Marie Zelda
family on Earth and Mars

My name is Marie Zelda, and I'm 22. My preferred pronouns are his/her. I feel comfortable switching them while talking.


Since I was about twelve years old, I have perceived myself as a non-binary person. At that time, there was
no such concept in Russian-speaking space. For more than ten years, I have not lived in Ukraine. I come back here to visit because my family and bride are here now.
I study genderqueer and non-binary music.

Also, recently I have been actively running a blog for LGBT teenagers on TikTok, which allowed me to express my position more openly. It used to be quite tricky in the Russian-speaking environment. I had problems with the right-wing folks, which resulted in my four broken ribs and a broken nose.

For the first time, I'm going to be so open about my identity in the context of family relations because I can't discuss it directly with them. I can talk about it with close friends — they are my second family.

My name is Marie Zelda, and I'm 22. My preferred pronouns are his/her. I feel comfortable switching them while talking.


Since I was about twelve years old, I have perceived myself as a non-binary person. At that time, there was
no such concept in Russian-speaking space. For more than ten years, I have not lived in Ukraine. I come back here to visit because my family and bride are here now.
I study genderqueer and non-binary music.

Also, recently I have been actively running a blog for LGBT teenagers on TikTok, which allowed me to express my position more openly. It used to be quite tricky in the Russian-speaking environment. I had problems with the right-wing folks, which resulted in my four broken ribs and a broken nose.

For the first time, I'm going to be so open about my identity in the context of family relations because I can't discuss it directly with them. I can talk about it with close friends — they are my second family.

Persephone
creating internal supports

My name is Persephone (my legal name is Alice).
I prefer this name among my closest people.
I'm 19, and I study biology in Poland. I like drawing and makeup.

I use different pronouns, depending on what part
of myself I am experiencing at the moment.
Being genderfluid represents several identities
that manifest themselves depending on the situation.

It would be interesting for me to show how gender identity works for me. I haven't seen this kind
of non-binary representation somewhere in the media, and I don't think I'm the only one feeling
this way.

Now I am on academic leave because of the pandemic. There are also problems with the visa extension, so I returned to Ukraine. I live at my partner Frankie's house, we have been together
for two years now.

I asked him to date me three days before moving
to Poland. For me, the long-distance relationship
was far better and happier than no relationship with him at all. In the future, we plan to move to another country together.

Frankie
filling the void

My name is Frankie, and I'm twenty-two years old.
I work as an English teacher. I studied as a medical engineer, and then I realised that I wanted to go directly into medicine. This year I am going to enrol for the second time, this time in medical university.

I am identifying myself as an agender. I like the lovely term 'gender void' (gender emptiness). I'm pansexual;
it means not being attracted to people through the lens
of their gender.

My gender identity, or rather the lack of it, is pretty closely related to the fact that for a long time it has been difficult for me to discover my identity and build any identity at all. I have been diagnosed with BPD (borderline personality disorder), and long-term psychotherapy helped me to collect myself, discover my identity. It got me to understand what I love and what
I like, what feelings I have, and that those feelings can just be. I can accept them and live in them, and feel holistic and complete.

Nikita
the value of acceptance

My name is Nikita. I identify myself as a non-binary person and use she/her pronouns. I am 18 years old, and after finishing school, I use my free year
to prepare for entering a university in Prague.

I'm in a relationship with a girl right now. She was the one who helped me realise my identity: she told me about the non-binary variations and alternative pronouns. She supported me in my search for style and expression. Next to her, I feel good and safe.
I am so grateful to her for that. We live in different cities, but we come to visit each other quite often.

For a long time, I thought I was a transgender girl. Still, I was stopped by the feeling that even
if I started the transition, I wouldn't pass (to pass — when a person's transgender identity is not readable by appearance, and he/she is perceived as cisgender) because of the very low voice and shoe size 47.
But now I understand that this hesitation was instead an expression of the need to comprehend your identity fully.

Kalman
parents of different scales

My name is Kalman Vereshazi, and I'm a trans*masculine person. I use the pronouns he/him. I work with Semitic languages and manage the trans*initiative in Kharkiv.
I moved to Kharkiv from St. Petersburg 6 years ago.

Along with coordinating the initiative, I am also involved in freelance work, doing translations. I translate from modern, Biblical, Aramaic, Mishnah Hebrew, and a little from Arabic. I studied at the St. Petersburg Institute
of Jewish Studies.

At first, I was giving lectures in the "Sphere". I liked it, and I thought about how I could keep doing it. Luckily,
I found the grant program, I applied, and six months ago, the Trans*illumination initiative appeared.
Now I'm finally doing what I like. For now, it isn't easy
to gather people and convince the community that exciting events can be held not only in the capital,
but we're making progress.

It is interesting for me to talk about being transgender not only in the formal framework, about the medical
and legal aspects of transition, but also to view this phenomenon from an anthropological and cultural perspective. After all, existential issues such as finding
a place in the world do not go anywhere.

