Monica Romano - Trans: Storie di ragazze XY

2015, Italian, Monica Romano,

Original title: "Trans: Storie di ragazze XY" (Trans: Stories of XY girls) by Monica Romano.

"Are you male or female?" It was 1986 when Ilenia heard this question asked for the first time. At the moment she doesn't know what to answer, she doesn't want to be different, she just is. The search for a true answer will accompany her all the way through adolescence and towards adulthood. Hers is the troubled journey of a girl who seems to have only one destination for society and for the right-thinking people, prostitution.

But Ilenia is a person who does not give up and immediately upsets the cards of destiny: despite bullying, discrimination, physical and verbal violence, she graduates, finds a job and an unexpected love, that for a woman. We can witness the fears, battles, wounds, and goals of a young trans woman, who like many other XY girls, fights for a peaceful and authentic life, towards gender freedom and the full right of citizenship for transgender people in civil society.

According to Wikipedia, Monica J. Romano (born in Milan, on 12 April 1979) is an Italian activist, writer, and politician. She is the first transgender person to have been elected to the City Council of Milan. In 1998 she rejected the male gender and began to live socially as a woman, choosing the name Monica. Her activism began in the same year, at the Milanese club Arcitrans "Fenice". From 2003 to 2007, she was a coordinator of the Milan office and councilor of the national executive of the association Crisalide AzioneTrans ONLUS.

In 2006 the Italian State, by court ruling, recognized the name Monica as her legal name. Today she defines herself as a transgender and non-binary woman. In 2007 she graduated in Political Science, with a thesis entitled Transsexuality as an object of discrimination, oppression, dignity, and recognition. In 2007 she was appointed delegate to the council for the Cig Arcigay Milan. In 2008 she founded the association "La Fenice", of which she was president until March 2009. A significant part of its activities is focused on building self-help and self-awareness groups aimed at transgender and non-binary people.

In 2015 she published the coming-of-age novel Trans. Storie di ragazze XY and in 2017 the militant memoir Gender (R)Evolution, both published by Ugo Mursia. In 2013 she started a self-help and self-awareness group dedicated to gender variability and non-conformity at the Harvey Milk Cultural Club in Milan. In 2019, on the occasion of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the LGBT+ movement, she was chosen by the associations of the Rainbow Coordination to open the Milano Pride event with an introductory speech.

In 2020, with Daniele Brattoli and Laura Caruso, she founded the Association for Transgender Culture and Ethics (ACET), of which she is currently the honorary president. In July 2021 she ran for the municipal elections in Milan with the Democratic Party, becoming the first transgender person elected in Milan. She was subsequently elected Vice-President of the Equal Opportunities and Civil Rights Commission.

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Photo via monicaromano.it