LGBT couple spark debate
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Three days before their marriage, Yaisah Val of Haiti revealed to her fiance that she was transgender and had completed reassignment surgery — no small act for anyone, let alone in a country dominated by patriarchy and homophobia.
Her husband-to-be did an internet search to better understand what it meant to be transgender — people whose sense of gender and identity does not correspond to their genitalia.
Now, encouraged by her husband Richecarde, the 45-year-old Ms Val is one of the first in Haiti to make public her gender identification and transsexuality, standing defiant against the Caribbean nation’s religious and political conservatism.
“Gender is in your mind; sex is between your legs,” is the mantra of Ms Val, who at age 29 completed a transition that took several years and resulted in her sexual reassignment.
The Val couple now works to educate their fellow Haitians with backing from the Kouraj organisation, which has for years supported the country’s LGBTIQ — which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
trans, intersex and queer or questioning — community.
That their mobile phones are overwhelmed with messages from young people searching for identity does not bother them, even if they spend hours answering.
“It’s people who want hope, that’s all,” smiles Yaisah Val, wrapped in her husband’s arms.