Why are they attracted to transsexuals, or ladyboys attack. Without gender: why men become women Why trans people shouldn't

If you are a man and want to shock your colleagues, all you have to do is show up to work in a dress. If you are a woman and want to completely ruin the lives of the people around you, just grow a beard. What we're talking about is that people desperately cling to gender roles, and those who go beyond the established boundaries become freaks in the eyes of others. Nobody knows this better than a transsexual.

We spoke with Roman Jones, a transgender American expat living in the Czech Republic. And this is what he told us...

1. Your daily routine becomes incredibly complicated.

When your main goal is to dress so that your body looks completely different from what it looks like, rushing is not for you. I could write entire books about this process. Firstly, you first need to hide your breasts, for which you will need to cover them with special shaping clothes. Many transsexuals use elastic bands for this, but this can cause many problems because they push all the fat directly onto the stomach, causing the skin on it to become loose. The resemblance to a Shar Pei doesn't appeal to me at all, so I use a sports bra the old-fashioned way. You might be surprised, but the right sports bra can turn Christina Hendricks into Justin Bieber.

Next comes the attachment of the penile prosthesis, which is very similar to the real one. Many of us love wearing them simply because it makes us feel more confident. Therefore, they are often purely cosmetic in nature. But sometimes they function more or less like real penises, equipped with devices for urination and even simulating erections. Modern technologies never cease to amaze. I just received this thing. She's gorgeous. It's a pity that I can't meet the creators of this device to shake their hands.

Then comes the turn of the clothes, and at this moment a real miracle happens. Several layers of loose clothing help hide women's curves. Those with large buttocks must wear slimming shorts or trousers. You can also add inserts to your shoes to make you appear taller without high heels. That's right, women aren't the only masters of optical illusions. Complete your look with a big scruffy coat and an ugly hat, and voila - you're Eminem.

2. Dating is almost impossible

When you are just in the process of changing your external sexual characteristics, you occupy an ambiguous place between men and women. Surprisingly, I have learned from my own experience that homosexuals are especially cruel to those who are not like them. It would seem that they should be more tolerant, because they themselves are often discriminated against. But no. Believe me, I myself am terribly bothered by female genitals, but it was unpleasant to hear them say “a freak with two holes” more than once. On the other hand, straight men won't touch you either, because you're too assertive, which might scare homophobes. Oddly enough, straight women are more likely to be willing to date trans men, but that doesn't help if you're attracted to guys. Basically my only options are other trans men or trans-friendly bisexuals.

Because of the overwhelming loneliness and feelings of worthlessness that can result from these struggles, trans men can often begin to behave aggressively, as if this is the best they can do. Luckily, my story has a happy ending: I met my fiancé, another transsexual man. And we met in a very banal way - at work. Who knew things could happen like this?

3. The level of medical care is terrible

Reconstructive plastic surgery is not always included in the plans of a person changing gender. If you do decide to have surgery, then when you study the issue, you will find so much frightening information that you will think twice about whether you need it. I would like to have a real working phallus, but the reality is too terrifying. Although treatment standards have improved significantly in recent years, the complication rate after phalloplasty is still absurdly high. And there's a good chance that your new organ won't even work. I think I’ll stick with my hardware prosthesis for now.

Even breast removal surgeries (mastectomies) can be done incorrectly and lead to such "delightful" things as nerve damage and drooping nipples. I don't understand why this surgery, which is usually performed without complications on women with breast cancer, is so difficult for transmen. We have the highest risk of health problems and even suicide. Trans men are more likely to get ovarian cancer. The issue was highlighted in a documentary about transgender man Robert Eads' battle with the disease after he was unable to find any doctors willing to treat him.

Robert Eads

This is all very scary, because in the transgender male community they don’t like to talk about health problems. A visit to the doctor at the last minute is so feminine! Yes, gender roles that are drilled into your brain follow you to the ends of the earth. We also remain unemployed more often because people react very strangely to us and do not want to hire us. Which means we don't get health insurance.

There is a huge black market for things like testosterone. I won't tell you where he is because I can't afford a lawyer. But the substance you might find there can really awaken the animal inside you. Especially the horse. Luckily, my fiancé can get testosterone for free through the Czech Republic's public health care system, something I was unable to take advantage of until recently. Without insurance, I couldn't even see my doctor as often as needed. However, things could be much worse because...

