"I wasn't born in the wrong body."
- A futsal game was the theme that many of us knew about Izaro Antxia. In April she played her first match as a woman with Leioa Maia, a team in which she militated until 2017. In addition to the process of official recognition, we have talked about other processes previously experienced with this Portugalete computer, which in its day was called Gorka: its acceptance and that of others. It shows strong ideas about society, feminism and equality.
When did you start thinking you were in a group that didn't suit you?
In school, I didn't have a good time, I didn't face them, and if I stood up, they would hit me. I kept the sexual identity; however, to receive bullying, one does not need to be homosexual, it is enough to be different. I knew something was happening to me, but at the age of 7-8, I didn't know what it was.
You still didn't relate it to sexual orientation.
I gave her my name in high school thanks to a documentary I had seen on television. However, he did not share stereotypes about sexual orientation, as a transsexual man does not like men. I had doubts about that, but in the end the issue got stronger. I had a very bad time, wondering if it was worth living on...
But you kept on walking.
I decided to go ahead, looking for information, asking other transsexuals. I knew that as soon as I told a person, it would come true, that a process would begin there. Little by little I felt better, before it appeared sad in all the photos and now I feel smiling. In adolescence, there are obvious changes, and I thought: How am I going to be a woman with this body?
Have you searched for consensus with your body?
Today, I know that there are things that I can't change. It cannot be operating from 18 to 68 years old. You should know that your characteristics are yours and that some cannot change.
Has your media presence been helpful in agreeing with you?
The truth is that I should not confirm anything. My dream was to play football. Sport has given me strength, since I was young. It's been a way to escape my life. In the last year, since I started training, I've felt strong and eager to play. The problem with the federation wasn't that big, I was told I needed the ID. Despite being the same person on a paper, walking like this... It's pretty sad.
So the goal of appearing in the press has been to encourage others?
Yes. I haven't had any benefit to show up, I've even had to go through stress, but now we're 40 or 100 people and we need protection. We're fine here, but if you go to Burgos it doesn't work. When I approached the federation with the new ID, I had no problem. There are many friends, including minors, who cannot do the sport they like. If you go to the Federation, despite being named Alazne, they won't accept you, they just accept the ID genre.
It has also denounced the anesthetic social use of football as an excuse for not fighting for collective rights.
No, everyone needs problems to be put aside. Football must be criticised for other things: clubs are money companies. Football is sometimes used as a support and it is OK, but those who have lost their jobs will not be forgotten.
He has also written about the contradiction of feminism.
This text has had a great impact. I was in the feminist movement in Portugalete, and within the movements not all people are taken in the same way. I missed a claim for bisexuals in a manifesto on 28 June and was told that it had already been discussed and decided. Why not protect bisexuals? And why not asexuals? We have to put people before movements, we have to know when we're stepping on the other.
Do you also see dogmas?
Why am I more feminist if I don't get depilated? “The influence of patriarchy” say... Well, it can have a lot of reasons, but you don't consider it, you exclude people, it even makes you feel bad. Feminism has to do with that. Why can't I be a mother? They say it is to accept “imposed roles”. Theirs are also imposed roles, because they set out how a feminist should think. Don't say you're looking for equality between everyone, if you don't guarantee freedom, you don't want equality.
Are there many stereotypes about transsexuality?
Trans identities are not just transgender people, transgender people, transgender people, transgender people. But they're used to locking them all in the same group. For example, you won't know much about using what you've heard about transvestites. They're very different, they're homosexual or heterosexual ... People speak without information, all too easily. When talking about sex change, phrases like “born in a wrong body” make no sense. I was born in my body and since then I have been of the same sex.
You will do sexual re-establishment, however.
I don't feel good about my body because I see a part of my body that I don't feel, but that's why I was born in a wrong body. I'll do it to feel good, when I walked into a locker room, I don't like to teach it, I hide it, although everybody knows it. I'm looking forward to taking the resort off, and I'm going to take it off after surgery, it won't be the end of the road, but it will be a step.
Ikusgarritasuna
“Diskriminazio faktoreak metatzen dira: emakume eta lesbiana izatea bi faktore dira, emakume transexual lesbiana batek hiru bereizkeria faktore ditu. Arraza kontuak gehituz gero, faktore gehiago, jubilatua izanez gero beste bat... Gehitzen doaz, eta banan-banan kentzen joan behar gara. Ikusgarritasunarekin kentzen dira. Emakume bi eskutik hartuta ikustean pentsa dezakezu: “Zer ondo, inork ez ditu molestatzen”. Baina nik diot: “Erreparatu egin diozu, zergatik? Bada, oraindik salbuespena delako”. “Ikusgarriak izan gaitezen, ikusezin bihurtzea lortu arte” leloak laburbiltzen du gure helburua. Bi gizon eskutik helduta ikusi eta inor ohartuko ez den eguna helduko da”.
