Fridae's Ng Yi-Sheng speaks with transgender writer, entertainer and activist Tiara Tiar Bahtiar, who had recently launched a book of anecdotes, poems and photographs of local transgender culture, about growing up and how the Bugis people traditionally believe that humans can be grouped into five different gender categories.
The New York Times article that mentioned Obama's gay nanny who joined a "transvestite" dance troupe, and which has spawned numerous reposts with headlines like "Obama's nanny was a gay transvestite" could have more accurately used "transgender" or "waria" – an indigenous Indonesian "transgender" person.
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