Russias first transgender politiciansaidThursday that he has returned to his gender assigned at birth, a surprise announcement that comes amid a nationwide crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community.Roman Alyoshin previously went by the name Yulia Alyoshina, which hesaid was listed in an internal passport he received in 2020.Last year, while still identifying as a woman,hedropped a bid to run for governor in Siberias Altai region, shortly before President Vladimir Putinbanned legal and surgical sex changes.On Thursday, Alyoshin changed the name of his personal channel on Telegram to Alyoshin and replaced the profile picture with himself appearing as a man.I realized I was a guy during Lent, he wrote in a post.
I went through old albums of my ancestors, prayed for them, and it helped the idea set in that Im a guy.Im a patriot of my country, thats why I live in Russia.
I apologize to all the Russian people!It was not immediately clear under what circumstances Alyoshin, who previously stood for LGBTQ+ rights as a trans female, made the decision to detransition.Alyoshin headed the opposition Civic Initiative party in Siberias Altai region until heannounced plans to quit politics in 2022 as Russian lawmakers moved to ban LGBT propaganda among all ages, which at the time was banned only for minors.Since then, Russias Supreme Court outlawed the so-called international LGBT public movement, leading to police raids on queer venues,imprisonment for displaying extremist symbols such as the rainbow flag, andcriminal prosecutions of people linked to the LGBTQ+ community.