"Cross the Operation" Earth "

Transgender Sofia Grozovskaya and Rey Lynn - about their life before and after the wedding in the Tagan registry office

The Taganskaya registry office registered the marriage of transgender people of Sofia Grozovskaya and Ray Linna. The marriage became possible, because in the civil passport of Sofia in the column “Paul” is written “Husband”, and in the passport of Ray - “wives”. At the wedding, in addition to friends and relatives of the newlyweds, police officers, as well as people in civilian clothes, who introduced themselves as freelance employees of the registry office.

The employees of the registry office put Sofia and the REA stamps in the passports, but refused to hold a solemn ceremony, and then they fled and barricaded. The newlyweds had to exchange rings near the wardrobe. On Reya and Sofia Street, LGBT activists with rainbow flags and rose petals, as well as an autosak, were waiting. In an interview with Radio Liberty, they told why they consider their wedding a victory over the fear that the inhabitants of Russia are paralyzed.

- Tell us how you submitted an application to the registry office?

Sofia:

- We came in scarves with rainbow symbols, and the employees of the registry office immediately began to look askance at us. The woman who accepted the documents asked me: “What gender do you have?” “Linoleum,” I replied. We still accepted the statement, the wedding day was appointed. Two days before the ceremony, the head of the registry office called and said that I was ready to register our marriage only if I dress in accordance with my passport sex and I will portray a heterosexual man. The official said that in my account in social networks she saw “these painted in dresses”. She meant photos from the wedding in St. Petersburg of two brides of Irina Shumilova and Alena Fursova. The head of the Tagan registry office said that she did not want to participate in such.

"What gender do you have?" “Linoleum,” I answered

Rey:

- We called the lawyers. They explained that the registry office employees have no right to refuse us to register a marriage. We made a power of attorney for a lawyer, and he went with us for a marriage.

- Have you expected the registry office employees will arrange such a show with the police and autosak?

Rey:

- We assumed that they could refuse to register, expected a conflict, but did not count on such a reaction, of course. The registry office workers wanted to avoid publicity, but with their strange behavior they attracted increased attention to our wedding.

Sofia :

- When we came to the registry office, we immediately saw people in civilian clothes. They introduced themselves as freelance employees of the registry office, but we assume that these were “echniks”. We were not allowed into the hall for the ceremony and said that none of the employees wanted to congratulate us, because they are all offended by our appearance. We then demanded that we be given a written justification for the refusal.

- I saw photos from your wedding: pretty young people in elegant costumes. What exactly did the registry office not like in your appearance?

Rey:

- Most of all they were embarrassed by the rainbow wraps of our guests. We refused to remove the LGBT symbolic, then the registry office employees ran away from us and barricaded in the hall for ceremonies along with our rings and certificates of marriage. Then the police came. They held the door behind which the employee of the registry office hid, although we did not break there, but knocked down delicately. We were finally allowed, but without guests and press. There, a policeman began to scream at us. He threatened to arrest our friends, a car carrier drove up to the building, and we realized that it was better to leave. They took the rings and marriage certificates. In the wardrobe, we, surrounded by the police, exchanged rings. When we went outside, friends threw us with rose petals, we got into the car and drove away. And the police accompanied the guests who went by public transport to the entrance to the subway.

-How did police officers with LGBT activists behave?

Rey:

- Very restrained and silent. Only one shouted: “To everyone to be silent and listen to me!” Friends who were waiting for us from the outside with flowers and pies said that when they asked the main policeman, it was possible to drink champagne, he was surprised and asked: “Do you have a wedding?” And then he said by the radio: “To cancel the operation“ Earth ”. Apparently, he himself did not understand what happened and for what they were called. The employees of the registry office were very scared. No negative emotions, except for fear and confusion, I did not see their faces. It was very offensive that the registry office and the police did not think that we had a holiday. We also had the right to smiles and congratulations. We are wrong.

