Digital Transgender Archive

Interview with Naiymah Sanchez

Naiymah Sanchez identifies as a heterosexual Afro-Latina transgender female of color who was assigned male at birth. She is of Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Ethiopian immigrant decent. She was born in 1983 in the U.S., grew up in the Bronx in New York and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a teenager. Expecting a daughter, her parents were both shocked and excited that she was male. As a child she was exposed to the idea of gender transition when she was shown pictures of her gay uncle’s friends who performed in drag and who transitioned themselves. She also has seven brothers and six sisters, some of whom her father had with other women. When she began to question why her sister didn’t have the same genitalia as her, her parents took her to counseling who misdiagnosed her with ADHD, bi-polar disorder, and schizophrenia to implement conversion therapy techniques like medication. She describes herself as pretty effeminate as a child, even being read as a girl by strangers. She went to school in female attire once and was sent to the principal’s office. She was told not to dress that way again. At 11, her mother took her to another doctor who diagnosed her with gender dysphoria. Her mother wasn’t entirely supportive of the idea, but her father was understanding. New York lacked clinics that treated gender identity, but when they moved to Philadelphia she went to the Mazzoni Center which helped her and her family through her transition. She was put on testosterone suppression medication and hid the fact that she was assigned male at birth in school, afraid of homophobic and transphobic incidents. She dated a guy in school who was interested in her. She was afraid to disclose her identity to him, but, after finding out, they went to prom together and were intimate. She talks about the discrimination she has experienced as a transgender person of color, such as employment discrimination, tokenization in the queer community, and doctors stigmatizing her by presuming she’s positive for HIV. She’s uncomfortable with having a penis which makes her depressed, but she struggles to get insurance to cover the procedure. She is part of organizing the Philly Trans March for the last three years, and she was also the co-chair of the Creating Change Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.