Transgender Russia

Transgender Russia

"War within a war" for transgender woman

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March 1, 2022 / 10:13 AM
/ CBS News

Zi Faámelu was born and raised in Crimea, an area of Ukraine that was invaded and taken over by Russia in 2014. Now the 31-year-old lives in Kyiv, the capital city that has been under Russian siege for nearly a week. She is running out of food and hasn't left her house for days as gunfire erupts outside.
Faámelu, who is transgender, said that transphobia is pervasive in the city and neighboring countries, and fears that if she leaves, the tension of the ongoing conflict will make her more susceptible to violence. Faámelu was previously a popular contestant on the Ukrainian singing competition show "Star Factory."
"Sometimes we think it's just all a dream, that we're stuck inside some kind of a video game. Because you just live in a quiet society, and then you hear bombings and you wake up to the sound of bombings," she said. "...A few hours ago I heard bombings and my windows were shaking. ... I'm literally scared for my life."
For days, Faámelu said, she has had to keep the lights off in her apartment and keep the windows closed. She lives alone, her friends have all left the city, and she said it seems like she may be one of the only people left in her building at all. She lives near a building in Kyiv that had been hit by a missile.
She fears what could await her outside.
"Many people have guns and weapons. ... It can be an excuse for violence," she said. "...This is a very scary situation."
And Faámelu doesn't know what to do. Even if she doesn't face violence on her way to the border, she has no idea whether she will even be allowed to leave the country.
"There's no way Ukrainian border people can let me through," she said. "There's no way."
If she makes it to the border of a neighboring country offering refuge, she's not even sure if they'll let her in, as her passport identification does not match her gender. The LGBTQ community has become more visible and accepted over the years, but for transgender people, it's more complicated.
"This is not a very rainbow-friendly place. ... Lives for trans people are very bleak here," Faámelu said. "If you have a male gender in your passport, they will not let you go abroad. They will not let you through."
For years, transgender people in Ukraine who wanted to be legally recognized had a long list of steps they had to go through to do so. According to Human Rights Watch , the government mandated that transgender people undergo extensive psychiatric observation and under gender reassignment surgery to get legal documents that aligned with their gender.
Legislation was introduced in 2017 to lessen the process, but still would require that transgender Ukrainians undergo outpatient psychiatric examinations. There is no indication that legislation was ever implemented.
"I don't want to go through that. This is like, humiliating for the world," Faámelu said. "...I decided to keep my passport, keep male in my passport, and now I cannot leave this country."
"[it's] a war within a war, truly," she said.
In 2021, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association said that the country's adoption of a new trans health care protocol has been stalled, and that the LGBT community in Ukraine faced attacks and intimidation from far-right groups. Among a list of 49 European countries , the organization has ranked Ukraine as 39th for its overall treatment of LGBTQ people.
Faámelu's fears are shared by some others in Ukraine who identify as LGBTQ.
"In Russia, LGBTQ people are persecuted," Iulia, an 18-year-law student in Kharkiv, told CBS News' Haley Ott. "If we imagine that Russia occupies all of the Ukraine or just a big part of the country, they won't allow us to exist peacefully and to fight for our rights as we are able to do that in Ukraine right now."
Adding to the difficulty of the situation for Faámelu are her parents. They still live in Crimea, and according to Faámelu, don't believe that Russia has even invaded their daughter's city.
"They are literally brainwashed. The world sees the picture, but they are simply blind in this case," she said. "My parents think it's all fake, that we bomb ourselves, that we try to create some drama."
For now, Faámelu is focused on being optimistic — that she will find a way to get out safely, and that Ukraine will succeed in defending itself against the Russian invasion.
"There's something about Ukrainians, they are very optimistic and joyful people. ... They never give up," Faámelu said. "...You don't know if you're going to be alive the next morning. So what are you going to do? I just prefer to dance in the kitchen, to be honest. Because if this is the last moment of my life, I just want to celebrate. I just want to dance."
Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending reporter for CBS News, focusing on social justice issues.