The employees of the registry office were very scared. I did not see any negative emotions other than fear and confusion

Sofia:

-But still, a bright and sonorous LGBT event occurred. Friends and enemies recognize its importance. Homophobes wrote me a mournful in the comments: “Russia is no more.” They very tragically took our wedding.

- Friends dissuaded you from registration of marriage?

Rey:

- Before the wedding, many well -wishers persuaded us not to do this, otherwise at best we will not let us get married, or maybe they will kill. But we did it. We have married, we are alive and healthy. Many LGBT now live in fear. For example, one transgender man begged us not to go to the registry office. He was afraid that after that the state would introduce any other repressions against LGBT. He wrote that if you do not attract attention, then you can somehow survive. This misconception is to think that if LGBT is meek and quiet, they will not touch us. The state initiates some kind of homophobic law every six months. If you need to distract people from the war and the fall of the ruble, LGBT will again become scapegoats. It is pointless to hide underground. And I hope that our wedding at least partially dispelled the horror that LGBT paralyzed.

Gomofobs wrote me a mournful in the comments: “Russia is no more”

- In Russia, LGBT is pursued, beaten, killed. How did you decide on the official and public registration of your relationship?

Sofia:

- We met a ray last summer. I came to the transgender support group, and Rei was the organizer of this project. We started talking a lot. We have similar political views. We went to rallies in support of the convicted person for organizing the unauthorized rally Ildar Dadin. And we realized that we love each other, we want to be together all the time. Today we live in wartime: at any moment, people who disagree with the authorities can be sent to bars, to drive out of the country. Therefore, we realized that it is better for us to officially register our relationship.

- Sofia and Rei, are you planning to leave the country?

Sofia:

“We are still a little over twenty years old, and we will fight homophobia here.” Let's do everything possible to change the life of LGBT for the better.

Rey:

- I work as a psychologist on the helpline for LGBT. Psychological support for sexual minorities is most required in Russia, so I need it here.

“You call yourself Quirs.” Tell us what it is?

Rey:

- According to the documents, I am a woman. Journalists, talking about our wedding, wrote that I was a transgender man. This is not entirely true. I think that between the gender non -informed woman and a transgender man there is a space that I occupy. I feel good in the female body, I do not plan to change it. I perceive normally if they turn to me as a woman. But I write myself and talk about myself in a masculine gender. It turns out that for me the boundaries of my gender are blurred. For me, philosophical and political views are more important than gender and sexual identity.

Sofia:

- In my passport I have the letter “M”. I am not going to do the floor change. I have no aversion to my male genital organs.

- Do you feel like a woman?

I usually answer such a question: I am a purple octopus from the planet volcano

- I do not understand what it is to feel my femininity or masculinity. Who is a woman? The one who is afraid of mice and loves pink? I usually answer such a question: I am a purple octopus from the planet of the Volcano. I take hormonal therapy, because I want to look different than now. I would like to get a new civil passport with a female name, but then our marriage with a ray will become invalid. I do not like to be in the men's chamber in the hospital or in the shower for men. I am emotionally exhausted by the need to constantly explain at work, at my studies, in the toilet, in a cafe, why I do not look like others. Every time I go somewhere where I need to present documents, I have to think about how they will perceive me. All this very complicates my life, but for me marriage with a ram is more important than my own convenience and security. Suddenly, we have to urgently emigrate from the country. When a more tolerant time comes, I will change my documents.

- Your parents were at the wedding?

Sofia:

- I was lucky: my parents love and accept me what I am. All close relatives, even a grandmother, came to the wedding. My family like Rei. Two years ago, I made a cangus, no one condemned me, except for one friend who said that for him my feature was like the color of the walls in the clinic.

Rey:

- My mother is Orthodox. He considers me a lesbian because of a relationship with Sofia. She did not go to the wedding, because it is a sin and immoral. I congratulated me with SSMEA.

- After the wedding that received a resonance in the media, there were no problems at work?

