Trans teen called monster and forced to lift skirt up in Russia
The owner of the club sent her a transphobic reply when she complained
By Steve Brown
A trans teenage girl was called a “monster” and forced to lift up her skirt in Russia.
The girl, known as Melissa, was trying to get into Ionoteca club in St Petersburg but the bouncers refused her entry because she was underage but they allegedly called her a monster before demanding she lift up her skirt.
Melissa told the website Sobaka: “The problem is that I’m transgender and I have not been able to change my documents yet and so I have a man’s passport, but I look like a girl.”
She claims one of the bouncers seemed drunk and told her, ‘This monster will not come in here, we have normal people here’.
After the alleged transphobic comments, Melissa contacted the owner of the club, Alexander Ionoff, but she received a brutal reply.
He wrote: “I’m sorry, but you have a whole life of humiliation ahead of you. You knew that when you made the decision [to transition], now bear it.”
Melissa posted screenshots of the conversation on social media and Ionoff was forced to backtrack and took to Facebook to claim he has sympathy for Melissa but he couldn’t change the mindset of transphobic people.
He wrote: “What I wanted to say with such a combination of different incompatible people, that the right to own opinion is above all.
“What you are doing under the guise of fighting for the rights of transgender people is the typical Orwell’s ‘thought police’.
“The club has always positioned itself as a place of complete freedom. There are absolutely different people hanging out around us: gays and transgenders, and all kinds of representatives of the left-liberal circles: artists, poets, musicians etc.
“I regret what happened, the situation was not beautiful. I sympathise with a man who did not get into the club, no more.”