Transsexuals In Italy

Author Unknown

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April 14, 1982 was a triumphant day for Pina Bonanno, formerly Giuseppe Bonanno of Catania. On this day, the ground breaking law number 164, for which she and others had fought so hard, was passed, giving Italy's transsexuals the right to officially change their sex.

While cases of psychosexual inversion (when a person feels, wants, acts and considers themselves to be of the opposite sex) date back to the classical era, twenty years ago, the issue of transsexualism in Italy was, for the most part, simply not brought up. Then suddenly in the late seventies and early eighties, transsexuals burst onto the scene with newspapers and magazine articles abounding on every aspect of their lives, often confusingly and erroneously grouping them with gays, transvestites and hermaphrodites. Italy had become fascinated with transsexuals.

In 1980, transsexuals got political - Pina Bonanno, who had a sex change operation in London in 1977, and the late Paola Astuni, operated on in Lausanne in 1967, founded the Movimento Italiano Transessuali (M.I.T.). The movement aimed to help transsexuals "come-out" but most of all to fight for legal rights, while attempting to minimise official and public discrimination.

The Link to Prostitution

At about this time, prostitution in Italy began to undergo a subtle change. A representative for the committee of civil rights for prostitutes recalls that until 1982 there were transvestite prostitutes but relatively few transsexuals. Then Italian transsexuals appeared on the streets after which Brazilian transvestites and transsexuals, or viados arrived, profoundly marking the character of Italian prostitution. Headlines in La Repubblica began reading "The Viados' over-crowded nights" and "Transvestites and transsexuals; the streets are now theirs" and by 1989, police headquarters in various cities estimated 70 to 80% of prostitutes in urban areas were "viados".

The massive influx of viados, most living in Italy illegally, became a threat to Italian transsexual prostitutes and the two groups soon came to a head on collision. M.I.T. leaders claimed the viados were undercutting prices. Worse, they said, viados were giving transsexuals a bad name by parading the streets next to naked and were not taking sufficient precautionary measures against AIDS. Italian transsexuals supported neighbourhood uprisings against the viados and demanded more police checks for prostitutes working illegally. This bitter in fighting was a source of amusement to many but it also brought to light how inextricably transsexuals' lives are linked to prostitution. Prostitution is a means of existence for the majority who face discrimination in everyday life. It is also one of the only ways to earn enough money for a sex change operation.

In the early eighties, M.I.T.'s immediate focus had been to obtain the right for Italy's 50,000 or so transsexuals to change their gender on official documents. Law number 164 gives transsexuals this right, but only after they have had a sex change operation. A further amendment stipulates that the national health care system will pay for the operation. Although the Italian law is one of the most progressive in Europe along with Germany's and Sweden's, applying it is a long and drawn out process which can last anywhere from two to five years. Many transsexuals, often intensely uncomfortable living with the genitalia they were born with, find it impossible to wait the necessary year or two before being admitted to one of the few hospitals which collaborates with the public health service and end up covering the costs themselves for a private doctor in Italy or abroad, paying up to 30 million Lira. Prior to the operation, a transsexual must get approval from a court of justice which examines medical and psychiatric evaluations, adding to the costs. Thus, the link to prostitution. Dolly De Luca, currently president of M.I.T. [now called Movimento Internazionale Transessuali] was operated on last year by a private doctor in Padua and says she is still working as a prostitute because she spent so much money.

A Place in Society

Financial burdens aside, most transsexuals, according to M.I.T., return to prostitution after a sex change operation because they simply can't fit into society. Marcella De Foco, president of M.I.T. in the Emilia Romagna region remarked last year: "Society shuts us out ... the problems of transsexuals now are tied almost exclusively to social mores".

"Our law is decidedly progressive", says Doctor Renato Marten Perolino, head of the urology department at Turin's Mauriziano Hospital. "What is not progressive is the fact that Catholicism is rooted in people's conscience and the church remains completely divided on the issue of transsexuals. Doctor Perolino performs fifteen to twenty sex change operations a year and says that many of his patients return to prostitution. "If I were to operate on a dog and then throw him back into a crowd of other dogs, they would probably leave him alone. But human beings aren't like that. Society is terribly cruel".

However, Pina Bonanno was married in church by an open minded Turinese priest ten years ago. The fifty-one year old woman who has been described as the pillar of the transsexual movement returned to Catania a short time ago to become a housewife. "I get a little bored sometimes" she giggles, but having published two books, opened and closed a cabaret in Milan called "My Way", and fought many battles, Bonanno considers herself to be exceptionally lucky. She is one of the few who have avoided a return to prostitution after she changed her sex. She says it is essential to work on ways to help transsexuals integrate into everyday life and regular jobs. "What is the use of becoming a woman if you have to keep on living the same life after the operation?" she asks? Making matters even more complicated, the operation itself, which most doctors say is only the final phase in a long series of psychological changes, is the subject of much discussion among specialists as well as transsexuals. It is a "complete leap in the dark", says Doctor Perolino. Transsexuals undergo several years of therapy prior to the operation but psychiatrists, sexologists and doctors are concerned that even so, patients may not be fully aware of the implications of this irreversible operation. A sex change does not mean that a transsexual will no longer suffer discrimination or be immediately accepted into society. Doctor Perolino worries that transsexuals are not absolutely sure about what they're doing when they come in for the operation, "but after they've gone through two or three years of analysis, I can't feel responsible - it's the psychiatrists responsibility". Suicide is not infrequent among operated transsexuals, and Doctor Perolino says one out of ten of his patients attempt it after the operation "because they realise they have made a mistake and that they've fallen pray to a sort of mysticification which surrounds transsexuals".

The Future

At recent conferences held by M.I.T., transsexuals expressed the wish to be able to change their gender officially without necessarily having a sex change operation. "What's important is having your documents up to date, whether you're operated on or not," was the general consensus. Sexologists support this view feeling that it would give transsexuals the time to calmly asses their lives before rushing into an operation. But Doctor Paolo Martini of Siena's school of legal medicine and co-author of a book on the medical and legal aspects and problems of transsexualism is doubtful that the law will change. "It's an incredibly complicated subject and the law in Italy as it is, is one of the most progressive."

Should transsexuals decide to try to change the current law, they might find it difficult to recapture the militant momentum the group had in the early eighties. M.I.T. has been running out of steam due to divergences between the old guard and the new generation. "Transsexuals should be more serious", says Dolly De Luca. "They are too frivolous". Pina Bonanno elaborates: "There's no collaboration between transsexuals and there's too much exhibitionism. The young think only of brand-name clothing, make-up and plastic surgery."

Nevertheless, Italian transsexuals have more political clout than in most countries, points out Dolly De Luca. The Radical Party, the Greens and Communists have often supported M.I.T.'s cause and invariably send one of their representatives to M.I.T. rallies. And in a surprisingly short amount of time, this minority group has inserted itself into the Italian consciousness, even though much ignorance and confusion about the subject still exists. Last September, 2000 people attended a "Miss Transsex" beauty contest held in Lucca and transsexuals such as Maurizia Paradiso and Eva Robin's have become television personalities.

The combative Dolly De Luca intends to keep M.I.T. as politically active as it was when law number 164 was passed. Speaking at an M.I.T. conference in Treviso, De Luca stated: "Transsexuals must now gain a position in society that is not only reserved for the night, but also for the day, and be able to have a "normal" rapport with people. The violence that we are subjected to every day is not so much physical as moral".

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