Torre Annunziata, (NA) Italy / 2017-2019
I had not spent days with my cousin for a long time and, despite having passed several moments of my adult life understanding time, its structure and its interpretation seem to waver in front of his sex change. The afternoons spent together playing seem even more distant today: memories remain, but suddenly modified by an identity that revealed itself through a path of almost 10 years filled with psychological support, bureaucracy, hormones, operations and surrounded in its darkest days from mistrust and racism. Thanks to photography I understood his new identity, redesigning the new image of my cousin inside me.
From Roberta to Robert. And it’s not just a letter.
In Italy, there are about 50 thousand Italians suffering from gender dysphoria, and despite the Consulta has interpreted the law 164 of 82 establishing that surgery for transsexual people is not essential to rectify the name on the documents (sentence number No. 15138 of 20.07.2015 of the Court of Cassation), in fact almost always the demolitive interventions were deemed necessary in order to obtain the new personal data. This necessarily entails a period of time (minimum 6 months) in which the person who made the journey does not have a document suitable to his identity, making it difficult even to make bank or mail transactions, respond to a control by law enforcement, get entry to the gym.
