22/09 DECEIVING EXPECTATIONS: INTERACTIVE TALK ON TRANSGENDER ISSUES

16:00 / loft COM.NATA / Hall 2 / 136 Obvodnogo Kanala Embankment

Looking at a person, we do not see their story, but merely our own assumptions and expectations. What kind of pictures appear in our minds when we hear «transgender person»? What makes them so? Which myths and scenarios stand behind it? There are so many stereotypes about what they, «the typical transgender», are… Truly, it isn’t clear if they really exist.

Other people often try to write our stories for us, suggest us the script to live by. Since our birth we are all subjected to one or another gender and social role and restrictions tied up to it… But those who go beyond the frames of a birth-assigned gender bump into new labels. When doctors, journalists, activists repeat the one and only transgender story, you may start to adapt to this established script, sometimes sacrificing the uniqueness of your own story, and denying huge parts of yourself.

But there’s another way.

Two transgender people with very different stories will share their experience of deceiving expectations — both others and their own.

Oswald Gerber (Novosibirk, Russia) is a coordinator of a «Detransition» project, and a member of the T9NSK initiative work group.
«I’ve had a long journey of accepting myself: from transgender guy with inner homophobia to an openly genderqueer gay. I had a transition, nearly detransitioned a few times, and finally found that point of comfort I’ve been always striving for. I hope my experience will help those in situations similar to mine».

Anastasia Eva Domani (Kiev, Ukraine) is a member of the Coordination Council and Trans * Coalition consultant in the post-soviet space, representative of the trans *community in the Organizing Committee of the 12th National LGBTI Conference and the Organizing Committee «KievPride-2019».
«I am a transgender woman, lesbian, I make movies and photo projects about trans*women. My story of transitioning has an unusual background: I’ve made my way from a football hooligan to a transgender activist. I will tell how I’ve spent 20 years in the ultras movement of Kiev ‘Dinamo’, married, raised a daughter and…started my transition at the age of 37 and changed more than 35 documents within 4 months».

We invite you to join Anastasia and Oswald on the interactive talk to think about the experience of realising, living, and changing your gender identity, and also to talk about stereotypes and expectations that we have to face and disprove — including those that are about and inside ourselves!

Live