Russian police decide to hospitalize a transgender criminal suspect after the jails refused to admit him

Russian pretrial detention officials didn’t know quite what to do with Nazar Gulevich, a transgender man charged with fraud. A previous contestant on a “psychic challenge” television show, Gulevich was arrested on August 25 for alleged equity theft. Police records indicate that he is still in process of transitioning physically from a woman to a man.

Arresting officers first brought Gulevich to a women’s jail, which then rejected him after discovering that he is a transgender man. Guards at the men’s pretrial detention facility also refused to take him, however, and Gulevich was ultimately delivered to the hospital at Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison, where both men and women are permitted.

How does Russia typically treat transgender people?

The “T” in LGBT have it especially rough everywhere throughout the world. Meduza has reported extensively on the lives of Russia’s transgender community. Read Polina Surnina’s interview from December 2017 with a transgender woman who lost her career after coming out. In May 2016, Daniil Turovsky profiled several trans people living in Russia, cataloging how they’re routinely denied jobs, medical aid, public transportation, and basic safety protections.