{"id":5394,"date":"2024-07-28T02:07:34","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T02:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/tricked-into-conversion-therapy-in-siberia\/"},"modified":"2024-07-28T02:07:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T02:07:34","slug":"tricked-into-conversion-therapy-in-siberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/tricked-into-conversion-therapy-in-siberia\/","title":{"rendered":"Tricked into conversion therapy in Siberia"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After years of pressure, Ada left Russia when restrictive LGBT laws were passed in 2023<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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On a remote farm in Siberia, a man handed Ada a knife. In front of them was a pig. <\/p>\n

\u201cCut it off,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want to go ahead with the operation, you need to understand what castration means.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ada was 23 and transgender – she had been tricked into going to a conversion therapy centre after coming out to her family.<\/p>\n

She says that earlier in the summer of 2021, a relative asked her to accompany her to Novosibirsk, where she was due to undergo major heart surgery.<\/p>\n

Ada says a man met them at the airport and after a long drive, the car suddenly stopped, Ada\u2019s relative jumped out, the driver turned to Ada, demanded she hand over her smartwatch and phone, and told her bluntly: \u201cNow we\u2019re going to cure you of your perversion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only when a parcel of warm clothes arrived two weeks later that I realised that I wasn’t just there for a fortnight or a month,\u201d she adds, saying she was forced to take testosterone, pray and do manual labour, such as chopping wood.<\/p>\n

Confronted with the pig, she had a panic attack and didn\u2019t do what she had been told. <\/p>\n

Nine months later, she managed to escape. Someone had left a phone lying around which she used to call the police. <\/p>\n

They sent officers to the centre, who said Ada had to be allowed to leave as she was being held against her will.<\/p>\n

The BBC contacted the centre but the person we spoke to denied all knowledge of conversion therapy programmes. We also contacted Ada\u2019s relative but have not had a response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Ada<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ada escaped from the remote Siberian farm after nine months<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ada\u2019s time there was the lowest point in a battle she says she has been fighting all her life – first with her family, then with wider society, and now with Russia\u2019s increasingly draconian LGBT laws<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Transgender people in Russia have had their human rights systematically eroded by the government\u2019s broader political strategy of attacking vulnerable minorities, according to UN independent expert, Graeme Reid. <\/p>\n

One year after Russia passed a law banning gender reassignment surgery, he says that transgender Russians had been deprived of their \u201cmost basic rights to a legal identity and access to healthcare\u201d.<\/p>\n

The new legislation also stopped people from changing their personal details on documents – Ada was one of the last people to get her name officially changed before the law came into effect in July 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has lashed out at the West and LGBT rights, saying he is fighting for traditional Russian values. At a cultural forum in St Petersburg last year, he dismissed transgender people as \u201ctransformers or trans-something\u201d.<\/p>\n

And at the end of 2023, Russia\u2019s justice ministry announced another new ruling, declaring the \u201cinternational LGBT movement\u201d an extremist organisation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ada was outside the Supreme Court in Moscow when it declared “the international LGBT movement” an extremist organisation<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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It didn\u2019t matter that no such organisation existed. Anyone guilty of supporting what is now deemed \u201cextremist activity\u201d faces up to 12 years in jail. Even displaying a rainbow flag risks a fine, and a possible four-year prison sentence for repeat offences.<\/p>\n

In one of the first prosecutions under the new law, two tearful and terrified-looking young people appeared in court in the city of Orenburg in March. Their crime was to run a bar frequented by the LBGT community. Their case is still ongoing.<\/p>\n

After she escaped from the centre in Siberia, Ada moved into a small flat in Moscow where she offered other transgender people a safe place to stay. But the new laws were the final straw for her. <\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t stay any more\u2026 I had to leave Russia,\u201d she says, talking from her new home in Europe.<\/p>\n

For Francis, who left Russia in 2018, the new laws mean he will probably never go home. Even before they were introduced, the authorities in his hometown of Yekaterinburg had taken action against him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Francis<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Russian authorities removed Francis’s adopted children after he decided to have a mastectomy<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cFor as long as I can remember, I have known that I wasn\u2019t a girl,\u201d he says. But by 2017, he was married to Jack, had given birth to three children, and adopted two more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to my husband, \u2018Maybe I\u2019m mistaken but I think I might be transgender.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They agreed that Francis would consult a doctor. \u201cThey said, \u2018You are transgender, 100%.\u2019 I felt so much better. Everything slotted into place… I understood – this is who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

He began the process of transitioning, but before long the local authorities intervened. Their two adopted children were taken into care, and Francis was told their biological children would be next.<\/p>\n

The family left Russia and has been living in Spain ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"BBCBBC \/ Francis’s family archive<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Francis shared pictures of himself, taken when he was younger<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ally, who is non-binary and uses the pronoun \u201cthey\u201d, left Russia in 2022 after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It was a political decision, not connected to the pressures on the LGBT community, but those pressures have nonetheless taken their toll.<\/p>\n

When Ally was 14, someone asked: \u201cAre you a girl or a boy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave me such a feeling of joy – I was so happy that she couldn\u2019t tell from my outward appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later they told a friend: \u201c’I don\u2019t think I\u2019m a girl, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019m a boy either.’<\/p>\n

\u201cShe looked at me and said: \u2018Oh, OK. Checks out.\u2019 And then we carried on eating soup. It was one of the happiest moments of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ally now lives in Georgia and last year decided to have a mastectomy. Close family members still don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had just come to my parents and said, \u2018Mum, Dad, I\u2019m a lesbian,\u2019 it would have been easier than me saying, \u2018Mum, Dad, I\u2019ve cut off my breasts and I want you to call me they.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“In Russia the authorities don\u2019t like us because we\u2019re transgender. Abroad people don\u2019t like us because we\u2019re Russians,” says Ally<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Although Ally had a medical diagnosis prior to the new Russian law banning gender reassignment, and had chosen a new gender-neutral name, it\u2019s no longer possible to get passports and other key documents changed.<\/p>\n

Francis has the same problem. His documents all include his former name, which causes confusion when he is asked for ID or has to fill in forms. But he says life in Spain is good. He\u2019s found work in a textile factory which he loves.<\/p>\n

Like Ally, Francis acknowledges that the climate of intolerance fostered by the new anti-LGBT laws has made relationships with family harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother doesn\u2019t speak to me any more,\u201d he says. \u201cShe thinks I have disgraced our family, and she\u2019s embarrassed to look the neighbours in the eye. It\u2019s as if I was some freak, or a thief, or had murdered someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

And living abroad as a Russian while the war in Ukraine continues can add another layer of complexity, says Ally: \u201cIn Russia the authorities and the conservative parts of society don\u2019t like us because we\u2019re transgender. Abroad people don\u2019t like us because we\u2019re Russians.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the trans community really wants, says Ada, is for \u201cpeople to be able to dress how they want and not be afraid of being beaten up\u2026 I just want people to stop having to think about how to survive\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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BBC After years of pressure, Ada left Russia when restrictive LGBT laws were passed in 2023 On a remote farm in Siberia, a man handed Ada a knife. In front of them was a pig. \u201cCut it off,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want to go ahead with the operation, you need to understand what castration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5396,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5394\/revisions\/5396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}