Philippine Dhanis

Dhanis joined the Reformist Movement in 2007. The following year, she became secretary of the party's local office in Thuin, then president.^[1] She then became assistant to Parliament of Wallonia member Yves Binon [fr] and joined the cabinet of Federal Minister for Budget and Administrative Simplification Olivier Chastel.^[2]

Dhanis began her transition in 2016, aged 49.^[3] With the agreement of her three children, she came out publicly in 2017.^[4] Thanks to a change of transgender law in Belgium, her transition process was made easier.^[2] She became parliamentary assistant to Jean-Jacques Flahaux [fr], who helped write the law.^[5]

In 2018, Dhanis published her autobiography, Je suis transsexuelle et j'en fais pas une maladie, a testimony to the first two years of her transition.^[6] She expressed her ambition to become the first transgender member of the Chamber of Representatives,^[7][8] as Petra De Sutter was already a member of the Senate. She organized several conferences depicting her journey.^[9]

In 2019, Dhanis was an MR candidate for the Chamber of Representatives in Hainaut Province. On a party list led by Denis Ducarme, she placed 15th out of 18 candidates.^[10] During her campaign, she was the victim of several transphobic attacks.^[11][12] That same year, she was the subject of a documentary by a journalism student at the Université catholique de Lille, which won multiple jury awards.^[13][14] She then left the political world and became a truck driver.^[15]

Philippine Dhanis died in Verlaine on 20 September 2022, at the age of 55.^[16]

• Je suis transsexuelle et j'en fais pas une maladie (2018)