4. In some countries it's even worse

It is incredibly difficult for a transsexual in the United States to find a doctor who will even see him for a routine medical examination, let alone advise him on transition issues. Even if you find someone, you may be denied access to hormones or denied surgery if for some reason they decide you are “not trans enough.” Trans-friendly doctors do exist, especially in major cities, but too many of us fail to find them due to the appallingly high rates of suicide and violence against trans people in the United States. I once read an interview with an American doctor who said: “I would like to treat more transpeople, but they continue to die without ever reaching me.”

That's why I initially decided to move to Canada. But even in the land of gays and beer, it was difficult to find a trans-friendly doctor. The only one I was able to find examined mainly prostitutes. So I was also considered a prostitute (I once sat in the waiting room for two hours surrounded by bleeding prostitutes, almost like something out of Breaking Bad). Then I heard that South Korea treats transsexuals very well, and I immediately rushed there. But once I got there, I realized that they were only “trans-friendly” towards trans women. Unlike the rest of the world, who simply ignore or kill us, they actually don't even believe in trans men. For some reason, Korean prostitutes wear men's clothing, so I learned the hard way what we might be mistaken for on the streets in this country. I wouldn't call the jokes that came my way funny.

The Czech Republic, where my fiancé lived, was a real success for me. Here you won't be lynched, you won't be beaten on the street, and the suicide rate here is much lower. People don't even yell at each other. In my first week here I saw a gay couple holding hands on a train and no one said anything to them. Everything is still expensive because I have only lived in the Czech Republic for one year and am not a citizen of the country yet, but it is still much cheaper to live here than in North America. It's like leaving your terrible small town after high school and going to college in a big city.

5. Testosterone changes everything.

Hormones can do a lot, and hormone therapy is often safer than surgery. But not everything is so rosy. I'm just getting ready to take hormones, but my fiance has been going through this procedure for a long time, and I can see how it's done. Once a month you are given an injection with a huge needle. The testosterone must be mixed with the oil, and therefore the needle must be thick enough to allow the mixture to pass through. So you stand there with a giant needle sticking out of your butt for almost a minute before you're sent home and the injection site will be sore for a few days. You probably think that simple drugs cannot do anything more serious than the appearance of new strange hair or increase in muscle size. But the changes are so amazing that if you saw them yourself and were told that this person had not undergone any operations, you would never believe it. Your whole body is reconfiguring itself. Your thighs and butt become less defined as fat migrates into the beer belly of your dreams. The jawline becomes more defined, the neck becomes thicker, and the face becomes completely different. My fiancé began to look like a completely different person, and luckily he was also quite nice. But it's not just physical changes that occur. Transsexuals of both sexes who have undergone hormone therapy, because of the effects that different hormones have on the mind, are a wealth of information about the differences between men and women. Describing his experience with testosterone, one trans man says candidly, “I felt like a monster.” He completely stopped thinking about women he met by chance as people. Pornographic thoughts and pictures immediately appeared in his imagination. That guy was using an unreasonably high dose, but most trans men who use testosterone agree that it increases libido and aggression, which can be shocking to others.

6. You are invisible

Western culture has come a long way from portraying transgender people as villains or clowns. People still get Oscars for this. But name at least one film that shows the life of a trans man. You say: "Boys don't cry"? Do you know how many reviews of Brandon Teena called her a masculine lesbian?

Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena, Boys Don't Cry.

Wikipedia's page on transsexual characters in movies and TV shows lists five times more trans women than men. In fact, in life, there are three transwomen for every trans man, which is very strange because there is no biological basis for this. In my experience, this is because many transmen simply choose not to identify. It is much easier and more socially acceptable to identify as a masculine lesbian, because homophobia in our society is quite difficult to deal with. People tend to accept masculine women much more easily than effeminate men. Transgender men are simply not visible in the public eye because they don't come out. And, as a result, it is impossible to even know how many of us there are, or to create a community. This is a vicious circle of invisibility, like a snake biting its own tail and unable to see anything other than it. That is why it is important for us to stop being afraid to openly declare our masculine nature to the world.

