"I hope that my example generates a debate in the rest of the world"

Dr Petra de Sutter, a Belgian gynecologist and researcher with a strong track record as a senator and MEP for the Green Party (Groen), became Europe's transgender prime minister three weeks ago.

Her appointment to the head of the Administration and Public Companies portfolio, as well as as deputy prime minister, barely made the news in Belgium, a fact that speaks of the country's quiet tolerance.

Brown-haired and fluffy, De Sutter, 57, taps his heels along a bright office at the top of a building in Brussels and sits down to give an interview last Friday, which he has weighed heavily and agrees to because feels a "responsibility".

"I understand the importance of being a role model," he assures in a meeting held last Friday together with the British newspaper

.

“And I am willing to be if it inspires and gives hope to others.

But I don't intend to travel the world as the transgender minister. "

Question.

Why hasn't your appointment generated noise in Belgium?

Answer.

People already know me.

I've been in the news for years, although now in a new position.

It has not been considered important.

You do not become a minister and vice prime minister because of your gender identity or sexual orientation, but because of other capacities.

But in other countries the reaction has been different.

And, of course, also in Belgium there have been comments from the extreme right, which I have been used to for a long time.

Q.

Like which ones?

R. You

know, all that discussion about the so-called gender ideology, which ensures that feminists have been wanting for years to destroy the natural order of things, that in which a man is a man and a woman is a woman.

Or, if we talk about sexual and reproductive rights, in whose defense I have been very active, you also go against the natural order, because you grant women autonomy to decide how many children they want, with whom and when.

In this divine scheme, homosexuality is a problem and transgender people represent the worst.

They assure that gender does not exist, that there is only one biological sex.

But I can say from my own experience that it is a totally wrong position.

Science abounds to prove otherwise.

It is an ideological question, built around the concept of family as a man and a woman who have children, period.

Q.

When you were appointed minister, you said that you hoped your example would reach the corners where being a transgender person is still a problem.

What is your message?

R.

Please stop discriminating against people for being different, for feeling different, for having a different skin or religion.

We live in a highly polarized world, powered by social media, in which everything becomes “us versus them”.

It is we Europeans against migrants;

believers in the natural order against homosexual and transgender degenerates;

Catholics and Christians against Islam;

whites against blacks.

Let's stop now.

We are judging people by pieces of their identity, when that is not who they really are.

Obama was much more than a black man when he became president of the United States.

Here Elio di Rupo, a gay man, became Prime Minister of Belgium years ago.

And it didn't make the headlines.

We are a fairly emancipated society with a legal framework that protects different people.

That is why I hope that my example will generate a debate in the rest of the world, where people are still discriminated against.

Q.

In Brazil the life expectancy of the trans group is 35 years.

R.

And the majority are marginalized, in a situation of prostitution because they need to pay for their treatments and medication.

It's awful.

If with my example I can contribute to change things, I am satisfied.

And I hope there are those who start to think: wow, these transgender people have capacities and can be ministers.

Q.

How was your transition?

R.

A painful trip, as for so many.

There was hardly any information, there was no Internet.

I was raised in a very conservative and Catholic environment.

As a teenager I felt different.

I felt alone.

I felt bad.

I felt sinful.

It took me 40 years to understand what was happening to me, what I had to do if I wanted to survive [the physical change began in 2004].

I have been very depressed, I have been very unhappy, I have been suicidal.

But I survived.

I made the necessary decisions to find help and be who I really was.

You don't change your sex, you adapt your body to your gender.

I never felt like a man, I just had a body that didn't fit.

As a child I prayed to God every night: "Please let me wake up as a woman."

Q.

Do you think the process made you stronger?

A.

Yes. And it gave me a new vision of the world. I was also brought up with many prejudices. But when I suddenly realized that I had become "the other", the outcast, the outcast, the weird, the dangerous, my vision changed. It has made me tolerant. We all tend to judge that what we see is a certain way, but most of the time we are wrong. It has made me a better doctor, because suddenly I was the patient, one of the worst. And I think it also makes me good politics. I have learned to listen, to understand people. And that is key in negotiations: understanding why someone defends a different vision of the world. If not, how am I going to find common ground for the agreement? Politics is not about being right, but about finding solutions. I also have the feeling that I can't waste my time. For 40 years I was locked in my mind. I freed myself from my own prison. That gives me energy and a sense of responsibility. We live in historic times. There are so many crises to deal with, so many things that society needs. The climate crisis is the big issue, and also the coronavirus, of course, which is the priority today.