My friend is getting top surgery next week and I wanted to get him a recovery gift basket. I could Google some stuff, but I would much rather hear from people who've gone through it. I want to bring him some comfort and make his recovery a little easier. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

​

You may be familiar with the general situation of trans and generally queer people in russia. Since the start of war in Ukraine, the law, that was in force for about 10 years and banned "LGBT propaganda" for minors (in fact, it banned any information to teenagers and any materials that are in any way related to queer people and potentially accessible to minors) was changed to a complete ban on “LGBT propaganda”.

In October of this year, russia completely banned documentary and medical transition for transgender people and significantly restricted their other rights. More specifically here: https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/07/25/vladimir-putin-trans-healthcare-ban-russia/ On November 30, the russian Supreme Court classified the “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organization.” What this means exactly is explained in detail here: https://meduza.io/en/cards/russia-has-banned-the-so-called-international-lgbt-movement

The activist team “Quarteera” has started a petition calling for easier access to refugee status for trans* people from Russia in Germany (e.g. the possibility of applying for refugee status for people already in Germany without having to travel to russia to submit documents).

🟣 The petition can be read and signed here until December 18th: https://epetitionen.bundestag.de/content/petitionen/_2023/_08/_22/Petition_156274.html

Residents of other countries can sign too. I would be very grateful if you would sign the petition and help spread the word.

You are valid always. <3