Friedrich Chernyshov was 19 years old when he told his parents he wanted to change his sex. Their reaction mirrored that of Ukrainian society to the issue of transgenderism - a lack of understanding, active discouragement, and a breakdown in relations.
Nevertheless, Chernyshov went ahead with hormonal therapy during the summer holidays when he was a fourth-year university student, and resumed his studies a different person, at least in terms of external appearance.
According to the American Psychological Association, “transgender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.”
Tolerance for LGBT people in Ukraine is low – the June 6 gay pride march in Kyiv ended with a number of activists and police being beaten up by homophobic groups. Public attitude toward transgender people is even worse.
Chernyshov says they regularly experience bullying, especially in small towns and villages. He says harassment comes on the streets – if they can identify them. Chernyshov receives threats for his appearance, which includes brightly colored hair, piercings in his nose and chin, and his unusual clothes.
“But I am afraid that once the thugs figure out who I am, anything could happen. Transgender people are often raped and murdered,” Chernyshov said.
To change one’s sex, permission is required from a special commission of the Health Ministry. First, the applicant needs to spend 30 days in a psychiatric hospital and be diagnosed with “transsexuality,” which in Ukraine it still considered to be a psychiatric disorder. Moreover, transgender people are usually placed in the same wards as with patients who are mentally ill.
The official hurdles clearly put a lot of Ukrainians off changing sex. In a nation of more than 40 million, last year only seven people have had sex changes and five people received new documentation, including name changes on birth certificates, according to the Health Ministry’s special commission on transgenderism.
Also in 2014, the special commission proposed legislation that doesn’t classify transsexuality as a disorder, according to the body’s sexopathologist Serhiy Shum. But changes to the law are expected to come no earlier than 2017. Meanwhile, according to a poll published on July 1 by Human Rights Watch, 16 people that changed sex in Ukraine from 2013 to 2014 say their human rights were violated in the country’s psychiatric hospitals.
After receiving the “proper” diagnosis, the applicant then gets interviewed by the Health Ministry’s special commission.
Despite Shum saying there are no “right” answers to the interview questions, Chernyshov said that an applicant needs to give “standard replies” to the commission’s questions. He said a candidate must say they feel terrible, hate their own body, and want to undergo a sex-change operation.
Yuri Frank from the LGBT nongovernment organization Insight, backed up Chernyshov’s claims.
“The absurdity of (the commission doctors’) Soviet approach forces you to simply lie to them,” Frank told the Kyiv Post. “For example, if you want to become a man, you can’t say that you prefer intellectual work – you need to pretend to enjoy physical labor – cutting down trees or building something,” Chernyshov adds.
Not everybody qualifies to have a sex change based on the commission’s rules. Among them is having a child who is younger than 18 years old, and being married. Chernyshov, who has a young daughter, says this violates his rights.
Being homosexual is on the restrictions list too. Despite the widely accepted view that gender identity and sexual orientation are separate issues, according to Shum, Ukrainian doctors mostly hold the traditionalist opinion that the two are intertwined.
Getting new identity documents is the third step. They are only issued if a sex-change operation is conducted – not, for example, if the transgender person only takes hormonal pills. All operations are performed if the person was sterilized before the procedure.
Having an altered appearance while using older identity documents causes problems at banks, when buying tickets or even at the library – it can be humiliating having to explain why a photo and name in a passport don’t match one’s appearance. Chernyshov says that because he didn’t have the appropriate documents he was forced to look for an underpaid job off the books, because companies usually don’t want to hire transgender people.
Once on the job, transgender people face discrimination. Chernyshov said that when he got hired, after going through a series of failed job searches, his boss fired him when his colleagues found out he was gay.
Now, with war raging in Ukraine’s east, there can be serious problems when a transgender person from Russian-separatist-held territory tries to pass through a checkpoint. Frank tells the story of a friend who tried to move from Donetsk who was beaten by Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint for “stealing documents.”
Insight, the non-profit group, managed to rescue him only with the help of U.N. mission workers.
Despite all the difficulties, Chernyshov still believes coming out as transgender person is still worth it.
“You don’t need to lie and pretend anymore,” he said. “And you find people who appreciate (the difficulties).”
Chernyshov found support unexpectedly – from his university mates. After his appearance changed greatly, his classmates didn’t know how whether to address him as a she or he. So they avoided conversation. After few days of silence, Chernyshov plucked up the courage to tell them in the group’s social media chat what had happened.
Their reaction touched him. They responded by saying, “wow, you are so brave,” and “well done,” according to Chernyshov.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anna Yakutenko can be reached at [email protected].
