Kalki Subramanian is young, modern and is in search for an Indian man who is loving, caring, well-cultured. Oh, and one more important thing – he should be OK to marry a transsexual.

But Kalki isn’t leaving her wish for a suitable man to destiny. The founder-director of the Sahodari foundation, that are working for transgenders, is going to launch up a matrimonial website for transsexual women – the first of its kind in the world.

With the Internet matchmaking website, to be launched on Thursday 27th August, 2009, she also look forward to create a debate regarding the issues of marriage and adoption for transgenders. “There has to be legal clarity for transsexuals to survive a better life. We have been distinguished against and exploited for very long time”, she says.

Unlike, other dating services in the world, where transgenders are set up with other transgenders, www.thirunangai.net will offer transsexual women a option to find a man of their imagines. Thirunangai, incidentally, means respectable woman in Tamil.

In a nation where the limitations of sexual progressiveness are changing daily, especially after the Delhi High Court has allowed homosexuality – there’s a little gap between acceptability and discrimination as far as transgenders are concerned. Hijras allegedly have a certified place in Indian society with more than 400 years of recorded history. But the likely 2,00,000 members of the community face harassment.

“Men sexually exploit us and society discriminates against us. But we are women also and should have the legal right to get married and to adopt children. Lots of transsexual women are already living with men. Now they can do so openly,” says Kalki. “Most transsexuals are born as men but they see themselves as women. They find it very hard to find conventional jobs and are pushed to small crime, begging and prostitution.”

Hijras have only some rights and are not accepted by the Indian law. Except for the state of Tamil Nadu that has allowed special toilets and a database to map the population of transgenders in the state and find out detailed demands such as ration cards and voter identity cards – they are not allowed to vote, to purchase a property, marry and the right to claim formal identity proof through any official documents such as a passport.

The matrimonial site is a welcome move. This site may prove to be a good platform.