A Memoir of a Boy - In Search of a Normal Life
“I was born a boy, but I want to die as a woman”, she said, sitting in a taxi, nervous about the upcoming appointment at a sex change clinic in Bangkok.
It was a true moment of no return. She was nervous, but at the same time ready. “It’s my life and there are no other real options, even though I am sacrificing a lot. But I want a normal life, and people should accept my past, she said.” Transsexuals, especially from South-East-Asia, are living on the edge. It’s hard to get a normal job. Many are working as prostitutes or in the entertainment industry.
“It is sad to see how people are treating transsexuals as a group, rather than individuals,” she said several times. A few years earlier she lived a completely different life. As a young gay man, Moises, which was her male name at that time, searched for better opportunities outside Philippines. Moises moved to Norway in 2008, married a man and began working as a nurse. However, the relationship did not last, and the couple divorced in less than a year.
After the break up, a lot happened in Moises life in a really short time. He began cross-dressing part time, and a few months later Moises began injecting hormones and began using her new, temporary name: Moi. After one year on hormones Moi got breast implants. The operation triggered Moi to live as a woman full time. However, after some months Moi did not like being in between genders and considered sex reassignment surgery. In February 2010 she underwent a sex change operation in Bangkok.
As the journey moved on, from the first pictures were shot in January 2009 until May 2010, something happened with her. An identity, a body and a personality changed and took shape. After the operation she got her new passport. Her old name was history. Her new name was Aira, and her new life could begin. I documented everything.
However, four months after the sex reassignment surgery she caught pneumonia. Her general health was not good and her condition took an unexpected turn for the worse. She got critically ill and she died on the 25th of June 2010.
She herself gave the project the title “A Memoir of a Boy”. She wanted me to document her process and her struggles to become a normal girl.
A Memoir of a Boy” is still the title for the photo essay, but now it is also “A Memoir of a Girl”.
