Translation of this article: https://tetu.com/2018/01/18/une-survivante-trans-de-la-shoah-est-refusee-par-toutes-les-maisons-de-retraite/
The Italian administration refuses to give Lucy Salani, 94, a place in
residence for elderly people on the grounds that she is trans.
It’s hard to imagine, looking at her 20-year-old portrait, that this woman with a peaceful face witnessed so many horrors. Lucy Salani was born in Piedmont, northern Italy, in 1924, but grew up in Bologna, further south. Rejected by a family who sees her as a “different boy”, she is sent
to the army to serve under the fascist flag. She deserts but is overtaken by the authorities and deported Germany. After a miraculous escape, she is captured again. This
time, she is sent to Dachau, the first concentration camp built only a
few weeks after Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor in 1933. Classified
as a homosexual man, she most likely carried the pink triangle that was
imposed by the Nazi power to deportees for homosexuality, which accounted for up to 2.5% of the detainees in Dachau.Of the
200,000 political opponents, Jewish people, LGBT people, Roma and Sinti who were
sent there, an estimated 70,000 people died. All experienced cold, famine, sickness and torture. On
April 29, American soldiers entered the Dachau camp.Lucy is alive, she is a little over 20 years old.
Shortly after the Liberation, Lucy physically transitions in England but in the eyes of the Italian civil registry, Lucy still has her birth name and male legal status. For several years, she lives between Bologna, Rome and Turin. She is an upholsterer and interior designer and also likes to organize parties. Often passing through Paris, she frequents her trans friends. In Italy, she continues to be punished for crossdressing until the 70s. During the 80’s, she returned to Bologna to take care of her aging parents
Now 94, Lucy lost her family but still lives in Bologna, where she lives alone and isolated. Some
volunteers of the
MIT, the Italian Movement for Transgender Identity,
visit her to help her in her daily life,
because even if “she is very energetic and she has no major health
problems,” she needs constant care. But the Italian Social Security refuses to grant her a place in a retirement home. According to social security Lucy can not be placed with the men and share the bathrooms since she has changed sex, and vice
versa with regard to sanitary facilities for women since she is legally registred as a man.In the space of a few years, the number of people
in Lucy’s situation may increase. MIT’s lawyer plans to legally fight this situation and MIT also aims to open an inclusive establishment in Bologna: it
has already raised funds “but nobody wants to rent us premises.”
QueerAnarchism 