Trans Men Laughed At and Denied Entry to Egypt

Earlier this month, according to The Times of Isreal, two trans men were mocked and refused entry into Egypt because their passports still listed their deadnames and gender assigned at birth. 

Egyptian security officers stopped Or Mizan and Titi Katan, two trans men from Haifa, Isreal, at the Taba gateway to Sinai and confiscated their passports for inspection. Upon seeing that the passports didn't reflect the two men's current names and gender presentations, the border gaurds began to laugh and deride the two trans men. 

“Every now and then an officer comes by, talks to someone on the phone, looks at us, laughs and walks away,” the men told Isreal's Channel 12 news.

“They say we do not look female and because of that, they are not willing to let us in. We were shocked, we tried to explain that there is no problem with it all over the world, but they took the passports for inspection and looked at the pictures as if we were wanted. It is a terrible feeling, we just wanted a holiday,” they told Channel 12.

Many trans and nonbinary people are denied the opportunity to alter their names or gender markers on government identification documents, and therefore face discrimination, harrassment, and violence because of the perceived incongruence between official IDs and presentation.

The  dangers to trans and gender nonconforming people is worse in some countries than others. A recent index of the dangers for LGBTQ+ travelers ranked Egypt 131 out of 150 for safety.

And PinkNews reports "LGBTQ+ people in Egypt face arbitrary arrest under the country’s harsh and degrading debauchery law."

Last year, the United Nations Human Rights Council urged Egypt to stop discriminating against and arresting LGBTQ+ people. Egypt responded by stating it does not recognize the existence of queer sexuality and gender identity.