A transgender girl from Chelyabinsk was sentenced to four years in a men's colony

The Kurchatovsky District Court of Chelyabinsk sentenced 23-year-old transgender girl Yulia (name changed) to four years in a general regime colony. The case against the girl was opened back in 2021 for the publication of poems, in which the investigation saw calls for suicide and the sale of intimate photographs, human rights activist Vladimir, who is closely familiar with Yulia’s case, told Novaya-Europe.

In 2021, Yulia was given five years of probation and four years of probation. But in 2022, the deputy regional prosecutor intervened in the case, who demanded that the suspended sentence be replaced with a real one. According to the state prosecutor, Yulia changed her gender marker to avoid imprisonment. Moreover, having received a refusal in the court of appeal, the prosecutor appealed to the court of cassation. The human rights activist believes that the reason for the accuser’s actions was his transphobia.

Vladimir, in a conversation with Novaya-Europa, emphasized that the cancellation of the change of gender marker by the Chelyabinsk Regional Court, which the investigation achieved, was unfounded. He explains that the decision was made based on the fact that Yulia changed the marker in a private clinic, not a public one, and also did not provide a childhood history and test results from a psychiatrist:

“This is complete nonsense.

Since childhood, Yulia has positioned herself as a woman and even underwent hormonal therapy as a teenager. Now she even has a husband.

Changing a marker through a commission in a private clinic is a common practice. Regarding the conclusions, Yulia is from a conservative Tatar family, is it necessary to explain why she did not have a diagnosis [of gender dysphoria] in childhood. And about tests from a psychiatrist... Well, you know, psychiatrists who take urine for analysis and use it to determine whether a person is choleric or sanguine.”

The human rights activist explains that despitethe ban on gender reassignment adopted in 2023, trans people are still seeking a change of gender marker in Russian courts. Against this background, Yulia’s case stands out in particular.

“This is the first case of “rollback” in history.

The lawyer hoped that in case of a negative outcome, the trans girl would not be sent to a men’s colony with female documents, which were never changed for her, but it turned out that this did not matter to the court,” explains Vladimir.

According to the human rights activist, this is not the first time that a trans girl ends up in a men’s colony. However, previously prisoners were placed there under “special conditions,” for example, with the opportunity to serve their sentences in the prison hospital. But in the case of Yulia, her status was not taken into account:

“In this situation, the prosecutor’s office simply shifted responsibility onto the FSIN - and there is a great risk that Yulia, who has all the characteristics of a woman, including breasts, will face sexual violence,” the human rights activist fears.

According to Vladimir, at the moment Yulia is in a pre-trial detention center and is waiting to be sent to a colony.