Russian transgender asks for refugee status in Ukraine

26-year-old Soldado Kovalisidi is the first transgender who asked for refugee status in Ukraine.

Screenshot from video

According to him, he was born a girl and, feeling like a man, he decided that something was wrong with him, writes “Currently,".

“I was born a girl. “Girl” was written on the birth certificate. As a result, I made a decision - I feel like a transgender man. After that, I consulted with friendly doctors: how ok is this, maybe there’s something wrong with me (this is the first thought that came to mind), I’m crazy (these are typical stereotypes about transgender people: crazy or sick people). I also have such a stereotype about myself, so I decided: after all, I will clarify. They said no. This is fine. They showed a bunch of international documents. I realized that I was not the only one, but it was hard to realize,” admitted Kovalisidi.

Soldado arrived in Kiev from Omsk in 2016. He cannot return to his homeland, as he is in danger there.

“I fled from Omsk. Because I was beaten there five times because I was a transgender activist. The FSB periodically interrogated me there and threatened me,” he said.

Soldado assures that he does not feel gender discrimination in Ukraine. And even managed to find a life partner.

“I don’t care if a person is trans or not trans. We call each other spouses, because we even had a wedding,” said Nina, Soldado’s common-law wife.

Due to his specialization, the work of Kovalisidi did not take long to search. He is an activist in one of the authoritative human rights organizations. Amnesty International, knows seven languages, has two higher educations.

“In Ukraine the situation is still more optimistic than in Russia. There is even a law regarding the promotion of homosexuality. Where even talking about this entails certain sanctions,” explained Maria Guryeva, representative Amnesty International in Ukraine.

But the Migration Service of Ukraine refused Soldado refugee status. The ministry believes that it does not have sufficient grounds for this. Therefore, he now went to court to fight for the right to remain in Ukraine.

“This is a very vulnerable category of cases where it is impossible to say that there is evidence. Because, as a rule, people flee the country. They collect a minimum of things and run. In such cases, they don’t think that they need to take the certificate with them,” noted Alexandra Zhurko, lawyer for the Right to Protection charity foundation.

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