Interview with Crista Lynn

Crista Lynn is a video blogger who has been sharing her transition journey on YouTube, offering an unfiltered and honest look into her life as a transgender woman. She began her transition at the age of 22 and completed it within a year, including gender-affirming surgeries and cosmetic procedures, while navigating both personal discovery and societal expectations. Crista is known for her adventurous spirit, whether exploring waterfalls, deserts, or engaging in creative projects at home, and for her bold, sometimes shocking sense of humor, which she uses to connect with her audience and challenge conventional ideas about gender and identity. Beyond documenting her own experiences, she seeks to inspire others in the transgender community and beyond, showing that living authentically is both possible and empowering, and emphasizing that personal growth often comes through self-acceptance and courage. Crista is also an author, currently sharing her memoir, When Fantasies Are Fulfilled, through her videos while it undergoes the publication process, giving her audience a direct, performative insight into her life story. She often reflects on the pivotal moments of her transition with honesty and humor, showing both the triumphs and the struggles she faced along the way.

Interview with Alessandra Bernaroli

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Alessandra Bernaroli, a transsexual activist from Bologna in Italy, whose legal victory was an important step for transgender rights in Italy. Hello Alessandra!

Alessandra: Hello Monika, thanks for this opportunity to talk about LGBTI Civil Rights!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Alessandra: I was born a man in 1971 and lived my life forcing myself to adhere to the image that the society established for people who had a male appearance. In my teen years, there was neither Internet nor so much “correct” information about transsexualism, so I always tried to deny my intimate feelings, believing that they were wrong and that it was happening only to me and no one else in the world.

However, that was not true; now I know it! So I behaved trying to look as manly as possible, and I succeeded easily in doing this also because of my physical appearance, which was, at that time, indubitably a male appearance both in aspect as well as in attitude. Year after year my deep feeling to be a woman didn’t disappear, of course.

I graduated in economics, served one year in military service, practiced charted accounting and finally worked as a clerk. In the meantime, I found love and I got married. Until then, it was 2005, and I was a man!