"When you are a trans woman and you are not operated, going to the beach can be difficult for you"

Summer is here, it's hot and the beaches are filling up, and what for many people may seem like an easy association of ideas – I'm hot, I'm going to the beach – isn't always so for everyone. “When you're a trans woman and you haven't had surgery, going to the beach can be difficult,” explains Tina Recio, the founder of Ivaginarium, an organization that for ten years has been accompanying trans women who want to undergo a vaginoplasty process free of charge. “Before the operation, many of us use items to hide the genitals we were born with, such as a skirt or a sarong, but it's still an exposure that can be very unbearable for us; you feel exposed in a place surrounded by naked or semi-naked people. Many trans women don't go to the beach until they've had surgery or completed their transition. While you're transitioning, it's also complicated: you might still be wearing a wig, hairpieces, or makeup, and all of that, at the beach, becomes uncomfortable,” says Recio.

That's why one summer night she'll always remember was the one she spent on a beach in Maresme with some of the girls from Ivaginarium, who were enjoying the beach for the first time in many years. “The other girls didn't know each other, and a very beautiful bond was created. In these processes, very important emotional bonds are established; many of them see me as a second mother, or as a trans mother,” says the activist, who explains that a good portion of the girls who come to Ivaginarium do so with many problems of family, social, and work exclusion, and with the resulting emotional deficiencies. On some occasions, they have stayed at home for days, months, or weeks while recovering from a vaginoplasty or while looking for a room in Barcelona, and meeting other people who have gone through similar situations always makes them feel “more accompanied”.

Recio explains that, in her case, when she had surgery, she felt very liberated. “But not just when going to the beach, but also at the gym or when putting on cycling shorts. Before, I used a 'trucadora', a type of underwear that hides the penis, but they are very uncomfortable,” she assures.

Since then, she says she enjoys the summer as she did when she was little. “It’s curious, because now, when I think about my childhood, or dream about it, I see myself as if I had been a girl. I have made the transition inside and out,” claims Recio, who remembers that when she used to spend her summers in Malaga she always wanted them to buy her a Cordovan hat because she found it “feminine”. At that time, she says, her favorite pastime was to comb her grandmother’s “extremely long hair”, for whom she feels a deep love: “I will always remember those summers with her”.