CUBA: Cuban transsexual woman says "soul is free" following state funded sex-change

Record ID: 334919

  • Title: CUBA: Cuban transsexual woman says "soul is free" following state funded sex-change
  • Date: 15th May 2010
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (MAY 14, 2010) (REUTERS) CAPITAL DOME IN HAVANA VARIOUS OF THE STATUE ON THE TOP OF THE CAPITAL DOME WOMAN WALKING IN THE STREET SCULPTURE OF AN ANGEL PEOPLE WALKING ON A PUBLIC BUS HAVANA, CUBA (RECENT - MAY 12, 2010) (REUTERS) THE FACE AND BODY OF TRANSSEXUAL WOMAN WHO RECENTLY UNDERWENT SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY, WENDY IRIEPA, DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRANSSEXUAL WOMAN WHO RECENTLY UNDERWENT SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY, WENDY IRIEPA, SAYING: "My mother wanted the pregnancy very badly when she was near menopause. At first they thought it was a fibroid and not a pregnancy. And when they told her that she was pregnant and that it might be a boy she decided to have her little boy and it turned out the opposite. It was there that I started tumbling in life." IRIEPA'S FOLDED HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRANSSEXUAL WOMAN WHO RECENTLY UNDERWENT SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY, WENDY IRIEPA, SAYING: "My dad beat me a lot [as a child]. My dad didn't understand that his only son was a woman, he couldn't understand that." IRIEPA SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRANSSEXUAL WOMAN WHO RECENTLY UNDERWENT SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY, WENDY IRIEPA, SAYING: "I worked as a prostitute. And while I was working as a prostitute, which was for three years, I would get home and bathe myself. I would scrub really hard because I felt inside that what I was doing was wrong, that it was something dirty. But I had to do it because society didn't let me do anything else, I didn't have a choice." IRIEPA SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRANSSEXUAL WOMAN WHO RECENTLY UNDERWENT SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY, WENDY IRIEPA, SAYING: "[After the operation] You can smile more freely. Your soul feels more free, not your body so much, but your soul. You can bathe and you don't have to be fumbling with something you don't like. Now if you are with someone you don't have to put something between the two of you, like a stuffed animal, like I used to do. I would put a big stuffed animal in front of my genitals and between the other person so they wouldn't see them." VARIOUS OF IRIEPA WALKING IN THE STREET AND CROSSING TO THE SEA WALL HAVANA, CUBA (RECENT - MAY 11, 2009) (REUTERS) TWO MEN HUGGING IN A PAINTING AT AN EVENT AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA SEXOLOGIST, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR SEX EDUCATION, AND DAUGHTER OF CUBAN PRESIDENT RAUL CASTRO, MARIELA CASTRO ESPIN, WALKING THROUGH THE EXHIBITION VARIOUS OF ART WORK AT THE EXHIBITION TO OPEN THE WEEK AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SEXOLOGIST, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR SEX EDUCATION, AND DAUGHTER OF CUBAN PRESIDENT RAUL CASTRO, MARIELA CASTRO ESPIN, SAYING: "I think it is wonderful that we have been able to do it [complete sex reassignment surgeries]. Hopefully other countries will be able to achieve this because the surgery is very expensive and very few people can afford it. It has to be the responsibility of the state like all healthcare should be. But well, this still has not happened in the whole world. At least it has been achieved in Cuba. But few, very few people have benefited in a very particular problem." HAVANA, CUBA (RECENT - MAY 12, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF IRIEPA WALKING THROUGH THE STREETS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRANSSEXUAL WOMAN WHO RECENTLY UNDERWENT SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY, WENDY IRIEPA, SAYING: "For me, it was like I had a mask over my vulva that wouldn't let it be seen, you know what I mean? And now it has been torn away. It was the most dignified experience of my life and it is a precious memory of mine." IRIEPA WALKING ALONG THE SEA WALL
  • Embargoed: 30th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA2L3DYNIJGWS9SOVD71N6FJR49
  • Story Text: After years in the making, Cuba finally began offering 'qualified' citizens sex reassignment surgery in 2008 with the government picking up the tab.
