00:00 We had to learn how to help people in completely different states of despair.
00:07 In the heart of St. Petersburg, Sof, a volunteer at Center T, is currently inundated with a
00:13 stream of desperate pleas for aid.
00:15 The emails are from individuals in Russia's trans community, grappling with uncertainty
00:21 and fear as the parliament implements a controversial bill outlawing gender-affirming care.
00:27 We answer every day, every week, without holidays.
00:34 Center T, one of Russia's leading organizations supporting the transgender community, helps
00:39 people get medical assistance, hormone access, and even safe routes out of the country.
00:46 In July, Moscow passed a law that bans gender-affirming care, invalidates marriages involving transgender
00:51 individuals and prohibits transgender people from adopting or fostering children.
00:57 It follows another bill earlier in the year outlawing any positive or neutral representation
01:02 of LGBTQ+ culture in public spaces, popular culture or even cinema.
01:08 We had to freeze many of our plans, projects related to regional development, because we
01:17 now have ethical obligations.
01:19 A person who openly speaks for the Alliance brand can be recognized as a foreign agent
01:23 and this will have serious consequences.
01:27 According to Maria Arkhipova, a Russian trans activist and human rights lawyer currently
01:32 based in Georgia, these laws can have a deadly impact on the country's LGBTQ+ community.
01:39 People are in a situation where they will have to end their lives with suicide, they will
01:47 have to flee abroad.
01:50 In the meantime, activists like Sof and Alexei choose to stay in the country as long as they
01:55 can.
01:56 If you ask the question of whether to go to prison or leave, of course, you choose to leave.
02:01 But I try to stay as long as possible, because I see that many people cannot leave and the
02:06 LGBT community needs support.
02:07 [WHOOSH]
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