Check what gender your neighbor is... © V. Vysotsky

A curiosity of Thailand is people of the “third gender”, or “ladyboys”, or katoeys, as the locals call Thai transvestites. If you perceive masculine features in a tall, fine-boned, smiling Thai girl, do not be surprised - these are ordinary residents of the “land of smiles”, to which not only the Thais themselves, but also numerous tourists have long been accustomed. And some specially go to a distant country in order to experience all the delights of “unusual communication”.

A large number of transvestites in Thailand are found in the most popular resorts: Pattaya, Phuket and Bangkok. The country is famous for its entertainment for adults and, if desired, you can find here as a partner not only a person of the opposite or the same sex, but also a Thai transvestite.

Where do transvestites come from?

There is a version that the Thais, as a people who live mostly poorly, personally raise “ladyboys” from their own sons for the sole purpose of making money. In these places, the birth of a son in a family is a sad event, since he will not be able to earn as well as a girl. From childhood, parents begin to instill in their child feminine skills, grow him long hair, paint his nails, dress him in women's clothes and in every possible way convince him that he is a girl. And during puberty, they begin to actively inject hormonal drugs and, in the end, put them under the surgeon’s scalpel, so that they can finally sweetly rub their hands and start making money from their own child.

This version of the appearance of Thai transvestites does not stand up to criticism, since a serious surgical operation, such as gender reassignment, requires corresponding financial investments. Currently, such a procedure costs an average of 7-10 thousand dollars, not counting the use of hormonal medications throughout life and other costs necessary to maintain an appropriate lifestyle (healthy food, body and facial care).

The question arises: where do poor parents get such funds? Or do they save up all their lives to abuse their own child, so as not to go hungry in old age? A controversial version, especially taking into account the well-known kindness and hospitality of the Thais (this applies to non-tourist places, at resorts everything is different, and there are a lot of visiting “guest workers” here.

A much more common phenomenon is the independent decision of young people to change their appearance into one that is more consistent with their inner worldview. Depending on this, several different groups of people of the “third gender” can be distinguished.

Types of transvestites

1. Feminized homosexuals.

Men who experience sexual attraction to their own gender and copy women’s habits - in clothing, cosmetics, hairstyle, facial expressions. They do not seek to change their gender; they only enjoy being like a woman.

2. Travesties.

Men who derive satisfaction from wearing women's clothing, often only lingerie. They are not sexually attracted to men and are usually heterosexual. The main pleasure for them is dressing up. Usually dressing up is work for them.

3. Transvestites.

Men who completely copy the female image, but do not seek to change their body through plastic surgery. When changing clothes, they take a female name, try to feel like a woman, but always remember their masculine origin. Thai transvestites usually do not live permanently in a female role, but only adopt soft feminine qualities into their male lives.

4. Transsexuals.

Men who psychologically feel like women. Their biological gender does not coincide with their psychological one. And they will not calm down until they completely bring their body into full compliance with their ideas about a woman.

Thai transvestites, only having undergone plastic surgery and acquiring a feminine appearance in every sense of the word, feel like full-fledged people.

The main reason why there are so many transvestites in Thailand is due to the rather calm attitude of society towards people with such deviations from the generally accepted norm (and primarily thanks to). They are considered ordinary, just like everyone else, are not looked down upon on the streets, and have recently been given the same social opportunities as people of the ordinary (male or female) gender, such as jobs.

Where do they work?

Of course, a huge number of Thai transvestites who have no means of livelihood engage in prostitution, looking for clients in countless bars, restaurants and discos. But increasingly, transsexuals find employment in ordinary female spheres - they work as waiters, salespeople, administrators, and dancers.

“Transvestite shows” have become extremely popular among tourists - cabaret theaters in Pattaya and. These colorful performances include dance numbers themed from different countries of the world performed by those very “ladyboys”. By the way, the Thais themselves never call them “tranny” shows, because they are quite polite and politically correct.

Below is a list of all drag queen shows in Thailand:

• , Mimosa in Pattaya;
• , Simon Star in Phuket;
• Calypso, Golden Dome, Mambo in Bangkok;
• Paris Follies, on Koh Samui;
• Blue Dragon in Krabi;
• on Koh Tao;
• Ching Mai, Miracle in Chiang Mai.

