„N-aș vrea alt copil și altă viață”. Cum a învățat să-și susțină copilul trans o mamă din R. Moldova

What do you do when your child tells you that they don’t identify with the gender they were assigned at birth? Larisa Popovici is the mother of Iacob, a young transgender man from Chisinau (whom you met in a previous episode of the “Laboratorul social” podcast). When she found out the truth, she says that she felt like her world fell apart. She went through fear, denial, tears, and unanswered questions. Today, however, she is one of the few mothers in the Republic of Moldova who speaks publicly about the experience of having a trans child and supports other parents in similar situations. We discuss awareness, acceptance, support, family, prejudice, mental health, the relationship between parents and children, and what it means to choose love when life changes all your beliefs and expectations. In this episode: 00:00 – Intro: “Do you feel like a boy?” 02:26 – Why Larisa chose to speak publicly about her experience as a mother of a trans boy. 04:49 – The support group for parents within the GENDERDOC-M Association 05:59 – Iacob’s adolescence: changes, concerns and the process of “coming out” 09:33 – The five stages of grief: a mother’s initial reaction 11:22 – Fear of society and the thought of emigrating from the Republic of Moldova 13:00 – What was Larisa’s attitude towards the LGBT community before this? 15:14 – What does a transgender person actually mean and what is intersexuality? 18:08 – The first call to GENDERDOC-M: “I want my life back!” 22:54 – Isolation from the pandemic and the harsh reality of suicide attempts among trans youth 23:53 – The Felis case: bullying in schools and the transformation into an activist 26:58 – What would Larisa change if she started over? How does gender dysphoria feel? 28:40 – Fear for the safety of a child on the street and the relationship with the police 30:14 – How to become an activist out of empathy: “Free Hugs” at Pride for teenagers whose parents do not know about their identity. 33:02 – The process of parents coming out: filtering friends and colleagues 38:05 – Total acceptance: how the use of the chosen name and pronoun influences the child’s behavior 44:20 – The experience in the USA - the turning point for Larisa 47:18 – The grandmother’s perspective (pedagogue by profession): shock therapy and social inclusion 49:37 – Iacob’s refusal to go to high school and finding a safe environment 52:20 – Changing documents in the Republic of Moldova: a long-term legal battle 54:33 – The path from denial to self-acceptance of the parent 1:00:40 – Prohibitions versus communication and mutual trust 1:03:05 – Participation in the Bucharest Pride and the importance of community visibility 1:04:51 – The Chisinau Pride March: myths, stereotypes and fear of change 1:12:43 – Dismantling stereotypes about sex change operations 1:15:01 – Response to “pity” comments: “I wouldn’t want another child and another life” 1:15:58 – “We are the pride of our children” – life lessons from Iacob 1:18:14 – Final message for parents who are going through acceptance difficulties The “Social Laboratory” podcast, where we take samples of society – people, ideas, phenomena, processes – and study them on the microphone, was conceived from the start as a public and safe space to put into words and better understand what is happening to us as individuals and as a society in a rapidly changing world. Now, after several rounds of elections have brought back to the surface the resentments accumulated over time and which, in the absence of a culture of dialogue, have accentuated the division, we propose to address, through personal stories, sensitive topics related to identity and interethnic relations in the Republic of Moldova. But we will not stop at these, because we want to discover together other stories about how this society is changing. Watch “Laboratorul social” on YouTube and moldova.europaliberă.org. *** ✔️ Subscribe to RFE/RL on social media: Facebook -   / europalibera.org   Instagram -   / europalibera   TikTok -   / europalibera.moldova   🌐 Visit our website for the latest news and reports - https://moldova.europalibera.org/ 📜 We are glad that you participate in our debates and write comments, but please respect a few rules: 1. We do not want to limit freedom of thought and expression in any way, but we reserve the right to delete from the forum statements that may have legal consequences, that are defamatory, obscene, indecent, abusive, violent, pornographic, threatening, discriminatory, inciting to hatred or are illegal. 2. The debate forum cannot be used for commercial purposes. 3. Do not knowingly post any material that could constitute a copyright infringement. 4. Comments must be mostly in Romanian and Russian.