What it's like to be a trans person in Serbia: This is a confession of Sasa Lazic

Trans people in Serbia, those are people whose gender identity differs from gender attributed at birth, no matter if they adapted to the gender, or they are in the process of adapting to the gender - are meeting with big problems - the basic one is, the society doesn't accept them, the most common problem is - personal ID. Namely, wherever they have to show it - photo and data doesn't match their appearance. This problem was solved by many western countries and enabled those people to have the same rights as every other person, and Serbia is still waiting for that.

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Irena, the girl who had male gender assigned to her at birth, told her shocking confession and described what she had to deal with till now.

- As little, i didn't know i was different, i thought that playing with dolls and with girls is an ordinary thing. The conscience of my birth identity came during my puberty, or slightly before it, and before that i was withdrawn in myself and shy, and later that turned into fear of people, open spaces... And in that situation, i felt like i was all alone on the planet with my characteristics and problems, without the support of the environment - Irena starts her confession.

It was newspaper article that helped her:

- I found an article in "Ilustrovana Politika" at the time about sex change surgery, and how a man from Srem became a girl and i knew that that is the answer to my questions and that is precisely what i was feeling. That article, and some similar ones presented the light in total darness.

- My father passed away while i was in puberty and i never talked about it with him. Mother was against it at start, but in time she realized that is the way towards my personal accomplishment - Irena said.

She said that there are those who talk to her as if she was male.

- There are those who don't greet me on the street anymore, who talk behind my back, who think that this is just a whim and that shouldn't have done it, they say i am crazy. There is no acceptance nor desire to open up a bit, to learn a bit more about this subject, maybe challenge their own opinion, i don't think they want to - Irena is sincere.

Sasa Lazic has similar experience, trans activist and the member of the legal team Gayten-LGBT. Sasa is a trans person in the process of transition and he said that he always felt different, since he was very little he knew he was a boy.

- My childhood was OK until i started going to school. I most often refused to wear clothes that is considered girly and i spent most of the time outside with other children. I loved sport, anything with a ball, i loved animals, i had no difficulties in hanging out with other children - he explains.

Things changed when he started going to school.

- It was different, but alleviated with the fact that it was new environment where no one knew me - children was sometimes strange that i always dress "as a boy", and there were some unpleasant comments and questions - he said.

The hardest period of growing up for Sasa was puberty because of the changes it carries with it, but he, luckily, had the mother who approached the problem with love and understanding:

- Bodily changes started occurring and i felt like they weren't mine, i was very disturbed. Mom tried to talk with me about that on one occasion after she saw me watching the documentary about trans males, but i refused at the time. That talk happened later, when i was 15 and she supported me, and that is why i think that i should have talked before with her, and the surgery would happen even before. 

- I started living like a male when i was 15, actually i passed through so called social transition. To start the process of adjusting the body with the gender, medical transition, i had to wait until i turned 18. At that point i started with hormone therapy and acquired conditions to go through the surgery.

- When it comes to the right of changing the documents, i think that it shouldn't be conditioned with any kind of medical procedures, not even with psychiatric evaluation and opinion. It is certain that trans identities will be completely depatologized and expelled as a psychiatric diagnosis in the following years.

The law has not been adopted yet, and it would solve many problems of trans people.

 Even though there are no clear laws and regulations that would regulate the position of trans people, Serbian government adopted the Action for the implementation of the Strategy of prevention and protection against discrimination for the period from 2014 to 2018, in which the draft of Law on gender identity is one of the planned special measures in relation to the LGBT population.

Gayten-LGBT organization is advocating for the adoption of the Law on gender identity which would enable trans people to change information in the documents immediately upon determination of trans identity, and not after hormone treatment and performed gender adjustment surgeries. 

Besides that, the law about gender identity would protect the laws in other aspects of life and it would insure the application of the Article 54a of the Criminal Code which treats the hate crime as a special aggravating circumstance in sentencing.

- Initiative such as Law on gender identity are of vital importance for trans people, because they ease up functioning in every spheres of life, and that it why it should be adopted as soon as possible. During the process of transition, the trans group was very important to me organized in the premises of Gayten-LGBT, and those things are what trans persons needs.

- It is important for more regular people to step up and provide support, and to organize talks in smaller places, with the aim to educate people and changing of negative attitudes public has towards LGBTIQ people - said Irena.

(Telegraf.co.uk / transserebia.org)