Unorthodox transition 18+

How a Moscow religious university is unlawfully making the life of a transgender man much harder than it already is

In early January, a man appealed to Coming Out, a Russian human rights group that supports and protects the LGBT community. The young man graduated from university with a bachelor’s degree a few years back. He was assigned female at birth but transitioned shortly after leaving the university, amended gender markers in his official documents, obtained a new passport, and then contacted his alma mater with a simple request: to issue a new diploma with his new name.

Most institutions have no qualms about printing new documents with amended details because people change names and surnames for a whole myriad of reasons. However, the story here is quite different, since the university he graduated from is an Orthodox Christian one. The educational institution, of course, has no legal right to use this argument since Russia is still a secular state where law is supposed to be above any religious beliefs. Nevertheless, the university administration completely ignores every official appeal made by the man, humiliating and degrading him along the way by deadnaming him (calling a transgender person by their birth name when they have changed it as part of their transition process — translator’s note) in particular. Alyona Itskova, correspondent for Novaya Gazeta Europe, interviewed the man and human rights activists to learn more about how trans people are forced to defend their rights in modern Russia and who is willing to help them in the face of the discriminatory “LGBT propaganda” law and other legislative attempts to preserve and strengthen “traditional values”.

DISCLAIMER:
We are forced to mark this article as recommended for 18+ audiences at the request of one of the interviewees. She is concerned that otherwise her words could be used against her under new laws that ban “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and (or) preferences as well as sex change” in Russia.

The central figure of this story is 27 years old, he asked to be referred to as Yaroslav for safety reasons and omit some of his personal information which could uncover his identity.

Yaroslav graduated from one of Moscow’s Orthodox Christian universities (the editorial office knows its official name — author’s note) with a degree in cultural studies. Despite growing up in a religious family, Yaroslav was not planning to study there and wanted to go into natural sciences in a different place. However, “it so happened that he did not have a choice”.

After his graduation, he went into the cultural industry to work in organising education-related events.

“I have quite a few hobbies: retro cars, construction sets, crafts, board games, and foreign languages. I recently started building my own workshop, bringing together what I like to do: craft and organising events,” says Yaroslav.

When asked about his gender identity, Yaroslav says this:

“I cannot say that there was one particular moment of realisation: this is something that has always been with me. But I can definitely say that I put off the transition itself for a while due to the abundance of disinformation.”

For instance, the rumoured need to admit yourself to a mental health facility and go to court to argue that you need your documents altered.

Yaroslav turned to the Internet to look for information and discovered T-Action, an activist group that helps transgender people in Russia.

Having collected all the necessary information, Yaroslav transitioned legally in 2022: he had his birth certificate and all the corresponding documents changed (we will share more about this process in Russia later in the article — author’s note).

Yaroslav’s family and friends accepted his decision, he used to share his gender identity with many of them before as well.

“I came out to my brother even before transitioning and was accepted. However, older relatives could have had a much harder time hearing it, and I was morally preparing for the possibility that after my coming out, they could stop communicating with me. But I was accepted by all family members. The most important thing for me when transitioning is the moral support of my girlfriend,” Yaroslav says. “Overall, I can say that before the university issue, I barely faced open and aggressive xenophobia. It’s important to mention here that I live as stealthy of a lifestyle as possible (when transgender people try to blend in with cisgender society — author’s note), and I pass [as a cisgender man] (when transgender people are perceived as a gender or sex other than the sex they were assigned at birth — author’s note).”

Orthodox xenophobia

Yaroslav first experienced difficulties when he contacted the university to have a new diploma issued since his personal details were altered to match his gender identity. He was initially told that all he needed to do was to send document scans by email and show the originals when fetching the updated diploma.

However, he did not receive any response to the request sent by email. Yaroslav then called the educational institution again. The man was then told that they cannot accept his documents because he had to personally go to the university to have the request signed by the rector.

“I went there and wrote everything down. The university lawyer was very confrontational and unprofessional: he started screaming at me to bring original documents and when I asked which exactly, he shouted ‘All of them!’ at me. He also said that my documents won’t be changed after my sex change,” Yaroslav recalls.

In response, the man asked the lawyer to give him an official rejection letter but never got it either. The whole time the man was trying to get anything out of the university he was told that “the father rector is still considering the request, therefore, it’s impossible to point to a specific time”.

Following these failed attempts, Yaroslav contacted Coming Out. The LGBT group linked him up with lawyer Leysan Mannapova.

As advised by her, Yaroslav lodged a complaint against the university with Russia’s education supervisory agency. He received a call from the university several weeks later. Yaroslav was told that the institution would not alter his documents or give him an official rejection letter, adding that the watchdog had already been notified.

Yaroslav requested a copy of the letter to the supervisory agency.

“I must say, the letter was incredibly xenophobic. For example, the university lawyer used my dead name, ignoring the fact that my passport details had changed. I am gearing up for what’s coming next.”

Yaroslav’s lawyer told Novaya-Europe that in the letter, university staffers spoke about gender transitioning in a very negative manner, saying that “sex change maims people who fell victim to inhumane propaganda that seeks to enrich relevant medical facilities, corrupt traditional families, and make ‘excessive populations’ die off”.

