Daniel Requena (Valencia, 30 years old) is a trans woman who has recounted in detail her transition process (including her sexual reassignment surgeries) and the discrimination suffered by those like her.
On the TikTok social network, with the nickname of Daniela Sirena, she adds the figure of 830,000 followers.
Although she was not her intention, she has entered politics, in charge of the LGTBI and Diversity secretary of the Valencian PSOE.
She has now launched the book
Mama soy mujer, diary of a trans girl
(Planeta).
She speaks with confidence and remarkable self-confidence.
In spite of everything, she likes
Cayetanos
.
Ask.
In Spain there are two transitions that raise controversy: the political transition and the transition in which you have embarked.
He has told everything thoroughly on the networks, despite the
haters
.
Response.
I think it is necessary to make new trans referents visible.
When I was a teenager there was only La Veneno and Bibi Andersen.
I would like today's young people to find a reference in me, and not just the squalor of the night, drugs, prostitution and entertainment that has often been associated with trans.
Q.
What reference do you offer?
R.
A 30-year-old girl, who has had family support, who has gone to university, who has traveled, who has enjoyed herself.
A normal girl with the little nuance or the big nuance, she depends on who you ask, that she is a trans person.
Q.
Why has that sordid image of the trans been given?
R.
Because it is what the media taught, and because it is what many times there was: trans people had to frequently resort to those environments.
But the new generations are nurses, teachers, lawyers, whatever each one wants.
P.
You relate very intimate details, for example, of your surgeries.
R.
I am not the first person to tell about his transition on the networks, but I saw that it was done superficially.
I wanted to treat all topics naturally: my vaginoplasty can be seen on YouTube.
Q.
How is that transition made?
R.
It has a hormonal part and a surgical part, but first of all a mental and emotional part.
Before I took the first hormone pill, I already went through a very
jevi
transition .
Internal debates, conflicts, fears, one day you think yes, others no... Then, when everything is clear, the physical transition begins.
And after the physical transition comes another emotional transition to adjust to the changes.
Q.
How is it?
R.
You have to gain confidence, learn to relate to society in a different way, society begins to perceive you in a different way.
There is a stage where you are in limbo, like between Pinto and Valdemoro.
You already feel like a woman, but you are still seen as a man.
Q.
Trans,
gender fluid
, non-binary people,
queer
… Identities are multiplying and for many it is difficult to find their way around this territory.
R.
Speaking of transitions: we are in one where new ways of thinking, sexual orientations, gender identities are appearing, and I find it absolutely wonderful that each person has the freedom to be who they are.
But, so much so, that sometimes even myself, who is part of the group, I get lost.
Daniela Requena has just published the book 'Mamá, soy mujer' (Planeta).Luis Sevillano
Q.
Have you suffered episodes of transphobia?
R.
_
Yes. For example, a very archaic GP did not see fit to refer me to the Gender Identity Unit.
He exposed all the evils to me, he told me that mentally I was always going to be a man, that my life expectancy was going to decrease even until I was 35 years old, a lot of barbarity.
But I didn't pay much attention to him.
For the rest, my appearance does not usually give away that I am trans, so I save myself problems of this type.
Q.
And when it comes to intimacy?
R.
When I was not yet operated on, many guys were surprised, and I understand perfectly that some accepted and others backed down: everyone has their preferences.
Now that I've had surgery I don't understand it so much anymore: after my surgery there is no longer a difference between me and a cis woman.
P.
You, surprisingly, have a preference for the right-wing boys, the
Cayetanos
, the posh ones.
R.
What am I going to do, physically I like them, I feel attracted, being me from the PSOE.
I am more of people than of ideologies.
My last romance was with a Vox voter, imagine.
I usually provoke internal conflicts, but many times I get them to accept me as I am.
P.
In some way you are doing social work.
R.
When I get a boy who votes for Vox to be able to know me beyond my trans status, I am taking him from the dark side to the light side.
It is wonderful.
Q.
Ligues aside, what do you think of the rise of the far right?
R.
Unfortunately, Vox is having a lot of reception while promoting hate speech that translates into attacks on the LGTBI community, which are increasing.
At the same time that freedom and new options are growing, there is a reaction to them from a small part of that right.
Q.
When you said “mom I'm a woman” your family accepted it without too much drama.
R.
_
She was three days away from starting hormone treatment and she still hadn't told her family.
But once I said it, there was a brutal acceptance and that has made me who I am now, optimistic and positive.
Q.
And why did your parents accept you like this?
R.
Well, it is a family that usually votes for the PP, so don't imagine a very leftist environment either... But they are people with half a brain.
They are good people.
They know how to differentiate what is good from what is bad.
Q.
How did you get into politics?
R.
I had not considered it, not even a joke.
In the Faculty of Journalism he used to say: “Neither politics, nor economics, nor sports”, and now he looks.
But they offered it to me, they told me that I didn't have to be a deputy or something like that, that it was enough for me to continue spreading the message that I spread on social networks, but now with the support of the PSOE.
I have no plans to move up in that area.
Q.
The 'trans law'.
A.
It is going to be approved now, but it should have been yesterday.
Trans people just want equality, and gender self-determination is something necessary, without a doctor having to tell us who we are.
Q.
What do you think of the trans-exclusionary feminists, known as TERF?
R.
They are heavy, they have a very contradictory message.
If one has surgery and is a feminine girl, who wears a cleavage, she is sexualizing the woman's figure.
But if she does not have surgery, they say that he is a man in disguise, who distorts the figure of the woman.
I believe that feminism is the struggle of all women united, including trans women.
Fortunately, TERFs are few, although they make a lot of noise.
Q.
Being a trans person is not your only controversial characteristic.
So is the television tabloids that fascinate you.
R.
It is that I am a vedete.
I have always liked it, both as a journalist and to be able to be part of it, and it is where I have work experience.
The other day I was interviewed by Ximo Rovira, the presenter of
Tómbola
, and I felt a mixture of satisfaction, pride and melancholy.
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