Trans people as Czech exotics? "The media have the edge in sensitivity over the public," thinks Viktor Heumann
Victor, has there been any change in society in the last fifteen years that has pleasantly surprised you as a trans man?
We've seen a great evolution in the portrayal of trans people! I had no idea that we would reach a point where the media's approach would do a 180 degree turn towards more sensitivity. The Czech public is still following them - and I can partly understand when someone perceives a topic as "artificial" and has trouble accepting the reality because we haven't talked about trans people yet. In any case, I perceive a great receptivity on the part of the media - they give space to topics that trans people really want to talk about, which is a fundamental change.
Why wasn't your voice heard so much before?
For a long time, only experts who focused on the medical component of transition spoke for trans people. But they couldn't reflect our specific experience - what the emotional, social, financial impacts of transition are... Or what barriers we encounter on a practical level. From not being able to travel to some countries because of the letter "F" on my ID, to the fact that married people have to divorce in order to go through a gender transition. It's clear that trans people are less worried about their safety, their relationships, their jobs - they are willing to come out with very diverse stories that shatter the "standardized" idea that every trans person hates their body and would like to have surgery as soon as possible.
Is the stigma of transition, whether medical or social, gradually being broken down?
The stigma has diminished but not disappeared - even today some people have to leave their homes or jobs because society excludes them because of their transition. Even in Trans*parent, we have some people who are very active in the association, but at the same time they are afraid to be seen anywhere, because the revelation of trans identity cannot be taken back, and family members also go through stigmatization. Many times, they are resistant to transitioning not because they don't like the trans person, but because realistically they also have to go through a coming out that they are not prepared for.
This year saw a major milestone in the fight for trans rights: a Constitutional Court ruling abolished the requirement of castration and surgery for official gender reassignment. Is there really no other way to force lawmakers to change in the Czech Republic than to file a lawsuit?
It has been our experience that legislative changes in favour of trans people are unfortunately not politically viable, even when the situation is illegal. The legal requirement of castration was clearly in conflict with the right to family, the right to health, and in fact the right to privacy - but it had no effect on political representation. In 2018, Robert Pelikán, then Justice Minister for ANO, drafted a relatively decent bill for official sex change, but it did not pass politically. Lawmakers then tossed the topic around like a hot potato. It didn't help when the European Committee on Social Rights ruled that the Czech Republic was violating the European Social Charter by castrating trans people.
How do you explain that legislators are "immune" even to clear arguments or pressure from abroad?
For a long time, we have seen anti-trans sentiments, where something that is not a political issue at all is taken as a political issue and the whole legislative process is delayed. It suits some politicians to paint trans people in negative colours and put themselves in the role of those who will "protect" the public from some "dangerous" wave. In the Czech Republic, everyone knows someone who is gay or lesbian - but the same cannot be said about trans people. We are still treated as something "exotic". Then it is easy to denigrate us in the eyes of the public.
Is there a real "boom" of trans women and trans identities in the Czech Republic?
This year, the National Institute of Mental Health conducted a survey called CZECHSEX, which asked participants about gender identity. According to the results, 0.4% of the population has an identity other than cis - which is consistent with figures from around the world. But at the same time, this is ten times more trans people than domestic medical statistics indicate. It seems that a lot of Czech trans people either haven't come out yet, or maybe aren't even interested in medical transition. What some present as a radical increase in gender transition actually reflects the greater visibility of trans people - and their greater courage to come out and transition.
In our health system, trans people belong to the care of a sexologist, which is unique in the world. Are we moving a little closer to the models that have worked abroad?
We would need to introduce a client-centred approach to trans care - the current model is more along the lines of 'you need to tick all these boxes, I'll tick the boxes that you've ticked and give you what you need'.' In collaboration with the National Institute of Mental Health, last year we did a Czech translation of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health' s Standards of Care - it's an extensive publication supported by 1600 sources and very rigorous methods. The standards include the practice of a multidisciplinary team that includes an endocrinologist, a psychologist, possibly a psychiatrist and a sexologist. If we can implement them in the Czech systems, we could take a step towards respectful care.
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Viktor Heumann
He only became fully aware of his transgender identity as an adult. His journey from coming out to transitioning was long and complicated also due to the lack of any systemic support. It was this initial experience that motivated Viktor to start the Trans*parent together with Damián Machaj, which has grown since its beginnings to become a "support network" for many trans people and their loved ones.