Yaroslav and his lawyer filed a lawsuit with a Moscow court, demanding that the university issue him a new diploma over the name change and pay compensation for psychological damage.

The university declined to provide an official comment on the issue for Novaya Gazeta Europe.

The woman who introduced herself as the rector’s PA said on the phone that the university refuses to change Yaroslav’s documents because he changed “sex and not name”. When told that both are legal in Russia, she responded with “Not anymore!”

In spite of the university’s categorical position, lawyer Leysan Mannapova believes that the court can even rule in favour of Yaroslav at first instance. She particularly bases it on the fact that the education watchdog has already backed the man, saying that the university’s decision contradicts current laws.

“I believe that any person faced with the need to show his higher education diploma should not find themselves in a situation when they are forced to share their private lives and compromise their privacy, which gender transitioning is part of. They should not show the diploma to potential employers along with all reports about name changes and letters confirming gender transitioning. It is a direct violation of the constitutional right to privacy, private personal and family life,” the lawyer added.

Gender transitioning in Russia

Yaroslav told Novaya-Europe that the legal transitioning did not bring about any complications because he studied the steps and knew what to expect. Katya Messorosh, coordinator with T-Action, gave us a detailed overview of this process in Russia.

“I will tell you something slightly unexpected. Russia has one of the simplest and most humanistic procedures of changing documents or legally recognising a gender marker as it is formally called. We probably rank in the top 10 or 20 around the world in this regard. The only thing that is easier is a free recognition of gender when a person's documents are changed upon request,” Messorosh says.

Russia requires people to see a commission of three doctors — clinical psychologist, psychiatrist, and a sexologist — to get a 087/u note (which is officially called the sex change note) and alter your gender legally. Once you get this note, you can obtain a new birth certificate and later change the rest of your documents.

These commissions can be convened in state or private facilities. Messorosh notes that the main thing to observe is that all the doctors were officially employed by the facility and that the medical institution issued a decree to convene the commission. There aren’t many places in Russia that have these commissions, but you can find them.

At the same time, Messorosh points out that the legal transitioning did not always work like that. The 087/u note only emerged in 2018, and people had to go to court to get new documents after 1996.

“It was up to the courts to qualify the notion of ‘sex change’. Curiously, different regions could view it differently. In other words, there were regions that required a mandatory sterilisation and there were regions that were very calm about this. Sometimes even psychiatrist notes would suffice,” she notes.

Simultaneously with legal transition, transgender people can opt for a series of medical interventions intended to feminise or masculinise their appearance. In Russia, such procedures (body and face operations, hormone therapy) can only be administered or prescribed after psychiatric evaluation that diagnoses “transsexuality”.

BACKGROUND NOTE
The term “transsexuality” (F64.0) is used in the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases developed in 1989. The document is still used in Russia as a reference for diagnoses. This edition classifies “transsexualism” as personality and behavioural disorder.

The latest 11th edition published in 2018 refers to gender identity as an issue linked to sexual health. The “transsexualism” diagnosis is also taken out of the document and substituted with gender dysphoria (gender identity disorder).

“All these papers are most frequently given together (the F64.0 diagnosis and 087/u note required for the birth certificate) but you can separate these processes. So, get diagnosed by a psychiatrist (de-jure commission is not needed for this), and refer to relevant doctors when you need to be seen by a commission and change documents. It can also be done like that,” Messorosh explained.

‘We will gradually slide back into the mythology of the 1990s’

On 5 December, Vladimir Putin signed a law that bans “propaganda of non-traditional relationships”: sharing information about the LGBT community and “sex change” among people of all ages in the media, online, cinema, literature, and advertising. Speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house Vyacheslav Volodin claimed that this initiative was meant to protect “the country’s future from the darkness spread by the US and European states”.

Around that time, the Russian Justice Ministry branded T-Action and T9 NSK project that is created to help transgender people and their families as “foreign agents”.

T-Action member Katya Messorosh is convinced that this legal onslaught on the LGBT community and its allies will inevitably lead to the emergence of false and dangerous information about transgender people.

“We will gradually slide back into the mythology of the 1990-2000s about trans people in the mass psyche. Well, it’s not like we moved far from it but the movement was very visible,” Messorosh notes.

According to her, there have been even more pleas for help amid the backdrop of the Ukraine war and new discriminatory laws. People ask about the army draft and ways to leave the country.

At the same time, Messorrosh does not think that Russian lawmakers will intentionally interfere with the lives of transgender people and take away their rights for legal transitioning and document changes.

“It is one thing to dance in circles around the populist ideas of ‘propaganda’ and a totally different one to meddle in existing legal practices or the medical side of it. People were transitioning even when it was legally banned and even under fear of death. However, the higher the barriers along this path, the more people choose to give up and sometimes even end their existence. So, even if our so-called authorities do not adopt any more laws above what is already passed, trans people will still have an increasingly hard time to have their rights honoured,” Messorosh concludes.