BTX Café debuts in Milan: transgender rights start at the doctor's office

During Pride month, BTX Bar is launching a free, pop-culture series within its aesthetic medicine clinic. The first event, held on June 23rd, shone a spotlight on identity, the body, and trans health, featuring guests such as Priscilla, Miki Formisano, and Christian Cristalli.

During Pride month 2025, BTX Bar inaugurated a new cultural space in the heart of Milan: the BTX Café, a free and inclusive format that transforms the medical clinic into a space for open dialogue for everyone.
Launched on June 23rd at the BTX Bar in Porta Venezia, the project gave a voice to experts, activists, and representatives of the LGBTQIA+ community in an inaugural public talk dedicated to the body, to transition and to the right to healthcare.
On this occasion, BTX Bar Italia is launching its aesthetic medicine pathways for transgender and non-binary people.

A clinic unlike anything you would expect

Guests at the first talk—moderated by journalist Laura Bastianetto—included drag artist and activist Priscilla,Miki Formisano, co-founder of Trans Agenda, Christian Cristalli, national head of trans policies at Arcigay, together with Camilla Di Pasquali, Founder and Medical Director of BTX Bar Italia, and Andrea Scotti, plastic surgeon at BTX Bar and head of the gender-affirming surgery program at Niguarda Hospital.

The audience included influencers, friends, patients, and representatives from organizations such as Agedo Nazionale and the Trans Support Center of Ala Milano Onlus. The goal? To return aesthetic medicine to the community as a space for freedom and listening, where beauty is not an end, but a journey.

TRANS-forming to resemble oneself - The body, identity, and the right to be who you are

Transgender people’s bodies are not accounted for by society. Non-conforming, in transition, neglected, or vilified by "civil" society.

And while social media is the stage for unprecedented hatred, violence—as the news reminds us—too often erupts on the streets.

“Our bodies— reiterates Christian Cristalli - are plural, unconventional bodies, as unique and unrepeatable as every body is in its own way”.

At the heart of the BTX Café is the awareness that the body can be a tool for identity affirmation, and that aesthetic medicine—when practiced with ethics and humanity—can also respectfully support those undergoing transition.

“Every person is anatomically unique. - explains to the audience Dr. Camilla Di Pasquali - Aesthetic medicine and surgery must be tailored to the individual in front of us, to enhance and strengthen the strong features of their face or body, and to bring out what seems hidden. Today, it is possible to create a more feminine or masculine face, starting from the features we already have, without resorting to forcing or exaggerating these characteristics. Our modus operandi is to respect the starting anatomy without distorting the face. Under no circumstances». 

When the right to health is denied, it is society that needs a diagnosis

The talk shone a spotlight on health inequalities that affect transgender people, who are often excluded from prevention and cancer screening programs.

“There is a prevalence of oncological conditions linked to transgender people,” comments Miki Formisano – “who often do not undergo preventative screenings. [...] we tend to avoid them because medical and healthcare staff are often unprepared”.

Even the legal gender affirmation process, in Italy, remains riddled with obstacles to this day.

“Trans people – explains Cristalli – do not have the option to have their documents recognized without going to court and undergoing long, often very expensive, and stigmatizing psycho-diagnostic processes. It is worth remembering that until 2015, trans people were subjected to forced sterilization in order to be legally recognized.I believe, however, that it is society that should be diagnosed for the distress it causes by making us feel like people. We only need to look beyond our own borders: in Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands, the lives of transgender and intersex people include a range of paths and rights that are not provided for here.”.

The Pride of discord

While Pride events in Italy find themselves increasingly under attack – amidst controversy and sponsor withdrawals – BTX Bar has decided to raise its voice during the most political month of the year, returning to the conversation about bodies, identity, health, and beauty.

If Orban's Hungary has banned Pride, the Italian government already refused to sign the European Declaration in support of policies for LGBTQIA+ communities last year, on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.

“This is the right time to organize any kind of demonstration in support of the transgender community, which is under attack in Italy and around the world» - comments Priscilla, the most famous drag queen in Italy - «Our hetero-cis-patriarchal society is afraid of the transgender community because it represents everything this society fights against. And it fights it because it is afraid of it». 

