting protecting
17:21yeah they like do they really want to protect trans trans people like and like this is not a good
17:30thing for the
17:31community for the like in the last few years we thought we are the global leaders in the trans rights
17:40but
17:41it was just for the namesake and they have taken everything and again we have went back like decades back
17:50yeah from where it started and right now where we are standing is the same position
17:59are in before i let you go um first i would like to thank you for your precious time but
18:06before i let you go i just want to have this one segment with you it's a this and that
18:11segment wherein i'll give you two options you have to choose one and it's it has to be rapid and
18:17quick
18:17and you don't have to give an explanation for your choice okay okay so first option that you get
18:24is uh weight lifting for life or cardio forever uh weight lifting i knew this was coming uh so uh
18:33protein
18:34shakes every morning or uh if you're a non-vegetarian butter chicken unlimited uh boiled chicken instead
18:44i'm allergic to whey protein okay yeah okay um let me think of one more would you fight a bro
18:54in your
18:55gym who has uh misgendered you or would you rather argue with a strict judge inside a court
19:04uh i will argue no i think i will fight first because you started misgendering me and then i will
19:13go to the
19:13court okay okay thank you so much aryan uh for your time it was uh you your journey your story
19:22is truly
19:22inspiring and i personally feel india has a long way to go to make it safe inclusive for everyone
19:32especially for the lgbtqi plus community and i hope uh the awareness increases the societal change
19:39that's required that comes and laws need to be stronger and more than that police sensitization
19:46is also something that needs to be there uh so i i hope you all the best i wish you
19:53all the best
19:53for anything and everything that's supposed to come your way and thank you so much for your time
20:01you
20:02you
20:02You
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