Sofia:

- I am a programmer, I work remotely, I make an information system for the Moscow State University library. Everyone knows about me at work, but they value as a professional, so I am not afraid of problems. Once, colleagues asked me why I had long hair, I delicately explained to them that this was not their business. Another time, in a working letter, I wrote about myself in a female kind. After that, one of the employees called and asked if I called myself Sofia Grozovskaya on my page on the social network. I confirmed. Then she asked if I was comfortable with such an alter ego. I replied that I had a bright and interesting life. There were no more questions.

Rey :

- It is very annoying that in our society an unusual person is obliged to provide all the person ongoing with comprehensive information about himself. Recently, my friends and I sat in a cafe near the house of Sofia. Some people were attached to friends, they began to ask incorrect questions. We had to call a guard. Unfortunately, people do not know that there are many types of gender identity. Transgender is a mismatch of how the person himself perceives his gender and how others perceive him. Such a dissonance is manifested in different ways. A transgender can be extremely unsatisfied with his own way, to feel sharpened in a strange body.

It happens that a person does not have a rejection of his physiology, but he does not want to play the gender role, which is accepted in this society at a certain time. For example, society would perceive a modern emancipated woman many years ago with condemnation. Some transgender people undergo a floor change operation, others do not. Some transgender people do not want to define their gender at all as male or female. Transgens can be homosexual, bisexual and heterosexual. All this is the options for the norm. It is very sad to see how my clients have been hiding for years for years who they really are. They rape themselves to look normal, the same as everyone else. Live in constant conflict with themselves and with the environment. It is wrong to pathologize transgender. And this happens even at a university at the Faculty of Psychology, where I am studying. To defend the diploma, I chose the topic: “Psychological features of the image I am in adult transgender people”. They didn’t want to say this topic: “Well, you understand which society we live in. Such a name can insult someone’s feelings. Let's throw the word“ transgender ”from the name. Apparently, the feelings of homophobes were afraid to insult ... I managed to defend the theme and name of my diploma. I will soon defend him, including before the teacher, who, during a lecture on social psychology, stated that if a man wants to marry a man, he is to marry a man. I must become a woman that gays I replied that it was impossible to utter such wild words from the teaching department.

- Tell us what difficulties transgender faces if they want to change documents.

Sofia:

- The procedure for changing documents should look like this. A person turns to a psychiatrist at the place of residence. He says that he suspects transsexuality. It is placed for observation in a hospital for a couple of weeks. Then the medical commission writes a conclusion. After that, the transgender is given a certificate, he goes to the registry office and the documents are changed. If a transgender who looks like a representative of his biological sex will turn to a psychiatrist, then he will most likely make a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and this will end. Therefore, people begin to take hormonal therapy before a visit to a psychiatrist without consulting a doctor. This is very harmful, sometimes deadly, because it increases the risk of thrombosis. If a psychiatrist sees that a person has reached such despair that he himself began to take drugs, he can diagnose “transgender” and give a certificate. But a single model of this document does not exist. Therefore, in order to issue permission to receive a new passport, doctors can force the surgery to change the floor or undergo chemical castration, even if a person does not want this. Doctors do this because they are terribly afraid of responsibility, and the legislation does not properly regulate this issue.

-Your wedding is the most loud LGBT action lately. Is there a feeling that LGBT protest in Russia has come to naught?

- Street protest has come to naught. This happened due to the law on unauthorized rallies. Three detentions now turn a person into a criminal. People are not ready to take such a monstrous risk. We must look for other forms of protest. The LGBT activists in the police, as a rule, are especially cruel. Police do not miss the opportunity to mock us. Once, after the promotion, I was detained with a transgender man nickname Nemeni. The investigator who interrogated us lost a ballpoint pen and decided that we stole it. She demanded that we share with other policemen. I saw what kind of humiliation it was for Nix. Many transgender people are very scrupulous about the need to be exposed in public places, and Nyx wore weight. Nix got into the fighting stance and said that he would die better than renting clothes. The investigator called the police to be divided by force. Then I said that I would take off my clothes to divert attention from Nix. Suddenly, this bitch found a pen on her table.