Anjali Rimi Interview - 2025 Arts Seva Award Recipient

Parivar Bay Area is the nation’s only trans-led organization centering South Asian and Global South transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGNCI) immigrants and asylees. Through advocacy, direct services, arts, culture, and leadership development, it confronts systemic injustice, builds social and economic equity, and creates affirming spaces for marginalized communities. Its programs focus on trans-centered advocacy, direct support for trans immigrants, leadership capacity building, and global entrepreneurship, fostering resilience, cultural pride, and empowerment. Parivar envisions a world where TGNCI immigrants thrive free from barriers, shaping inclusive, liberated futures locally and globally.

Q: You arrived in San Francisco in 2003, and have since become a civic and community leader. How have your personal experiences shaped the work you do with Parivar Bay Area?

Anjali Rimi: I came seeking sanctuary but ended up homeless and stateless in the Tenderloin, surviving on food for favors, and eventually found solace elsewhere. My drive has always been that no one else should endure what I did, and to ensure belonging for all South Asian and global South trans people. Mentorship from trans leaders, especially Black leaders, shaped how I lead. Parivar Bay Area is a space where trans people of all backgrounds — working-class, monolingual, Hijra, Kinnar, Thirunangai, and immigrant communities — feel they belong. Beyond being trans, I am a mother, daughter, wife, successful career woman, and immigrant, and carry the lessons from my family, siblings, and children in India.

Q: Your journey includes pioneering roles in civil service and co-founding the first South Asian trans-led organization in the U.S. What lessons about leadership and resilience have you learned along the way?

Anjali Rimi: Leadership requires courage beyond measure, keeping your eyes on the vision despite being questioned for wearing a sari and bindi or attacked as a woman of color. Resilience comes from ancestral Hijrah and Kinnar wisdom, seeing disparities even within our community, and committing to lifting others as you rise. Serving on multiple trans-led boards has reinforced that leadership is about creating belonging and opportunity for all, especially working-class and immigrant trans communities.

Q: Parivar Bay Area focuses on advocacy, direct support, and leadership for South Asian trans, gender non-conforming, and intersex immigrants. Can you share a program or initiative that you think has had the most meaningful impact on the community?

Anjali Rimi: Across 16 programs, SITAL is the largest program of its kind, reaching over 94,000 people, historic for Hijra and Kinnar communities in India and the diaspora, and raising over $1 million. The Transgender Emerging Leadership Program, now statewide in Spanish and English, centers trans immigrants from the Global South, reflecting Parivar Bay Area’s mission to ensure belonging, leadership, and opportunity for immigrant trans communities. After December, we would have enabled over 200 LGBTQIA, mostly Trans Immigrants and Asylees, to be employment ready, find employment and sustain employment spaces.

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges South Asian trans and immigrant communities face, particularly in accessing cultural spaces, resources, or recognition, and how does Parivar address these barriers?

Anjali Rimi: Challenges include visibility with dignity, housing, employment, healthcare, and cultural inclusion, compounded by stigma and systemic barriers right within the diaspora. Parivar builds culturally grounded systems, mutual aid, and advocacy, ensuring that all trans people — especially immigrant, working-class, and Global South trans communities — are seen, supported, and feel they belong unapologetically. Parivar means family, and in our hijrah, kinnar akhadas, and dayars, we live communally and intergenerationally, and that is the spirit we must be all learn and imbibe.

Q: From your perspective, how can cultural organizations, including dance or performance communities, better support trans and gender-diverse South Asian artists?

Anjali Rimi: They must offer authentic, paid, and meaningful platforms, not tokenized roles, and center trans artists from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds, including Hijra, Kinnar, and Global South voices. Belonging and leadership go hand-in-hand, and cultural spaces should uplift immigrant trans artists while honoring their heritage and lived experiences. The best artists are within the trans communities, include and uplift them.

Q: Looking ahead, what are your hopes for the next generation of South Asian trans leaders and artists in the U.S.?

Anjali Rimi: I hope the next generation will be well-informed, proud of their cultural identities, and unapologetically trans, including working-class, monolingual, and immigrant communities. They should inherit a world where thriving, creating, and leading is possible, and where Parivar Bay Area’s immigrant-focused work ensures that belonging is a lived reality for all trans youth and artists. And most importantly knows their lineage of ancestry and rich culture of the diaspora and doesn’t divorce themselves from our heritage and traditions to fit into a societal norm.

Q:  Is there anything else you would like to add?

Anjali Rimi: I have survived childhood by spending many countless nights in the abode of Yellamma in the temple, I survived gang rape, survived family displacement, and an end-of-life attempt in January 2020, only to rise and dedicate myself to nearly 100,000 trans family members thru the pandemic in just a few months later. And to build legacy today. I am a President Award recipient in India at age 14, have held VP and director roles, and now serve as a public officer in homelessness. This journey reflects that being trans is part of who I am, but I am also a mother, daughter, wife, community leader, and immigrant, and that belonging, especially for immigrant and Global South trans communities, is central to Parivar Bay Area’s mission where Hijrah Kinnar people and communities will always be celebrated, supported, and seen as family.

Join us for the award ceremony at the November 8th performance of “Veil of Janki Bai” at ODC Theater at 8pm. Link to get your tickets.