The Ukrainian government is refusing to allow transgender people to leave the country along with the millions of women and children refugees who have been streaming into Poland and other European nations. Instead, Ukrainian border guards are turning them back and forcing them to return home to join the fight.
Ukraine’s martial law requires all biological males between the ages of 18 and 60 to remain in the country and fight. And it makes no exceptions for trans women.
Even trans women who have been widely accepted by their communities as woman still carry passports identifying them as males, which is what border guards see when they try to cross the border.
One Italian paper quoted a trans person who shared their experience at the hands of the guards: “They are men…they must turn back and fight.”
The story has been picked up by a handful of European newspapers, including the UK-based Guardian. Trans people who spoke with the two newspapers described “humiliating” searches by border guards, and other perceived depredations, before being denied further passage.
As strange hands searched her body and pulled back her hair to check if it was a wig, Judis looked at the faces of the Ukrainian border guards and felt fear and despair.
“Ukrainian border guards undress you and touch you everywhere,” Judis says. “You can see on their faces they’re wondering ‘what are you?’ like you’re some kind of animal or something.”
Judis is a transgender woman whose birth certificate defines her as female.
Legally, there is no reason why she should not be allowed to pass with the thousands of women who are crossing Ukrainian borders to safety every day. (PERSONALLY I THINK THEY SHOULD GO BY THE SCIENCE. SEND THEIR DNA OFF & IF IT RETURNS XX CHROMOSOMES, THEN FINE, YOUR A WOMAN). BUT THESE FAKE WOMAN COULDN'T PASS THAT TEST.
Yet, on 12 March at about 4am, after a long and humiliating search, border guards determined she was a man and prevented her passage into Poland.
Since Ukraine enacted martial law on Feb. 24, it’s estimated that hundreds of trans women have tried to cross the border. Many have been turned back. The trans activists who spoke with both papers have said that trans people have reason to flee, since they would likely face persecution if Russia seizes control of the country. The Guardian went as far as to
“Martial law says all males are obliged to serve in the military, so they can’t leave the country,” says Olena Shevchenko, 39, a human rights defender and the chair of Insight, a Ukrainian LGBTQAI+ organization and one of the few public organisations in the country that works with trans people. “Technically, the law applies to trans people as well, including both certified trans men and trans women who had not changed their documents.
FULL STORY
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https://unitynewsnetwork.co.uk/trans-women-refugees-being-told-to-return-from-ukrainian-border-to-fight/
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