In Yekaterinburg, a woman, who removed her breasts, was deprived of her children on the basis of a court decision. A local court found that the woman, Yulia Savinovskikh, was in the process of a sex-change surgery. In a nutshell, the court ruled that the woman became a man. As long as same-sex marriage in Russia is prohibited, the court ruled that she no longer had parental rights for her children, because marriage in Russia is a union between a man and a woman.
"Savinovskikh's self-identification as a male individual, given her state of marriage with a man, and her aspiration to take the social role inherent in the male sex essentially contradicts to principles of the family law of our country and comes contrary to traditions and mentality of our society," the verdict reads.
Yulia Savinovskikh and her husband have four children - two of their own and two adopted ones. In addition, Yulia has an older daughter from her first marriage, who lives separately. Custody services took the children away from the woman after Savinovskikh had a mastectomy (breast removal surgery).
The woman believes that she has no intention to identify herself by gender. "I don't want to label myself. I am a person, an individual. Male or female? This is what they cannot live without, but not me. The authorities have no complaints about our parental duties - they have complaints about my gender," Savinovskikh said, RIA Novosti reports.
Pravda.Ru