Only tourists view transvestites as monkeys, pointing fingers at them and openly giggling behind their backs. This name (“transvestite show”) was invented solely to attract tourists and give the show a special piquancy, although in essence it is an ordinary dance performance. Despite this, it is quite difficult to get a job at the famous cabaret theater; applicants undergo a strict selection process and receive a decent salary.

More recently, the Thai airline PC Air announced that, along with ordinary girls, it is ready to hire transvestites as flight attendants, since they are an equally elegant embodiment of female beauty. On the very first day after such a statement, the airline received more than 100 resumes from transvestites and transsexuals, and has already launched flights with the most successful candidates (since October 2012, it suspended its operations due to financial difficulties).

How to become a transvestite?

To go under the surgeon’s scalpel and become a transvestite, money and desire alone will not be enough. Here's what else you need:

1. Age of majority (18 years and older).

2. Parental permission for those under 20 years of age.

3. Psychiatric examination.

4. Enhanced hormonal course before surgery for 1 year.

Clandestine, cheaper, but not legal operations are also common in Thailand. Plastic surgery is a lucrative business in a country where there are so many people who want to change their sex, but do not have enough money to do so.

Here is the average cost of the components of a complete sex change operation:

1. Plastic facial correction (using silicone) – about $3,500.

2. Breast augmentation - $1500.

4. Surgery on the genital organs will ruin the client by $3000-4000.

Transformed men usually look very good and attractive, and in comparison with short and dense Thai girls, long-legged artificial beauties often have a more seductive appearance. They sometimes skillfully use all the feminine features and put in a huge amount of effort to look even more attractive, because by nature they could not afford it in the first place.

Why is it not easy for such people in Thailand?

1. Their legal status is not regulated. Thai transvestites do not have their gender changed in their passports (id cards), but only have a new photograph pasted in so that they can pass through customs control. For the same reason, they cannot officially marry.
2. The life expectancy of transvestites after surgery is significantly reduced. Usually it lasts about 10-20 years. Taking hormonal drugs does not stop until the end of life.
3. They are deprived of the opportunity to have children.
4. Only truly strong-willed and strong people can decide to do this, because the share of difficulties encountered on the way of transvestites to their dreams can hardly be overestimated.

In modern society, attitudes towards people of unusual gender are gradually softening. In Thailand, transvestites are not exempt from military service and serve equally with men and women. They are also found among wealthy citizens, and even work as TV presenters, emphasizing their “normality.”

Most of them are very philosophical about their essence - it is associated not only with female sexuality and attractiveness, although this side is strongly promoted in the open spaces in Pattaya. They are driven by the desire to be one whole outside and inside - and isn’t that what every person wants?

And don't forget about the simple rules.

Bruce Jenner

Caitlyn Jenner

The news that Kim Kardashian's stepfather, 65-year-old Bruce Jenner, has changed his gender, recently surprised the world, to put it mildly. In a week, his—or rather, her (Jenner’s new name is Caitlyn)—Twitter (@Caitlyn_Jenner) collected almost three million subscribers. “In every way I am a woman,” former Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner declared in an interview with Vanity Fair. The new woman was photographed by Anna Leibovitz. The resulting image on the magazine cover is the embodiment of Hollywood glamor of the 1950s: the right make-up, white satin bodysuit, seductive curves (Jenner had size 4 breasts implanted). The public was divided into two camps: the tolerant part welcomed Jenner’s decision, the more conservative part clutched its head in horror.

People who felt a discrepancy between their biological sex and the so-called gender identity, however, have always existed: there are references to them even in Ancient Egypt (15th century BC). Large-scale studies of this phenomenon have not been conducted. Among the current hypotheses about the causes are: a combination of hormonal factors during the intrauterine development phase, genetics and the influence of the social environment in early childhood. Be that as it may, it is today that such people (they should not be confused with transvestites - those who are turned on by dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex, but nothing more) are coming out of hiding and are rapidly mastering the cultural and socio-political space. There are plenty of examples. The famous actress and trans model Carla Antonelli, a former man, has been sitting in the Spanish regional parliament for several years. In the US, a transgender woman was recently appointed chief physician of the state of Pennsylvania; The new HR manager in the Obama administration was also formerly a man.