First published on March 1, 2022 / 10:13 AM

© 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright ©2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

This article is more than 7 years old
This article is more than 7 years old
Law change listing medical impediments to driving was signed by prime minister Dmitry Medvedev last year
Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, who signed off on the law amendment late last year. Photograph: Corbis
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Transgender people have been banned from driving in Russia, according to a new legal amendment published this week.
The regulations, which affect people deemed to have “sexual disorders”, also affect fetishists, voyeurs, exhibitionists and transvestites, and were immediately condemned by human rights activists as discriminatory.
The amendment to the law listing medical impediments to driving was signed by prime minister Dmitry Medvedev at the end of last year, but only published this week.
Russia has some of the worst figures for road accident fatalities in the world, and the new regulations are part of a government programme aimed at reducing the number of people who die on the country’s roads. Currently, official figures say 30,000 people die and 250,000 are injured on the roads every year.
The amendments give a long list of physical and mental disabilities which are legal impediments to driving, including conditions such as serious visual impairment or paralysis.
But the most controversial section is the list of sexual preferences and conditions given, including paedophilia, sado-masochism and exhibitionism, as well as “fetishism”, which is described as people who gain sexual arousal from inanimate objects. Transsexuals and transvestites are also on the list, which is drawn from the World Health Organisation’s list of “gender identity disorders” and “disorders of sexual preference.”
Yelena Masyuk, a member of the Kremlin’s own human rights council, wrote online that the amendment should be scrutinised.
“I don’t understand why, for example, fetishists, kleptomaniacs or transsexuals should be banned from driving a car… I think this is a violation of the rights of Russian citizens.”
The move was also criticised by international rights activists, who said it could create a climate of fear.
“Banning people from driving based on their gender identity or expression is ridiculous and just another example of the Russian regime’s methodical rollback of basic human rights for its citizens,” said Shawn Gaylord of US-based organisation Human Rights First. “Beyond the denial of basic freedoms, this provision may deter transgender people from seeking mental health services for fear of receiving a diagnosis that would strip them of their right to drive.”
Russia drew a huge amount of international criticism for a recent law that bans the “propaganda of homosexuality” to minors.
It was not immediately clear how the new ban would be enforced, whether there would be medical tests at the time of applying for a driving license, or whether there could be retrospective action taken against people who already drive but fall into the banned categories.

Little White Lies

Huck Film
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News & Politics / Opinion / My life as a transgender woman in Russia
Text By Eva Borisov, as told to Nick Chester

