Representative image showing a rainbow flag.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Over a year after Russia banned gender-reaffirming surgeries, the fate of LGBTQ individuals in the country is turning from bad to worse, especially transgender individuals.
It seems Russian society has its own ways to 'police' queer people over and above government laws. The case of 23-year-old Ada is a shocking peek into how the country's populace, even close relatives, are treating transgender people.
Ada, a young transgender, was identified in a report by BBC that said she was tricked into visiting a "conversion therapy center". She was taken to a center in Novosibirsk by one of her relatives in 2021 after Ada had confronted her family with what she thinks is her true gender - female - as opposed to the male gender assigned to her at birth.
Detailing her traumatic story, Ada said the relative took her to an airport in 2021 where they met a man drove them to the therapy center. However, she said that the car stopped midway after which her relative stepped out. The driver of the car then turned to her demanding she hand over her smart watch and phone as he said, "Now we're going to cure you of your perversion."
“It was only when a parcel of warm clothes arrived two weeks later that I realised that I wasn't just there for a fortnight or a month,” Ada recalled, stating that she was forced to take testosterone, pray and do manual labour, including chopping wood.
Just a few days later, Ada was taken to a farm where a man handed over a knife to her. “Cut it off,” he said pointing at a pig's genitals. Ada then recalled the man saying, “If you want to go ahead with the operation, you need to understand what castration means.”
The 23-year-old said that she suffered a panic attack in that moment but was still asked to do what she was being told. Ada however fled the center nine months later when she found an abandoned phone and used it to call the cops.
The police sent personnel to the 'therapy center' who said that "Ada had to be allowed to leave as she was being held up against her will."
When contacted by BBC, the personnel at this center denied any knowledge of conversion therapy programmes that Ada was forced to be a part of. The publication also reached out to her relative, but has still not received a response.
After her escape, Ada fled to Europe and has found a new home there. As per an UN independent expert, Graeme Reid, since the Russian government passed a legislation last year banning gender reassignment surgery, transgenders in Russia remain deprived of their "most basic rights to a legal identity and access to healthcare."
People have also been barred from altering their personal information on official documents. Ada is one of the last individuals to get her name changed "officially" before the legislation came into effect in July 2023.
In February 2023, two Russian courts meted out the first convictions in connection with what the government calls the "international LGBT social movement."
One, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that LGBT activists should be designated as 'extremists', in a move that representatives of gay and transgender people fear will lead to arrests and prosecutions in the country. Russia, in another court ruling, has also banned the "LGBT movement" as a whole in the country terming it an "extremist" movement.
Ada shared that all the trans community really wants is for "people to be able to dress how they want and not be afraid of being beaten up… I just want people to stop having to think about how to survive."