Sofia's story

We met Sofia on a Sunday afternoon at the T-Project shelter. Sassy and always smiling, the 40 year-old sat down with us for a short interview that encapsulated her past 20 years of living as a transgender person in Singapore. In just under an hour, we learnt about the fears she experienced being chased out from her family, the way her life has turned around, and her ambitions for the future.

Since a very young age, Sofia was aware that she was a girl inside of a boy’s body. At the age of 21, after saving enough money, Sofia decided to go through sex change. Because of the drastic decision to change her sex and gender, her family could no longer accept her living under the same roof and eventually chased her out by the age of 24. For 16 years, Sofia lived independently on her own, taking up small jobs to pay for her daily expenses. Fortunately for her, she was taken in by a close friend who gave her a place to stay.

”Different from my own parents and siblings, I found consolation and love from strangers who I have no connections by blood, but treated me better than my own family.”

Despite the cold treatment from her family, Sofia keeps herself optimistic about life and feels blessed to live as a transgender in Singapore. According to her, unlike Singapore, other countries only allow transgender people to undertake surgical procedures to change their biological sex, yet remain their original gender on documentation. Thanks to Singapore’s open-minded policies regarding sex change, Sofia was able to undergo sex change, amend her gender on birth certificate and identification card to live with a true identity.

Another aspect of her life that she feels very thankful for is the continuous help that she has been receiving from MSF social services. After being rejected by her family and chased out without any place to go, Sofia worried about getting herself a job to sustain her life. Thankfully, with the help from the social workers, Sofia was able to find different jobs that could help her back on her feet. However, due to her medical conditions and persistent insomnia for over 7 years, Sofia found it very difficult to commit to a full-time job.

This is also the reason why she has been doing sex work as her main career for the past 16 years.

”I have been doing this (sex work) for song long that I never once thought of quitting it. Even if I have a proper job, I would not quit sex work.”

To her, sex work is an outlet for fast and easy cash that she can immediately attain to spend on different things such as clothing, home decorations and more expensive food. Sofia admits that she does not have the habit to save up, and has a tendency to spend money impulsively.

In spite of the immense difficulties she had to endure, especially at such a tender age, she remains to be joyous and easy-going - displaying such strength.

Happy with her current life, Sofia says that more can be done to change the attitude and treatment towards the transgender people in Singapore. Despite more and more young people becoming open and receptive towards trans people, she hopes that the older generation can be more inclusive and understanding.