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

Summer arrives, it's hot and the beaches fill up, and what for many people might 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 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 vaginoplasty 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 transitioned. 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 will always remember was the one she spent on a beach in Maresme with some of the Ivaginarium girls, 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 approach 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 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 only when going to the beach, but also to the gym or when putting on cycling shorts. Before, I used a 'trucadora', a kind of panties that hide 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 of 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 recalls that when she used to summer in Malaga she always wanted them to buy her a Cordovan hat because she found it “feminine”. Back then, she says, her favorite pastime was styling her grandmother’s “extremely long hair”, for whom she feels a deep love: “I will always remember those summers with her”.