Photos From a Secret Trans Graduation Ceremony

The girls were wearing bright and glittery skirts with fierce lipstick. The crowd was made up of mostly women in hijabs sprinkled peppered with men. One by one the girls came out, strutting their stuff. Cheers filled the room and people couldn't resist dancing. All the pomp and pageantry behind this graduation ceremony almost makes you forget that it was being held in secret.

The day before, I got a message telling me not to post anything to social media during the ceremony, they were trying to keep away unwanted guests. Indonesia is generally unfriendly to the LGBTQ community, that means events like these for trans women have to be covert.

Sartini drove eight hours from Purbalingga to support her daughter Rere in Jakarta. "I'm very proud of her independence and I support her. Back in our village, my heart aches every time someone talks badly about her." Sartini said shortly after her daughter was crowned 'Best Student.' "She said that she wouldn't let me down, she wants to make me proud."

Rere, born Dwi Endrianto, said it took her 23 years to realize she was a woman living in a man's body. Her transformation angered her family at first. "When I chose to come out, I first told my brother, thinking he could serve as an intermediary between me and my parents. But, instead of supporting me, he couldn't accept that I am Rere now."

This graduation-cum-beauty pageant was organized by Swara Transchool, a community run school for transgender people that teaches them about human rights, gender equality, and sexual health. They don't share their location to anyone outside of their small network in order to keep the school and it's students safe.

Kanza Vina, one of the organizers of Transchool graduation night, said, "When it comes to empowerment, we don't only empower them economically, but also by educating students about good behavior."

Combining empowerment with a beauty contest seems somewhat problematic. For many, beauty pageants are just another way to objectify women. "A transgender beauty pageant would require its participants to be pretty with long hair, boobs and looking perfect. That's pretty far from what Transchool is," Vina told me. "The search for self identity never ends. One might be a woman today, but tomorrow she might be something else, we never know. Sexuality is very fluid, there's never an easy answer to 'When did you become a transgender?' I don't exactly know when."

Photos by Arzia Tivany Wargadiedja