At One Table

by Olena Vlasyuk

Gay, Muslim, transsexual and me are sitting at one table. A lesbian comes to our table and 

asks if she can sit here. “Of course, take a seat near my friends”, the Muslim says.

Me looking at this company feel miserably ordinate person with poor life experience. We all
here are “live books” invited by the organizers of Docudays festival. When I came here I was to tell
about civic organization “OZON” and my experience in monitoring trials during the revolution.
When the dinner came I had an opportunity to meet other “life books”, but I wasn't ready for such a
company.
Gay was the first who told his story. In fact he was invited as a refugee from Georgia. Since
the revolution there the things were going well – no corruption, good roads, high salaries. But
Georgia is the second most homophobic country in the world. The situation there is really hard.
Being an activist, he took part in 100 people demonstration in May, which met 40 000 people
running toward them with beats and wooden stools. “The image of a cleric with wooden stool is a
symbol of LGBT protests in Georgia”, said he. He didn't manage to run away and got caught by the
anti-protesters. After he was beaten to blood he got to the police car and asked for help. Georgian
policemen have a special way of dealing with gays asking for protection. They rode him to his
home and told all the relatives about his orientation. As his brothers were criminals and his family
was very religious, this man was closed in his room, tied and tortured. His brothers stabbed him
with knives, burned his skin and didn't give food and water for days. One day he broke the glass
with his shoulder, jumped from the firs flour and ran away. He is in Ukraine until he gets an answer
from UN about refuge in Europe.
Transsexual was born as a girl. He decided to sex change  at the age of 20 which ruined my
stereotype that transsexuals do not feel themselves belonging to their gender from childhood. He
was taking hormones, so I could see a bristle on his face, his voice was low and there was an
Adam's apple. He told a lot about transcommunity and discrimination within it. Even transsexual
are sexist - one his friend, transwoman, lives with a girl and demands from her doing all the
housework. This man is also in a complicated conditions because he is transman gay, and that's
why other transsexuals criticize him. His relatives support him, even his grandmother after long
arguing admitted he is much happier now.
This Muslim I met before – he came to our Academy and told about Islam according to our
course “Religion and Globalization” He told about Islam attitude towards transsexuals. In his
religion if you “transform” from girl to boy it's okay, but if you transform from boy to girl it's not
okay. He runs an Islam center in Kyiv, and invited everybody to study Arabian there. I've already
been there on “Hidjab day”, when they invited girls to wear hidjab to see their reaction. As I already
seen him several times, he was a positive representation of religion for me. He was one of those
who said that religion has to ease people's lives and not to make it more limited.
Lesbian was a friend of gay, they were working in the same LGTB center. Her organization
gave him a shelter. Her parents didn't know she's a lesbian, they do not know about her activism
and they still hope she will marry soon. She told that Ukrainian homophobes are not better that
Georgian ones.
Sitting at the same table with was very odd but pleasant. At such moments you realize
again that all conflicts in the world are artificial and caused by the lack of communication.
Everything is possible if you treat a person as your friend at the dinner table despite religion,
ethnicity and gender.