BOGOTÁ — “Who knows the truth about my body? Only I do,” said Álex Rodríguez Pineda, a transgender Colombian man and activist.
He says gender identity has allowed him to express himself and to understand that there is more than one way to live in this world. Yet he knows that his life experience is disruptive for many. So, through his photography and answering uncomfortable questions, he aims to show that he is much more than the label “trans.”
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He was also recently one of the faces of the “Trans-cend” campaign by the AID FOR AIDS organization and the Taller 5 University Corporation, a design and creativity center where he studies photography, for Trans Visibility Day. Although trans people are more visible today, their lives and identities are still loaded with ignorance, stereotypes and prejudices about how they should look and act.
Transgender men, who were assigned female at birth, are a minority in the transgender community, representing just 1.7% of Colombian people who have diverse gender identities or sexual orientations, according to figures from Colombia’s Voluntary LGBTIQ+ registry.
Rodríguez Pineda came out as a trans man 14 years ago, after a lot of questioning about his own body and never believing he could ever become one. “I used to say I want to be a bearded woman,” he said. That was until he came into contact with Entre tránsitos, an art and educational project, which led him to reflect on manhood and see it as something more than just facial hair.
Moving between genders
Initially, Rodríguez Pineda said, “I found it very hard to imagine myself becoming a man. Or, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a man. I was clear on one thing though: I did not want to be a woman.”
He thought that ditching feminine clothes and acting masculine would be enough to feel free. But once he started his transition process — even before beginning a medical transition — he realized that he did not have to become a traditional man. And that moving between genders included simple issues such deciding which public toilets to use.
There is no right way to affirm a person’s transgender identity.
Gender transitions do not have an end objective; there is no right way to affirm a person’s transgender identity, Rodríguez Pineda says. Some people feel accessing medical and surgical procedures is necessary. While others believe they should not be subjected to such procedures in order to fit society’s vision of how men and women should look.
This also applies to other aspects, such as clothes and names. For example, Rodríguez Pineda is “not at all interested” in changing his gender on his ID card: “It’s a way of validating my trans life experience,” he explains.
Self expression and personal identity
Rodríguez Pineda said he is not clear what masculinity means for him and feels it must be constructed. Some days, he wants to wear a suit and tie, and others, a skirt and heels, he said, adding that this is his way of reconciling himself with his body and identity. He likes his photography to reflect this experimentation.
At times, people with trans life experiences must “wave the flag,” Rodríguez Pineda said. It is an identity to be proud of and in his case, has given him a sense that there is a transitory element in everyone. Asked how he knows he is “trans,” he replied, “How do I know I’m not? Who is to say that in a few years I won’t want to seem or express myself differently?”
He sees answering questions about himself as part of his day-to-day activism, and especially uncomfortable or even naive questions that might irritate other activists.
“Questions that could make you feel vulnerable, or comfortable, on the street, in a shop or on the bus. There’s a lot of misinformation on the trans world. People really do have crazy questions, because they’ve never interacted with a trans person,” he said, adding “if I don’t answer their questions, who will tell what they need to know?”
