Monica J. Romano is an Italian activist, writer and politician. She was the first

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

municipal councilor in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Biography

Romano was born in 1979 in

, Italy. She came from a working-class family. Her mother is from

La Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguria ...

and her father is from

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. In 1997, she graduated from high school (

classical lyceum The ''liceo classico'' or ''ginnasio'' () is the oldest public secondary school type in Italy. Its educational curriculum spans over five years, when students are generally about 14 to 19 years of age. Until 1969, this was the only secondar ...

). In 1998, she

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as a

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

, choosing the name Monica. In the same year she began her activism in associations and Italian

LGBT movements Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBTQ people in society. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBTQ people and their i ...

, fascinated by her mentor Deborah Lambillotte. Her best-known activism is for transgender people's right to work. Her activism has been going on for more than twenty years. In 2006 the Italian State, by judgment of the court, recognised the name ''Monica'' as her legal name. The "J" in her middle name is the first letter of her birth name. She has kept this "to highlight a political positioning of rejection of binary logic, passing logic and normalizazion that have always oppressed transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming people and communities". In 2007, she graduated in Political Science. In 2008, she wrote her first book "Transsexuality as Object of Discrimination", essay about discrimination of

people in contemporary society. In 2015 she wrote "Stories of XY girls", a

bildungsroman In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ...

based on the story of her life and in 2017 she wrote "Gender (R) Evolution", memoir about her activism. Both books were published by Ugo Mursia. In 2021, she ran for municipal elections in Milan for the Democratic Party, taking 938 votes. She won the election and became the first

transgender woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

municipal councilor in the history of Milan. In 2023 she published the book ''Indietro non si torna. Il lungo cammino dei diritti civili delle persone LGBT+ in Italia. Una storia personale, una battaglia politica'' with a preface by

Alessandro Zan Alessandro Zan (born 4 October 1973 in Padua) is an Italian left-wing politician and LGBT activist. Biography Zan is a leading member of the Italian gay organisation Arcigay. Since 2013 he has been a member of Italian Chamber of Deputies. B ...

, published by .

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Romano, Monica Living people 1979 births 21st-century Italian writers 21st-century Italian women writers Democratic Party (Italy) politicians Politicians from Milan Italian LGBTQ rights activists Transgender rights activists Italian transgender women Transgender women writers 21st-century Italian essayists Italian LGBTQ writers University of Milan alumni Transgender women politicians