In the heat of the Russian invasion, Ukraine has ordered every man aged 18 and 60 to stay back and fight. This new directives also includes transgender women, who are currently claiming they are stranded and in danger.
Only women, children, and male children below 17 are authorised to leave the shores of the country to safety.
Zi Faamelu, a transgender woman from Kyiv the Ukraine capital, has lamented that she and her kinds are being discriminated after she was denied exiting the country.
She explained that she and others want to flee the war in their country but can’t because their government documentations classify them as male.
The move was imposed by the State Border Guard Service last week in a bid to protect the country.
In an interview with Vice World News, Faámelu decried that her life is in danger because she is trapped in Ukraine.
Faámelu emphasised, “Like hundreds of trans people in Ukraine, I am a woman. But I have ‘male’ in my passport and on all my ID. So this is a war within a war. Ukrainian trans people were already fighting for their lives.
“There are hundreds of us stuck like this, living miserable lives. We need some influence from abroad. We need people to write to their politicians and charities to help us.”
According to the trans woman, she did not change her ID because the process in Ukraine was “humiliating and some people were forced to stay in hospitals for months to prove their gender”.
Faámelu described Ukraine as dangerous for her as a trans person on a normal day, so now, it is impossible. “Many gay people in Ukraine can blend in with the rest of society now, but for trans people it is impossible,” she said.
“There are so many physical traits that we are attacked for – big chin, broad shoulders – we are beaten, we’re killed. We need to get out now, but we can’t even leave our apartments.
“They will see my passport and see ‘male’, they will see my birth name, and call me a man in a dress and attack me.”
While Faámelu is worried about being checked by local authorities, another trans man simply identified as Robert alleged he is faced with similar attacks.
“My parents tried to kill me when I told them I’m trans,” adding that “Everybody here knows me as ‘he’, nobody knows my situation. This is why I’m in so much danger now.”
He bemoaned, “I’m so afraid for my life,” stating that a lot of people have offered him help once he gets to different countries. “But I can’t get through Ukraine like this.”
He is being supported by LGBTQ campaigner Rain Dove – which has suggested trans women with an ‘M’ on their passport lose that documentation.