"Having spent 11 years in Italy, I could see that trans women are not represented in Romania, so I decided to come back to my home country and fight for the rights of my trans sisters and brothers. Since then I have been trying to be visible and vocal everywhere in Romania, supporting the transgender Roma community and sex workers."
"Activism is only one chapter of my life. In the book, I reveal everything by presenting my relationship with my family, schoolmates, loved ones, and co-workers in Italy. It is a story about being a migrant worker, about building solidarity in a world of economic inequality, transphobia, and racism. It is the story of my gender transition, which coincides with the transition of Romania to capitalism and phobias related to class, race, and gender."
"Since I come from a Roma family, I already lost a lot of things at the very beginning of my life; my marginalization started in my childhood. I was only 14 years old when I faced transphobia for the first time in my life, and I didn't know why and what it was. I was just treated differently. I never understood it. Why? Why? I was constantly questioning myself. Am I wrong or right? But even if I lost something, I just like to believe that I lost only negative things because you cannot lose something that is positive in your life."Antonella Lerca Duda, a Romanian LGBTQI activist, author, and transgender woman documenting her transition on social media. Antonella is the first transwoman in Romania to have run for public office, dedicated to improving the social standing of women, sex workers, and the Roma community.
In 2023, I interviewed Antonella Lerca Duda for my blog - Heroines of My Life.
Available via Heroines of My Life
Photo via Heroines of My Life
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