First transgender woman in Geneva (Switzerland) to get new identity papers even before going through surgery. Co-founder and chairperson of charity ÉPICÈNE (Switzerland).
Living since birth in the body of someone she called her “twin”, Lynn Bertholet grew up, studied and began her career under the first name Pierre-André.[4][5][6][7] Her true identity appeared from early childhood with the desire to wear dresses and play with her sister's dolls.[1][2] As an adolescent, she had difficulty experiencing the changes that puberty imposed on her body.[7][8]
Studies
Her father wanted her to become an engineer. She thus accepted, against her will, to study two years at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). However, she decided to follow her own path by enrolling at HEC Lausanne,[9] from which she gained a Master's degree in Political Economy in 1983, which was awarded the Credit Suisse prize for the best results obtained over the entire course. Her father, upset by her new orientation, nevertheless cut her off. She therefore had to finance her studies herself by working as a cab driver during the night.[1][8] In 1994, she completed her studies with a diploma in "Program for Executive" awarded by the IMD business school. In 2019, she will continue her education with a course of study—on diversity and inclusion—culminating in a certificate in "Leadership for Executive LGBT" from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.[10]
Professional career
After graduating, she joined UBS Group AG in Geneva, then the Caisse d'Épargne located in the same city, which later merged with the Banque Hypothécaire, becoming the Banque cantonale de Genève (BCGE). She participated in the merger process by being part of the steering committee for the operation.[1] She then continued her career at BCGE where she headed the department entitled “Affaires immobilières et entreprises de la construction” (“Real Estate and Construction Business”).
From 2002 to 2007, she taught at the Geneva School of Management[10] and participated in the creation of the Certificate of Continuing Education in Compliance Management at the University of Geneva,[5][10] a certificate which she co-directed until the end of 2006 and of which she was a member of the committee until the end of 2015. She taught in this program from 2003 to the end of 2019. From 2011 to 2020, she was deputy director of a private bank in Geneva[11][12][13] and a member of the US Program Team. At the same time, she was also a member of the scientific committee of the Institut Supérieur de Formation Bancaire (ISFB), functions that she carried out under her true identity—Lynn Bertholet—since her transition[8] on 19 October 2015, a key date that she has since then considered as her “second birth”.[1]
Since 2019, she is now a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of Égides—Alliance internationale francophone pour l'égalité et les diversités—headquartered in Montreal and founded by the Government of Quebec.[14]
ÉPICÈNE
She was the first transgender woman in Geneva to get new identity papers even before going through surgery[1][15][16] Subsequently, after two years of relentless legal proceedings,[17] she even managed to force her health insurance company—Groupe Mutuel [fr]—to pay the full cost of her facial reconstruction, a symbolic act that, since then, she has always considered as having represented the ultimate step in the recovery of her identity.[18] This encouraging outcome led her to advocate for a better medical, family and social integration of transidentity, both in Switzerland and in French-speaking countries around the world.[14]
In the same vein, her restored identity has placed her under an additional challenge, which the German-speaking Swiss newspaper Schweizer Illustrierte highlighted in its 8 March 2019 edition:
“Women face a more complex destiny than men”, says Lynn Bertholet, who was born in the wrong body and had to suffer martyrdom for more than half a century. Indeed, it was only at the age of 56 that she ultimately “dared” to show the world the face that she knew corresponded to her intimately: that of a woman. Since then, freed from her shackles, she has been engaged in an unprecedented battle succeeding to succeed in asserting herself and having her rights fully recognized with respect to her newly recovered status as a woman.[19]
She is also working actively in favour of a facilitated official and state recognition that is no longer subject to harassing evaluations.[20][19] Indeed, such exhausting procedures, according to her, would be inappropriate as they would often prove to be dangerous, discriminatory and even stigmatizing when they confront the applicant with professionals insufficiently trained in the notion of transidentity.[21] Her personal experience and background have therefore led her to realize the extent of the harmful effects triggered by these endless wandering processes which, in her opinion, are mainly based on the incompetence of many so-called “specialists” who have been randomly mandated for this purpose. As a result, she maintains that their arbitrary conclusions and anamnestic “verdicts”, most of the time, would end up with approximate or erroneous diagnoses.[22][23][24][25]
Based on the above, the association ÉPICÈNE, co-founded by Lynn Bertholet, was thus created in August 2018.[3][26][27]
In September 2020, under her impetus and co-direction, the aforementioned institution published a work—TRANS*—whose content recounts the rehabilitating and reconstructive journey accomplished or endured by a number of personalities confronted with the archetype of transidentity.[26][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]
"Lynn Bertholet: Toute une vie pour gagner son identité..."La Matinale (in French). RFJ: Radio fréquence Jura. 20 September 2019. Lynn Bertholet a été en 2015, la première femme transgenre à Genève à obtenir de nouveaux papiers d'identité avant même d'avoir subi des opérations chirurgicales.
