Photographer Darija Jelincic is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. These images are from her project ‘Red Sonya’. To see Darija’s body of work click on any image.

‘Red Sonya’

Republished for the International Transgender Day of Visibility

March 31st, 2022

Sonya using breast pump to support hormonal therapy after sex change operation. She went for pump instead of breast implants because she wants a more natural look.

Sex toys are used for subsequent maintenance of a vagina after sex change operation. This practice is very painful and prolonged.

At the doctor’s office where Sonya gets her regular hormonal therapy.

Sonya holding family photo of her and her siblings when she was a man.

Gender identity as essential human right is ignored in almost all countries in the world. Daily, transgender persons face great violence, torture, rape and hate crimes by their families, neighbors and total strangers. Since they are not legally protected, most of the assaults are never reported. By neglecting and ignorance governments support violence and reinforce social trans-phobia. In most countries they are forced to live, as a gender, which they think, is fundamentally wrong for them.

Same experiences for Sonya. Born in the suburbs of San Francisco as a man, felt like a woman, being abused for such statements from early childhood, in the beginning by her family, mother and siblings, on a very aggressive level, later that circle only expanded. At one point of her life she could no longer endure so she started drinking and withdrawing into solitude, living in the mountains with dogs and wolfs. After a while she fell into problems and had to move to San Francisco. There she got all the care and rights under the condition to solve alcohol problems, what she did. I met Sonya in San Francisco where she is accepted, but still working on her identity.

Sonya playing hide and seek with her cat in her bedroom.

Sonya’s greatest passion is corsets. Here she is trying on one that was specially made for her. She collects the corsets, but never wears them in public.

Sonya at her favorite coffee shop after receiving her regular hormonal therapy

San Francisco, California, USA, 2014.

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