Barack Obama (far right) with his mother Ann Durham, Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soetoro and sister Maya Soetoro in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1970. Photo / Supplied
Barack Obama (far right) with his mother Ann Durham, Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soetoro and sister Maya Soetoro in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1970. Photo / Supplied
The former nanny who helped care for a young Barack Obama now lives her days in a shelter for transgender women.
Born a man, Evie identifies as a woman but is forced to dress as male due to widespread discrimination faced by Indonesia's LGBT community, said news.com.au.
Thenanny, who cared for the boy who would go on to become President of the United States, was discovered living on Jakarta's streets in 2012, fearing for her life.
Having endured beatings by soldiers, constant harassment and difficulty finding work, she revealed how she was forced to rely on sex work to survive.
According to Human Rights Indonesian researcher Andreas Harsono not much has changed for Evie since then.
"I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that," she told the AP.
"So I decided to just accept it. I've been living like this, a man, ever since."
Evie, also known as Turdi, was the former nanny of US President Barack Obama. Photo / AP
Evie also revealed she was abused growing up by a father who thought his son was too feminine.
HRW said it was difficult to estimate how many people were transgender in Indonesia, with many hiding their sexuality.
However Mr Harsono said he believed there were around 30,000 in Jakarta alone.
FAMOUS CHARGE
In 1969 Evie met Ann Dunham, Barack Obama's mother, who had arrived in the country two years earlier after marrying her second husband, Indonesian Lolo Soetoro.
She was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home. It didn't take long before Evie also was eight-year-old "Barry's" caretaker.
Once the family left Indonesia Evie struggled to find work and was forced into sex work to make a living.
"It's the only way she can get money," Mr Harsono said.
In a 2012 interview with the Associated Press, Evie said she didn't dress up as a woman in front of young Obama who she looked after for around two years.
Neighbours recalled they often saw Evie leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag. But she says it's doubtful the boy she called "Barry" ever knew.
"And I never let him see me wearing women's clothes. But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up."
She didn't even realise the boy she helped care for won the US Presidential election in 2008 until she saw it on the news.
RISE OF INTOLERANCE
In 2012, Indonesia's highest Islamic body decreed people are required to live as the sex they were born.
Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council said people had to learn to accept nature.
"If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously" they have "to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed," he said at the time.
Evie was born a man but believes she is really a woman and has endured a lifetime of taunts and beatings because of her identity. Photo / AP
Just this month, a raid in the West Java province targeted 12 suspected lesbians.
Local Islamic youth groups and religious leaders complained the women's cohabitation was "against the teachings of Islam".
Human Rights Watch said the forced evictions violated the women's right to privacy and police demanded the women relocate elsewhere with no legal justification.
According to HRW, at least four raids have been carried out on LGBTI people in private settings this year alone.
On March 28, vigilantes forcibly entered an apartment in Aceh and took two men to the police for allegedly having same-sex relations. The men were publicly flogged two months later.