In the fashion industry, people with unclear gender identity have become trendsetters. The tone was set a few years ago by 23-year-old Serbian-Croatian model Andrea (formerly Andrej) Pejic. The owner of an angelic androgynous appearance conquered the catwalks as a teenager, becoming one of the favorite models of Jean-Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs. Then she was with a man's passport - having placed Pejic on the cover a couple of years ago, New York Magazine called him The Prettiest Boy in the World (“the prettiest boy in the world”). Last year, the model's breasts grew - Andrei had sex reassignment surgery. Since then, his contracts have not diminished.

Andrej Pejic wearing Jean Paul Gaultier in 2013, a year before gender reassignment surgery.

Andrea Pejic is already in a female form.

Transgender aesthetics and collections with a predominance of genderless, sizeless, but at the same time quite provocative things are now in the fashion avant-garde. Long-haired models, whose gender is difficult to determine, strutted at the recent shows of Raf Simons, Gucci, Heider Ackermann, Dries Van Noten. The face of the Redken advertising campaign was Riccardo Tisci's (Givenchy) muse Lea T., a beautiful model of Brazilian-Italian origin, formerly Leandro Cerezo (it was she who kissed Kate Moss on the cover of the Love magazine issue dedicated to androgynous fashion a couple of years ago). Last year, fashion photography guru Bruce Weber shot a powerful black-and-white campaign for department store Barneys featuring 17 transgender models.

It is possible that the concept of agender or genderless (“genderless”) will eventually become the slogan of the current fashion decade. Brad Pitt and Jolie attended the 2014 BAFTA AWARDS wearing identical Saint Laurent tuxedos. Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner and even the feminine Irina Shayk periodically appear in public in a male image. The latter appeared on the catwalk in Paris in a rough jumpsuit - at the Givenchy men's collection spring-summer 2016. The Selfridges department store in London opened an entire department called #Agender, and the luxury online boutique Thecorner.com began selling the No Gender line. Rumor has it that the first transsexual will soon appear among the Victoria's Secret angels. The best chance goes to 28-year-old American model, TV presenter and burlesque star Carmen Carrera.

Tel Aviv native Yaron Cohen underwent surgery at the age of 21 and became the woman the world knows as Dana International. In 1998, her hit Diva took first place at Eurovision.

Caitlyn Jenner has been pretending to be a man all her life, starting at the age of seven, when she first borrowed outfits from her mother's wardrobe. The fact that in 1976 Bruce Jenner won gold in the decathlon at the Montreal Olympics and then collected a bunch of more medals did not reduce his internal conflict. At some point, he even started taking female hormones, but after meeting Kris Kardashian and quickly marrying her, he stopped. “Bruce... always had to lie. He lived with this: he hid something every day, from morning to evening. Caitlin has no secrets, I’m free,” admits Caitlin. The former athlete has already undergone hormone replacement therapy and painful facial plastic surgery to acquire a neat Greek profile. She has not yet decided whether Jenner will undergo full gender reassignment surgery. We, however, will soon find out about this - from the Bruce-Caitlin reality show called I Am Cait. Sometimes it is enough for a transgender person to make a “social transition” when a person asks friends and relatives to call him not Kolya, but Vika, for example. Or vice versa. Others take hormones and go under the surgeon's knife. This takes years, sometimes a lifetime. Some then completely change their social circle, even city and country, in order to maintain a secret and avoid condemnation. “This is me. Trapped - I hate that word - a girl stuck in a boy's body. ...My brain is much more feminine than masculine. It’s hard for people to understand, but that’s my soul,” Jenner complains. However, the vicissitudes of his gender transition are more than compensated for by millions in profits - primarily from the new reality show. As it turns out, in the era of super-publicity and the pursuit of sensations, transsexuality is also a hot commodity.