Stories of life, care, and rebirth

The BTX Café has also been an important space for sharing personal stories and experiences.

Starting from the initial intervention by Priscilla in a dialogue-monologue with Mariano (Gallo), the actor who, while stepping into the shoes of Priscilla, had to confront his own internalized homophobia: «Fear is that zone of apparent comfort we don't want to leave, and when you're afraid, you don't see reality. Mariano, not the widow. Mariano is me. Mariano was in conflict with Priscilla; he didn't like the way she spoke, dressed, or behaved, he didn't understand her. And Priscilla is me”.

Also Cristalli talks about the inner conflicts caused by society's expectations of a person based on their gender assigned at birth: "I felt wrong for so many years because I stopped asking for what I wanted: it had been told, explained, and made very clear to me that I wasn't expected to ask for that. And I believe there is nothing worse than feeling judged and wrong. We need a society capable of making people feel welcomed. Every person should have a space to express themselves. And if the intent of BTX bar is to guarantee free expression for everyone, then it means we are in the right place”.

Miki Formisano describes the self-destructive experience of drugs as "the abyss," which, from a very young age, did not spare him from prison and criminal repercussions: "Ever since I was a little girl, I had the feeling that there was something wrong with me. Not having the tools to understand it, I soon decided to embark on a self-destructive path. I didn't have the strength to end it all, so I threw myself into drugs. Drugs existed to stifle that pain I had inside: I preferred to hurt myself that way so I wouldn't feel that other pain." 

Healing, as in most cases, consists of awareness. Personal rebirth—as all the guests confirmed—coincides with an opportunity for discussion and mutual aid within the LGBTQIA+ community and with "enlightened" representatives of the medical profession and the third sector. For the luckiest ones, it also comes with love. Primarily, love for oneself.

“When I met Marilena, my partner - says Miki Formisano -  she had already seen "Michele," even before I saw him myself. It was the dawn of the Internet and I discovered that there were groups of transgender men hidden away. And from there, I immediately began my gender affirmation journey and realized that there was also a possibility to live, to allow myself to be born from every point of view”.

“Let's just say she saved me - concludes Formisano - the projection of my life: realizing that I too could be a serene, happy person capable of love, because I wasn't capable of loving.

When love is missing in life, when you don't love yourself, you cannot love another person or love others in general. So when I understood that I could love myself, I understood that I could love Marilena (his current wife), I could love life”.

The trap of illegal treatments and the importance of inclusive aesthetic medicine

The talk also highlighted the condemnation of underground practices still present in the trans community, as noted by Antonia Monopoli, co-founder of the Trans Help Desk at the Associazione Ala Milano Onlus. One example among many: industrial silicone injected without any hygiene, in desperate conditions.

“Many of these girls - says Antonia Monopoli - - whom we rescue on the street used to get treated at home by the “bombardera”: this South American trans woman who would arrive with canisters of silicone bought at the hardware store and very long syringes. They would get “bombed” with silicone all over their bodies. Zero hygiene. To close the syringe holes, they would use superglue or nail polish.”.

Complications that, when they don't lead to death, are difficult to correct and leave indelible marks: «There are procedures - explains Di Pasquali - that were performed in the past, such as the injection of liquid silicone (banned in Italy since 1992), which has complications that are then treated with destructive surgery, with significant consequences from both an aesthetic and functional point of view.”.
Today, aesthetic medicine, when performed to the highest standards - explains Dr. Scotti - offers a range of treatments with results that were once only achievable through surgery: «Fortunately, the evolution of aesthetic medicine has taken much away from surgery, allowing for non-invasive, non-surgical, and much more affordable procedures with results that were once only achievable with a scalpel.”.

BTX Café: the revolution continues in September

BTX Café will return with new sessions starting in September, always with free admission. With this format, BTX Bar reaffirms its mission: to make aesthetic medicine a tool for care, inclusion, and freedom, including through dedicated pathways, an alias registry for transgender patients, and a team of empathetic and highly trained specialists.

To learn more about BTX Café and upcoming events, keep following us at www.botoxbar.it and on our social media channels.