"TRANS*: un libro e 46 storie di resilienza". Radiotelevisione Svizzera di Lingua Italiana (in Italian). 20 January 2021. Storie di persone transgender in Svizzera, raccolte in un libro fotografico
Lynn Bertholet (MSc en économie politique, HEC Lausanne; Program for Executive, IMD; présidente de l'association ÉPICÈNE), Roxane Sheybani (avocate, membre de la Commission des droits de l'homme de l'ordre des avocats de Genève, coordinatrice du groupe Égalité) (May 2019). "Quels droits pour les personnes transgenres en 2019 ?"(pdf). Anwalts — Revue de l'avocat (in French). L'Organe professionnel de la Fédération suisse des avocats: 203–208.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ ab"ÉPICÈNE"(PDF). Feuille Officielle Suisse du Commerce (in French). Registre du commerce du canton de Genève: Confédération suisse. 30 August 2018. 1004765463 — CHE-336.355.809 15705/2018. Bertholet Lynn, de Rougemont, à GenèveSummary
^ abCentre de droit bancaire et financier (2012). Certificat de formation continue en Compliance Management(pdf) (in French). Faculté de droit: université de Genève. p. 2. ➧ Membres: – Pierre-André Bertholet, senior project manager et consultant, SunGard [...]
^ abMarine Mazéas (18 May 2018). ""J'ai osé devenir une femme à 56 ans": Née dans le mauvais corps, Lynn a décidé de changer de sexe tardivement, malgré la peur de perdre son emploi, ses amis et la crainte du regard des autres. Aujourd'hui, elle s'assume totalement". Closer (in French): 38–39. En 2011, Lynn s'appelait Pierre-André et ne s'assumait pas encore en tant que femme
^ abcService Égalité & Diversité (8 December 2020). ""Vision d'un autre genre"". 12-14 de l'égalité (in French). université de Genève. Elle a créé avec les prof. Thévenoz et Bovet le « CAS en compliance management » de l'université de Genève qu'elle a dirigé de 2003 à 2008 et dans lequel elle a enseigné jusqu'à fin 2019. De 2002 à 2008, elle a été professeure ordinaire en management à la Haute École de gestion de Genève.
^Denis Balibouse (12 June 2019). "Factbox: Swiss women to strike in call for equal pay and rights" [Factbox: Les femmes suisses se mettent en grève afin de réclamer l'égalité de leurs droits, de leurs salaires et de leurs conditions de travail]. Reuters. Lynn Bertholet, 60, private bank manager [« Lynn Bertholet, 60 ans, directrice d'une banque privée »]
^ abLisa Merz (8 March 2019). "Frauen haben es komplizierter als Männer!: Im falschen Körper geboren, lebte Lynn Bertholet in einem ständigen Kampf. Erst MIT 56 JAHREN getraute sie sich, allen zu zeigen, wer sie wirklich ist: eine Frau. Seither fühlt sie sich endlich frei, muss aber auch mehr für ihre Rechte kämpfen". Schweizer Illustrierte (in German). Ringier.
^Delphine Palma, P. Wittge, J. Zaugg (30 October 2020). "Pénurie de chirurgiens spécialisés en réassignation sexuelle". Le Journal (in French). Léman bleu. Cette réflexion sur le manque de formation des chirurgiens est aussi l'objet d'un combat que mène la présidente de l'association Epicène. C'est un désert médical, la situation est vraiment aride! explique Lynn Bertholet [qui] milite aujourd'hui pour qu'un centre spécialisé soit créé en Suisse.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ abKaty Romy (20 November 2020). "TRANS*, un livre et 46 combats pour la liberté". Swissinfo: Des Perspectives Suisses en Dix Langues (in French). Illustrated by Noura Gauper, Magali Girardin. Identités
^ ab"Transidentité: des histoires, des mots et des personnalités". Radar Vaudois (in French). La Télé. 25 September 2020. C'est l'histoire d'une rencontre, celle de la Genevoise Lynn Bertholet — présidente de l'association "ÉPICÈNE" — et de la photographe vaudoise Noura Gauper. Les deux femmes racontent le parcours de 46 personnes "Trans" dans un livre intitulé "TRANS*". Des mots et des photos en provenance de la Suisse entière