My name is Kalman Vereshazi, and I'm a trans*masculine person. I use the pronouns he/him. I work with Semitic languages and manage the trans*initiative in Kharkiv.
I moved to Kharkiv from St. Petersburg 6 years ago.

Along with coordinating the initiative, I am also involved in freelance work, doing translations. I translate from modern, Biblical, Aramaic, Mishnah Hebrew, and a little from Arabic. I studied at the St. Petersburg Institute
of Jewish Studies.

At first, I was giving lectures in the "Sphere". I liked it, and I thought about how I could keep doing it. Luckily,
I found the grant program, I applied, and six months ago, the Trans*illumination initiative appeared.
Now I'm finally doing what I like. For now, it isn't easy
to gather people and convince the community that exciting events can be held not only in the capital,
but we're making progress.

It is interesting for me to talk about being transgender not only in the formal framework, about the medical
and legal aspects of transition, but also to view this phenomenon from an anthropological and cultural perspective. After all, existential issues such as finding
a place in the world do not go anywhere.

Limo
performativity of life

My name is Kinder Limo, my pronouns
are they/them. I'm a musician, dancer, performance artist.

I've lived for 21 years on this planet, but age is really just a symbol. I do not see the point of telling my actual age somewhere except for when I'm seeing
a doctor, for example. Instead, I created
a performance where I celebrated my 127th anniversary. There were my close people, there was
a cake with a candle '127'. And I'm not celebrating
it on my actual birthday. I do it when I go through some stage, when I realize that something inside me has changed, when I learned something important.

I have been performing for three or four years, having switched from modern dance and conceptual art. I wanted to explore the physical and aesthetic side of self-expression. I dance in public spaces,
as long as I can remember myself. In our culture,
it is generally difficult to express feelings, even more so expressing them through dance. You have
to attract as little attention as possible, to dress inconspicuously, even to laugh loudly
is unacceptable. Performances and performativity
are a big part of my life.

Margo
discovering the authenticity

My name is Margo. I feel comfortable when people use the pronoun "she" when they refer to me. Sometimes I joke about myself using masculine pronouns. Still, in general, I prefer using feminitives when I refer to myself. I'm twenty-seven. I work as a content manager. I am looking for ways to express myself in creativity, blogging and I want to create clothes. I love walking, getting to know people, learning about myself and others.

For as long as I can remember, it has been difficult for me to call myself a girl or woman. These words represent a set of characteristics and requirements that I just don't find relatable. I wanted more to be perceived as a teenager or a child. Having already reflected on my inner misogyny, I realised that the desire to be perceived that way was a way to avoid the sexual objectification to which a girl begins to be exposed as soon as she reaches puberty. That's why I avoided attributes that could hint at the fact that I'm a girl, and therefore naive, stupid and unable to defend myself.

I now see identity as a spectrum. Every person has too many shades and nuances to be defined in several names. You can't possibly know what the person is like. An acquaintance of mine once said, "So you're a tomboy!"

My name is Margo. I feel comfortable when people use the pronoun "she" when they refer to me. Sometimes I joke about myself using masculine pronouns. Still, in general, I prefer using feminitives when I refer to myself. I'm twenty-seven. I work as a content manager. I am looking for ways to express myself in creativity, blogging and I want to create clothes. I love walking, getting to know people, learning about myself and others.

For as long as I can remember, it has been difficult for me to call myself a girl or woman. These words represent a set of characteristics and requirements that I just don't find relatable. I wanted more to be perceived as a teenager or a child. Having already reflected on my inner misogyny, I realised that the desire to be perceived that way was a way to avoid the sexual objectification to which a girl begins to be exposed as soon as she reaches puberty. That's why I avoided attributes that could hint at the fact that I'm a girl, and therefore naive, stupid and unable to defend myself.

I now see identity as a spectrum. Every person has too many shades and nuances to be defined in several names. You can't possibly know what the person is like. An acquaintance of mine once said, "So you're a tomboy!"

Michelle
strength and perseverance

My name is Michelle, and I'm a transgender girl.
I am twenty years old. I come from Western Ukraine, but at the beginning of this year, I moved to Kyiv.
I live a very ordinary life: I work, take walks, watch soap operas.

I come from the small town of Sokal in Lviv region. The discrimination there was very severe. It made me somewhat of a local celebrity, not in a good way. Even when I came to Lviv, it felt as if everyone
was looking at me.

I am one of those transgender people who knew about their identity from the very beginning. My mother was called to kindergarten and asked: "Why is your boy behaving like a girl?". Of course, even from the very beginning, they tried to embarrass me for acting like "a woman, not a real man". In a small town, the idea of gender roles was simple, so my identity was also expressed through behaviour.
I refused to get a haircut and put on my grandmother's headscarf like a wig.

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