Larry Wachowski

Lana Wachowski

Transgender people and the transphobia that accompanies this phenomenon have recently been compared to the gay movement that gained momentum in the 1970s and 80s. In tolerant California, three years ago they passed a law that schoolchildren can choose which toilet to go to - M or F - in accordance with the gender to which they identify themselves. And if some teacher with conservative habits gets in the way, the parents go to court. This is what the family of six-year-old Coy Mathis did when the baby refused to go to the urinal, and the school principal literally blocked his access to the ladies' room with her breasts. The Commission on Civil Rights eventually recognized the right of a young transgender man to write with girls. The daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is also behind the scenes diagnosed with gender identity disorder - blonde Shiloh looks like a Disney princess, but her mother doesn’t mind that the girl doesn’t wear ruffles, loves stretchy sweatshirts and is a master at scoring goals. It's funny that at the Kids Choice Awards ceremony, Shiloh became friends with the pampered Suri Cruise, a nine-year-old fashionista, and the American tabloids immediately screamed that in ten years we might see a new non-standard couple. In general, absolute physical sincerity is now becoming a new way of self-affirmation for many. At the end of the summer, the Internet and social networks exploded with the Self-Evident Project, a photo project involving 10,000 Americans, including many celebrities, who are convinced that the sexual spectrum is too broad to be labeled, and that the very concept of gender is an outdated stereotype. One of the stars of this project is 16-year-old Lily-Rose Depp, the daughter of Depp and Paradis, who recently became the face of Chanel.

Shiloh Jolly-Pitt. For some time the press insisted that the child asked to call her John. Whether this is true or not remains unknown.

One of the first gender reassignment operations in the world was carried out in 1952 - an American military man became a woman. In our country, this was done a little later: in 1970, Riga surgeon Viktor Kalnberzs was the first in the USSR to deceive nature and return the spectacular 30-year-old brunette Inna (last name is still kept secret) to her psychological body. She left the doctor's office as Innocent - with the reproductive system of a man - and lived like that until a ripe old age. The story of this scandalous operation was declassified only last year, when Kalnberzs published his memoirs.

According to psychologists, already at the age of five, tests can be used to find out how a child determines his gender role. Many Western doctors have recently called for transgenderism to be considered not a mental illness, but a natural feature. “Only parents can either make a child happy to become who they feel they are, or break them by making them play with the wrong toys,” says Dr. Jodi Herman of The Williams Institute, an independent gender identity research organization. As proof, she cites a chilling statistic: more than 40% of transgender people have attempted suicide. However, in Russia the topic is officially hushed up. The main Russian trans activist, Yana Kirei-Sitnikova (formerly Gleb), failed to obtain a new “female” certificate from the passport office, and left Russia altogether. Now he lives with his beloved in Strasbourg, where he is receiving a PhD in molecular informatics. From there, she writes a blog in which she comments on the latest laws in the field of transgender rights, and also meets with UN representatives on behalf of all transgender people in the former post-Soviet space. Just like the participants of the Seff-Evident Project, she is convinced that the concept of gender is long overdue for abolition. This is what he fights for.

Cher's daughter is Chastity, who subsequently underwent gender reassignment surgery and began introducing herself as Chaz Bono.

Chaz recently lost 27 kg and started a new passion.

But maybe soon transgender people won't shock anyone. We live in an era of narcissistic individualism, where self-expression has become the new religion. Plus, the world is one way or another moving towards parity, where gender boundaries are truly gradually erased, and any stereotypes, taboos and restrictions cease to play determining roles. It is believed that the catalyst in this process was women's emancipation. And it was she who launched an unprecedented wave of tolerance in the world and opened up so many options for us that both men and women... got a little confused. Many have lost their way, lost their bearings and, perhaps, their sense of proportion. And some even lost themselves. But maybe everything is happening exactly the opposite? We search for ourselves, trying to understand and realize our true identity and life needs. Each one in its own way.

George Jamieson was born male and became the first Briton to have a gender reassignment and later the first transgender person to receive an OBE. After the operation, Jamison became April Ashley, a world-famous actress and model in the 1960s.

A new twist: a story from the life of a transgender person

Julia and Roman (names have been changed) are, at first glance, an ordinary family raising a young son. The only difference is that Roman used to be... a woman. Yulia Sonina recorded their unusual story.

Roman, web designer, 30 years old

Changing gender is not getting a tattoo. There’s no such thing as: “Oh, that’s cool, I’ll go and do it!” Transsexualism is a medical diagnosis. Some people are born with a heart defect, and some are born with gender dysphoria. This is when a person is uncomfortable in his body. I don't even remember when it all started. In early childhood, you don’t think about what gender you are. But even then it was obvious that my sister was a super girl, and in all the games I got the roles of boys. That's how it worked out. I felt my first conscious discomfort in the fifth grade. For example, when you had to wear a skirt, in the locker room, in the pool. It's not that I have any complaints about my body. But the very fact that you have to be a girl - to think a certain way, move, want something girly - was unpleasant to me. I wanted to abstract myself from physiology and everything connected with it. I was pretty good at it. I studied well. He graduated from school with a gold medal. I read a lot. I was friends with guys who, unlike me, went to discos, kissed girls, drank beer and smoked behind the school.

