Leo (he, him) is sharing with us an incident from his daily life when he was assaulted by one of the checkpoints in Syria. Leo continues to describe the situations many trans individuals face in Syria, denying him access to justice through police stations and forcing him to give up his rights through intimidation, verbal insults, and psychological violence.Leo, like many trans individuals in Syria and other countries, constantly faces obstacles in accessing education and employment. He talks about one of the incidents in an audio recording he wanted to share with us.Like many other trans individuals , Leo is also fighting for his full rights.Leo: Being a transgender man in Syria means facing numerous challenges that threaten my life.One time, my friends and I were on Ameen Street. There was a disagreement between me and one of my friends, and we were standing in front of a restaurant to order food. Then, the checkpoint arrived and didn't like our appearance because we didn't fit their ideology. They used the disagreement between me and my friend as an excuse and started verbally abusing me. Then, they, along with three others, began physically assaulting me in front of the entire street, my friends, and the people present.There were security cameras around. They slammed my head against the wall, broke my nose, and called the police.We went to the police station, and throughout the journey, they continued to beat me. I told myself that there were surveillance cameras. When they brought the cameras to the police station, instead of helping me, the officer said, "Are you trying to look like women? Are you trying to look like women?" He accused me, saying, "You are all gay," and threatened to arrest all of us. He began questioning me about all my friends present in the video and where they live.They took me to the hospital, but the bleeding didn't stop. They performed surgery on my nose and made me sign papers waiving all my rights to file a complaint in case I suffered any complications, just to release me from the police station.One time, I was going to my university and entered a group dedicated to a bus company called Al-Shahba, which transports students to the university. As soon as they saw me, they had banned me because my appearance didn't please the transportation company. They prevented me from going to the university and living my life, and they prohibited me from integrating into society or being present among the students. I tried to return to the group, but they didn't allow me because my appearance didn't align with what they wanted.

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