    Wendy Iriepa underwent the surgery and says the operation has changed her life and set her soul free.
    The first sex-change operation took place in Cuba back in 1988, but there was so much opposition to using public funds for the operation that the health ministry canceled the program soon after.
    But in June of 2008, at the insistence of the daughter of the then newly-instated President Raul Castro - brother of revolutionary leader and former President Fidel Castro - the program was reinstated.
    Iriepa was one of the first inline for the surgery after being clinically diagnosed as a transsexual in 1990.
    She says her life has drastically improved since the reassignment surgery and that she went through a lot to get to where she is today.
    "My mother wanted the pregnancy very badly when she was near menopause. At first they thought it was a fibroid and not a pregnancy. And when they told her that she was pregnant and that it might be a boy she decided to have her little boy and it turned out the opposite. It was there that I started tumbling in life," Iriepa told Reuters.
    She identified as a woman at a very young age and began borrowing her female cousins clothes and would tie a towel on her head to hang is if it were long hair.
    "My dad beat me a lot [as a child]. My dad didn't understand that his only son was a woman, he couldn't understand that" added Iriepa.
    She says she was discriminated in school by classmates and teachers alike. She only made it to the sixth grade before her teachers sent her to 'conduct centers' because they said she was not 'normal'.
    She quickly quit going to the conduct schools and ran away from home at the age of 12.
    With little recourse and very little education, Iriepa, like many other transpersons, began working as a prostitute.
    "I worked as a prostitute. And while I was working as a prostitute, which was for three years, I would get home and bathe myself. I would scrub really hard because I felt inside that what I was doing was wrong, that it was something dirty. But I had to do it because society didn't let me do anything else, I didn't have a choice."
    Things began to turn around for her when she arrived at the National Center for Sex Education or Cenesex.
    She began to see counselors there and educated herself on her rights. In 1997, she legally changed her name to Wendy leaving her birth name forever behind.
    When the government reinstated the program to allow free sex changes, Wendy was among some 30 patients approved for the operation.
    "[After the operation] You can smile more freely. Your soul feels more free, not your body so much, but your soul. You can bathe and you don't have to be fumbling with something you don't like. Now if you are with someone you don't have to put something between the two of you, like a stuffed animal, like I used to do. I would put a big stuffed animal in front of my genitals and between the other person so they wouldn't see them," Iriepa said.
    Much of the change in the law came about through the work and demands of Cenesex director, Mariela Castro Espin, a psychologist, sexologist and the daughter of President Raul Castro.
    Castro Espin is a gay rights activist in a country with a long history of homosexual oppression including sending gays to labor camps - a policy that ended in the 1970s.
    An advocate for homosexual rights, she has accused the national Communist Party - headed by her uncle Fidel Castro - of discriminating against gays and has called on leadership to end the discrimination.
    At an art exhibit, part of a week-long celebration to stop homophobia, she said she was very proud that the country was now offering sex reassignment surgery but added that there is still much work to be done in Cuba and abroad.
    "I think it is wonderful that we have been able to do it [complete sex reassignment surgeries]. Hopefully other countries will be able to achieve this because the surgery is very expensive and very few people can afford it. It has to be the responsibility of the state like all healthcare should be. But well, this still has not happened in the whole world. At least it has been achieved in Cuba. But few, very few people have benefited in a very particular problem," said Castro.
    The married 47-year-old Castro has led gay rights parades in Havana and urged the government to approve gay marriage.
    As for Iriepa, she has recently finished the sixth grade and wants to continue her education and study to be a secretary or possibly enroll in a university to get a degree in psychology.
    "For me, it was like I had a mask over my vulva that wouldn't let it be seen, you know what I mean? And now it has been torn away. It was the most dignified experience of my life and it is a precious memory of mine."
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