I remember when my sister said: “Let’s go buy you a skirt for prom,” I felt a terrible internal dissonance. We went and bought it, but I never put it on. As a girl, I was generally not very attractive. Breasts are small. The figure is awkward. Short haircut. However, I didn’t care much about how I looked. My sister and I became students, became interested in music, and started going to concerts. And then, among the musicians, they accidentally discovered one about whom it was completely unclear whether he was a woman or a man. He/she grew a beard and said all sorts of things. It turned out that the singer simply had problems with hormones. But she introduced me to real trannies. The more I learned about gender reassignment, the more I realized that this was exactly what I needed. For my sister, at that time the person closest to me, it was obvious that something was wrong with me. At some point I asked her to talk to her mother. She, and then other relatives, understood everything correctly. They began to call me “Roman,” as my friends had been calling me for a long time. Only one person said, “Sorry. I can't understand it." No, no.

For a person who wants to change gender, there are several options. Someone asks trans friends to get hormones and starts giving themselves injections at home. His voice gradually breaks, and a mustache begins to grow. He becomes like a guy, but lives with women's documents and breasts. But a man in a woman’s dress most often looks bad and causes much more hostility than a woman dressed as a man. I chose the official path. I found a psychiatric clinical expert commission in St. Petersburg. It was then headed by an outstanding psychiatrist, one of the few people who study gender theory in our country. A meticulous person, but correct, not a sadist. That's how it should be. Many trans people are insecure people. That’s why a whole bunch of mental health and adequacy tests have been invented, which you have to take several times. The main question that you are asked can be conditionally formulated as follows: “What will we do if you suddenly decide tomorrow that you are a stool?” There are precedents when people at some point wanted to return everything back. They give you a probationary period. Like newlyweds before their wedding. I received a certificate that gave me the right to hormone therapy, gender reassignment surgery and change of documents in a year. I experienced euphoria - greater than later, when I was already injecting hormones.

I’ve been on hormones for five years now (I’ll have to take them for the rest of my life) and I started shaving quite a long time ago. So far I have only had one operation – breast removal. The next step is removal of the internal female organs, and then phalloplasty. When it comes to sexual attraction, like my wife, I don’t get hung up on what gender my partner is. Before transitioning, I dated a guy for a short time. And then I met Yulia. She is smart, beautiful, we talked at night and love the same things: movies, books, music. And each other. What else is needed for happiness?

Yulia, producer, 29 years old

I have always been family-oriented and, with all my tolerance (I had bisexual experience), I still imagined a man next to me. That’s how I perceived Roman when we met. Although on paper he was still a woman then. I knew from the very beginning that he was going to change gender. And none of this shocked me. If you see a person as a whole and you are interested in him, appearance and gender are not important. After several years of friendship, we started living together. When Roman proposed to me, I fell into a borderline state for three months, because I wasn’t sure: does he really want to marry me or realize the possibilities of a new passport? Besides, I wanted children. There were no disagreements. We signed and began to find out what options there might be in this regard. The option that we found gives partners of the same sex the maximum degree of relatedness. The mechanism is like this. Roman stopped taking hormones for six months. They took an egg from him, did IVF, and transferred it to me at the embryonic stage, as if I were a surrogate mother. Our child is now six months old. Genetically, he is completely the son of his father - that is, Roman. The resemblance is obvious, although we were looking for a donor similar to me. We want more children in the future. After all, on the advice of a reproductive specialist, we fertilized and froze several eggs at once. So it will be even easier further.

Until recently, nothing was known about the existence of a transgender person. We knew who the transvestites were who were believed to be from Thailand. No one even suspected that there are people who feel out of place in their body, but they are not yet interested in gender reassignment surgery and do not openly declare that they are not like other people. In the twenty-first century, the situation has completely changed - every transgender is now not ashamed of his own position and speaks openly about his own identity, thereby causing confusion in the heads of others. In our article we will talk about famous transgender people and who they are.