Russia is widely regarded as one of the most homophobic nations in the Western world. Following the enactment of a law against ‘gay propaganda’ in 2013, hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ community have soared, especially murder and serious violence. Transgender people are arguably even more of a target, given Russia’s culture of rigidly enforcing gender roles. 27-year-old Eva Borisov explains what it’s like being transgender in such an intensely hostile environment.
Russia is widely regarded as one of the most homophobic nations in the Western world. Following the enactment of a law against ‘gay propaganda’ in 2013, hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ community have soared, especially murder and serious violence. Transgender people are arguably even more of a target, given Russia’s culture of rigidly enforcing gender roles. 27-year-old Eva Borisov explains what it’s like being transgender in such an intensely hostile environment.
Even as a toddler, I was acutely aware that I was a girl trapped in a male body. Being transgender is difficult whatever country you’re born in, but in Russia it’s especially dangerous. The Russian people have a very low tolerance for difference of any kind, which meant that I was bullied for being feminine all throughout my time at school. The constant mocking and sneering that I received from my classmates made me feel extremely depressed, but looking back now I know that it was a product of their own ignorance and reflects badly on them, not me. Nevertheless, it was still very unpleasant to be teased relentlessly every single day about how girly I was.
Russia’s strict religious culture and lack of education about gay and transgender issues makes many of its citizens extremely hostile towards anybody who is gender non-conforming. There were no other LGBTQ people at my school, and I had no one to turn to for support. I was 20 years old before I told anyone that I was trans. My parents took the news particularly badly, telling me that I was dead to them and that they didn’t want anything more to do with me. I’ve had little communication with them since then.
I came out to my friends two years later and received a similar response. Nobody wanted to know me anymore; I was left totally alone. Fortunately, I soon realised that I’m able to pass as a biological female when I’m dressed in girls’ clothes, which meant I wasn’t exposed to the same levels of negativity from people I didn’t know while walking the streets. Some of the less convincing transgender girls in Russia don’t have things as easy. Many of them remain in the house as much as possible, or stay dressed as men because they’re scared of being beaten up, which is probably what would have happened if I’d been recognised as trans while out in public. Homophobic attacks are commonplace here.
That’s not to say the fact that I’m so passable completely protected me against violence, though. One day, a group of men recognised me from my profile on Russian social media website VK, which is our equivalent to Facebook. They must have seen something on my page that indicated that I was transgender, because they viciously beat me and my ex-boyfriend. I was left with a concussion and my ex’s ribs were hurt.
My ex-boyfriend decided that it would be best to avoid reporting the incident to the police because the cops here can’t be trusted. The authorities generally offer little protection to gay and transgender people. I’ve heard a lot of stories about police brutality, including one occasion where riot police apparently stormed a gay club and beat everyone up. Hearing those allegations makes us feel unable to turn to them for help.
Some people might have been intimidated by the violence I was subjected to and scared that our attackers would track us down again, but I’ve never been afraid of anything in my life. I have continued to live as an openly transgender woman, and I don’t allow myself to be bullied into hiding away.
I’m still aware that telling people you’re trans can have terrible consequences in Russia. Some people will immediately become hostile upon hearing this without asking questions first. This makes it risky attempting to find a boyfriend. Many men here don’t react well to finding out that a girl they’ve been talking to is trans. Lots of guys also view transgender women as sex objects. They’re willing to sleep with us but not to have serious relationships with us, which is yet another hurdle for us to overcome. In spite of that, I’ve still managed to find long-term boyfriends in the past – although the last one cheated on me and I’ve been alone for a year now. I would like to find a good man who loves me for me to settle down with one day.
Identifying as transgender is currently classed as a mental illness by the Russian government. Both the public and the authorities think we’re sick and that we need to be cured. Such attitudes make it hard for us to find employment, and make it difficult to meet other LGBTQ people. We risk troublemakers turning up at gay clubs to attack us and bigots pretending to be gay on dating apps so that they can beat us up when we go to meet them. Despite this, I’ve still managed to make a lot of good friends via apps and at gay clubs throughout the years. They’re mostly gay, transgender or cross-dressers, although I’ve also met some heterosexuals who are okay with me being trans. They’ve replaced the fake friends who abandoned me after I told them about my gender identity. Those friends weren’t worth having in the first place and in hindsight I’m glad I severed all ties to them. If you aren’t willing to stick with me through thick and thin then you aren’t really my friend.
Although I’ve found a circle of pals within the LGBTQ community that accept me, there’s actually a great deal of transphobia amongst gay people in Russia. Some gay men can dislike us because we aren’t men, and some lesbians don’t like us because we aren’t biologically female. I wish Russia’s LGBTQ population was one big happy family, but this simply isn’t true. We’re a minority within a minority, which means we face an additional layer of prejudice that cisgender gay people don’t experience.
Some of you might be wondering why I don’t just leave the country, given that it’s so difficult for me to be open about who I am here. I’ve thought about travelling abroad, but I wouldn’t be able to speak the language anywhere else and might struggle to find work. I’d imagine it isn’t as easy as some might think it is to start a new life overseas. I want to start a family at some point though, and it’s illegal for gay people to adopt children here, so I might still go to another country at some point. Only time will tell.
Although it’s unquestionably harder to be transgender here than it is in some other places, not everything about being trans in Russia is negative. One of the main plus points to living here is that hormones are easy to get hold of. I can buy them at the chemist without a prescription, which is great. I’ve been taking them for three years now.
There’s also the faint hope that the situation might someday improve. I think if parents tell their children about transgender people and kids are taught about them in schools, it could reduce the levels of ignorance about us and make the population here more tolerant. Every country has to start somewhere, and I hope that one day we’ll be able to achieve the levels of tolerance that exist elsewhere. Until then I’ll continue to be me, because that’s all that I can be.
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Posted Monday 17th December, 2018 Text by Eva Borisov, as told to Nick Chester Illustration © Simon Hayes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality and bisexuality
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality

^ De facto illegal in Chechnya ; [2] [3] death, life in prison, torture, vigilante execution, vigilante attacks, and internment as potential punishments [2] [3]

^ Jump up to: a b c The Federal Law On Acts of Civil Status (1997) provides for the possibility to rectify acts of civil status based on the document confirming sex transformation issued by a health institution (art.70). Also, transgender people can change their passport on the grounds of sex transformation. See the Administrative Legislation section of the Russian LGBT Network 2009 Report .

^ Jump up to: a b Adoption is regulated by the Civil Procedure Code of Russia ( Chapter 29 ); Family Code of Russia ( Chapter 19 ); Federal Law On Acts of Civil Status ( Chapter V ). None of these documents contain any direct restriction or ban for homosexual people to adopt, though unmarried couples are not allowed to adopt children (Article 127.2 of the Family Code of Russia ), and since same-sex marriage is not officially recognized, gay couples cannot adopt children together; nevertheless, single individuals can adopt (see also the Parent Relations section of the Russian LGBT Network 2009 Report ). The Court makes the decision to allow or deny adoption considering many documents and testimonies, so it is unclear whether LGBT affiliation of the candidate adopter can be in fact an issue for a judge to make a negative decision.

^ Bashkortostan is the only region where the law does not include any kind of administrative sanctions or fines.

^ Kaliningrad Oblast 's measure bans "propaganda of homosexualism" not only among minors, but among the population in general.

^ With life in prison, torture, vigilante execution, vigilante attacks, and forced labor camp
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