Rose Venkatesan
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Rose Venkatesan is the first Indian talk show host based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She is a trans woman, and has been active in many fields like television and radio.


Early life and education

Rose Venkatesan became aware of her gender identity when she was around five years old and felt uncomfortable with being forced to behave as a boy. She started dressing as a woman when she was in her early twenties. She finished her high school in the year 1996 from Sri Ramakrishna Mission Higher Secondary School (South), Chennai. She studied mechanical engineering at Sathyabama Engineering College (currently Sathyabama University), Chennai between 1997 and 2001. She travelled to the United States to study Biomedical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University between 2001 and worked as a website designer before returning home to Chennai in 2003.


Personal life

It took Rose Venkatesan years to tell her family how she felt, but when she did, they were devastated. When she decided to transition in 2004, her family used violent means to prevent her and even looked at marriage as a possible solution. She was hit by her brother and was locked up in a room. She even attempted to commit suicide. She was thrown out of her house and she worked for a while in a call centre. She currently lives with her family, who only conditionally accept her. Her mother has broken off all ties and has moved out of their house. In 2010, she made the decision to get
sexual reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...
done in Thailand, something that received significant media attention.


Career


Television

Rose Venkatesan made her television debut in the talk show ''
Ippadikku Rose ''Ippadikku Rose'' is a 2008 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language talk show aired on Vijay TV. The show hosted by Rose (TV personality), Rose. The talk show deals with current affairs touching a wide variety of social issues including traditio ...
'' ( en, Yours truly, Rose) which aired on Vijay TV. The show dealt with current affairs touching a wide variety of social issues including traditions, taboos, rebels and culture and had an audience of tens of millions. The show began in February 2008 and ended in April 2009, with Venkatesan shifting to Kalaignar TV for the show ''Idhu Rose Neram'' ( en, This is Rose Time) in July 2009. In the show, she played a US-born
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...
character who studies Indology and invites people to her home for discussions on issues such as obesity.


Radio

Having ended her television career in 2010, she became a Radio Jockey at
BIG FM 92.7 BIG FM is one of India’s largest radio networks that broadcasts primarily at 92.7 MHz. It is part of Reliance Broadcast Ltd. with 58 stations reaching about 1.9K towns and covering 1.2 lakh villages in the country. It is accessible to over 3 ...
in June 2011, airing the afternoon show ''Rosudan Pesungal'' ( en, Talk with Rose) on Weekdays.


Politics

In March 2012, she stated that she planned to form a political party, the ''Sexual Liberation Party of India''. She said that the party's goals would be promoting sexual freedom and the rights of women and LGBT people. Some of the initial proposals would be to legalize
prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
and
brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...
s, change
adultery laws Adultery laws are the laws in various countries that deal with extramarital sex. Historically, many cultures considered adultery a very serious crime, some subject to severe punishment, especially in the case of extramarital sex involving a married ...
and lower the minimum age for sex to 14–15 years.


Film

She will be making her directorial debut with '' Cricket Scandal'', which also features her in the lead with Kishan as the male lead. --> She is also making plans for films featuring transgendered characters and is looking for a production partner for her reality television series about gender reassignment surgery.


Activism

Rose Venkatesan has been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights, women's rights and free sexual expression. Over the years, she has built her career around openly raising societal issues through the medium of radio and politics as well. Currently involved in organic farming on the outskirts of Chennai and working as a freelance in the corporate sector, Rose Venkatesan trains employees to get their American accent right and teaches them English grammar and speech. According to her, there is more maturity in the corporate world, but it is not without its problems pertaining to
discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
based not only on sexuality but also gender.


Controversies

At a press meet that she had organized, the audience from the press was totally packed however, none of the newspapers had covered it. In instance of discrimination against transgender people, a journalist from a reputed English newspaper had once approached her for contacts of sex workers for personal use. Although afraid of the backlash, Rose Venkatesan said that she will continue to be in media until she exposes their
hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the ...
.


References


External links

* https://www.facebook.com/rose.venkatesan {{DEFAULTSORT:Venkatesan, Rose Indian radio presenters Indian LGBT entertainers Indian LGBT rights activists Living people Louisiana Tech University alumni Artists from Chennai Ramakrishna Mission schools alumni Television personalities from Tamil Nadu LGBT media personalities Transgender actresses Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology alumni Indian women radio presenters Year of birth missing (living people)