The website transgender.ru debuted in Russia in 2002, initially serving to coordinate meetings of Russian trans support groups. Six years later, the project expanded into the Transgender Foundation, which also ran a clothing store and a beauty salon for transgender people in Moscow. A few years later, a clinic was established to assist people who required medical care during the transgender transition. In 2024, the Transgender Foundation’s activities were deemed “contrary to the national security strategy”.
About the Founders
In 2002, the Foundation’s founders were going through their own transgender transition and decided to organize a support group for transgender people in an acquaintance’s apartment. They then registered the website transgender.ru. Around 2009, they decided to open a transsexual-friendly store in Moscow, followed by a beauty salon. The salon, like the store, gained popularity. The founders were able to leave their jobs and establish the Transgender Foundation, which consolidated all of their efforts. Soon a clinic was opened (where all could perform even the ovulation test), and HIV/AIDS funds gave small grants for research projects. The organization grew, and as a result of its popularity, the foundation’s founders’ contact information began to leak, and even death threats were issued. Appeals to the Russian police, as expected, produced no results.
First Problems
The problems with the authorities began in 2015. A police officer arrived at the store and told them to “shut down” or he would arrest them for “providing intimate services”. They had to close the store and only sell online. In the summer of 2017, one of the foundation’s founders and his father were attacked by unknown individuals. They were beaten in a rude manner and told to stop their activities. Already in the second half of the fall, the foundation’s founders were forced to fly to America and seek asylum.
The Situation After the Outbreak of War
Following the departure, the Foundation’s leaders were forced to curtail all commercial activity because it was simply unrealistic to manage from the United States. The clinic’s surgical department closed almost immediately. The store closed shortly after the war began in 2022: imported goods were sold there, which became difficult due to sanctions. The psychiatric department operated until the summer of 2023 when a law was passed that prohibited transitions and any assistance with them. The beauty salon will be open until the end, the founders hope. They no longer rent the space, but the employees continue to serve customers as private individuals. The ban on transgender people put an end to 22 years of work for “Transgender”. The authorities claimed the foundation “undermines national security” and demanded its dissolution. They claim that this law sentences people to death, and in most cases, it does.
Current Situation
Deputies passed a terrible law prohibiting sex change: transgender people in Russia are barred from adopting children, and the state can dissolve their marriages. Gays and lesbians can still hide, but it is extremely difficult to live in such a closed society. However, the current Russian situation is hopeless for those who need to change their gender or obtain new documents. Suicides among transgender people were not uncommon prior to the commission’s refusal. Sometimes people castrate themselves out of desperation. Also, you must take hormones for the rest of your life or face a backlash. After the relevant organs are removed, you no longer produce your own hormones, and not receiving hormones from the outside causes accelerated aging and endocrine system problems.
What will happen to transsexual and transgender Russians now is completely unknown. It is obvious that the situation in Russia will only worsen. Transgender people used to struggle with changing diplomas and medical policies; it all depended on how homophobic the decision-makers were. Some people changed their residency as a result of this: if they couldn’t do it in one location, they moved to another. And there is now speculation that the logical continuation of the new law will be a “rollback” of previous documents.
There’s No Hope
Regarding the foundation and its founders, a court has now been appointed to recognize that the foundation’s activities are “extremist”. Some experts have already been identified who are discussing it. They claim that the foundation “contradicts traditional values”. Ridiculous, because these “traditional values” can be interpreted in any way, as the foundation’s founders correctly point out.
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