Transgender and transsexual are completely different definitions that simultaneously designate the same state of the human psyche. Such people suffer from a mental disorder of gender identity. They believe that they were not born in their body and try with all their might to change their gender identity, very often resorting to surgery. Transvestites have behavioral features, for example, in clothing, manners, behavior, etc.

Transvestite Conchita Wurst

This woman with a beard won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014, thereby causing dissonance in society. Some boldly admired, others did not want to understand such jokes. Conchita Wurst - Tom Neuwirth, who with a similar method wanted to attract everyone's attention to tolerance, discrimination, xenophobia and otherness. Thomas himself claims that Conchita and he are completely different individuals, living their own lives. Presenting himself as Conchita - he does this only for the public, and living as Thomas - he is quite lazy. With the help of Conchita, the young man separates his creative and personal life, without fear that on the street he might be recognized as a man.

Transgender Caitlyn Jenner

Bruce Jenner is a former Olympic athlete and stepfather of the famous Karashian sisters. He realized that he wanted to be a girl at the age of eight, and in those days he constantly tried on girlish clothes and put on makeup, and in the eighties he went on hormone replacement therapy. Bruce said in one interview that when he was involved in sports, he very often appeared in public, wearing a bra and tights under his clothes. So he wanted to constantly remember his own feminine nature. In 2015, Jenner came out as a transgender woman, and in the summer of the same year he reincarnated as Caitlyn. People reacted differently to this transformation - some supported and admired the act, others threw mud at it and condemned it. We will not judge, since everyone has the right to decide who to become and how to live their own life.

Transgender Andrea Pejic

The famous androgynous model of Serbian blood felt somehow wrong since childhood. Once Andrei, the model tried on women's clothing and imagined herself as a ballerina. After she moved to Australia with her parents, her classmates and brother made the guy understand that people like him were not accepted by society and recommended that he keep his transgenderism to himself. For a long time, Andrei tried to get used to his own gender, took part in boys’ games and tried to hide his feminine nature. About two years ago, Andrei came out as a transgender woman, and a year later he finally changed his gender and appeared before the public as a fashion model Andrea during a week in London. Friends and parents were sympathetic to Andrea’s decision, and fashion houses increasingly began to invite the girl to their shows. Andrea, by the way, was the first transgender person on the pages of glossy magazines.

Shemale Chaz Bono

Chastity Bono is Cher's beloved and only daughter. Chastity was a woman until she was forty, and eventually decided to have sex reassignment surgery. After this happened, Chaz wrote a biography in which he admitted that at the age of thirteen he could not feel like the other girls. At the age of eighteen, Chesty admitted that she was a lesbian, but this did not give her a reason to get along in her body. Cher, by the way, reacted negatively to her daughter’s decision and did not even communicate with her for some time. Now Bono Chaz is very famous, writes books and music, and dates girls.

Shemale Alexis Arquette

This representative of transgender people belongs to the famous Arquette dynasty of actors. The actress's real name is Robert, but he gained fame precisely as a woman. Most often, Alexis's roles are minor, but memorable and vibrant. Many critics admire the actor and his unpredictable and interesting performance. At the age of thirty-eight, Robert changed his gender and began calling himself Alexis. His collection of films includes the following films: “Mixed”, “Kings of Dogtown”, “The Trip”, “Aerobatics”, “She’s All That”, “The Wedding Singer”, “Three”, and others. Now Alexis works as an animator, creating custom cartoons.

Transgender Laverne Cox

The actress who starred in the series “Orange is the New Black” was previously a man and her name was Roderick. However, since childhood, the boy considered himself a girl, so he came to school wearing makeup and a dress, thereby irritating the teachers and provoking all the schoolchildren. Tired of being like everyone else, Roderick decided to take his own life at the age of eleven, but the attempt was unsuccessful. The poor guy graduated from high school with grief, left Alabama and moved to New York. After some time, Roderick decided to undergo sex reassignment surgery, but tries not to talk about the details. Now the girl is not ashamed of her own body, willingly poses nude for famous magazines, flaunts herself in chic outfits on the red carpet and brings the principles of tolerance to the public.