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Transgender and travesti rights in Argentina have been lauded by many as some of the world's most progressive. [1] [2] The country "has one of the world's most comprehensive transgender rights laws": [3] its Gender Identity Law, passed in 2012, made Argentina the "only country that allows people to change their gender identities without facing barriers such as hormone therapy, surgery or psychiatric diagnosis that labels them as having an abnormality". [4] [5] In 2015, the World Health Organization cited Argentina as an exemplary country for providing transgender rights. [5] Leading transgender activists include Lohana Berkins, Diana Sacayán, Mariela Muñoz, María Belén Correa, Marlene Wayar, Claudia Pía Baudracco, Susy Shock and Lara Bertolini.
Currently,[ as of? ] Argentine trans activists are pushing for anti-discrimination and employment quota laws, as well as to stop killings of trans people. [6]
The "Day of the Promotion of the Rights of Trans People" is celebrated in the city of Buenos Aires and in Santa Fe Province on March 18, in memory of activist Claudia Pía Baudracco. [7] [8]
In 1997, Asociación de Lucha por la Identidad Travesti-Transsexual was created to defend the rights of transgender people. One of its first victories came in 2006 when the Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling that had stated that transgender people did not have a legal right to organize and campaign for their rights.
In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that a 17-year-old had the legal right to go through the sex change process and have her legal documents changed to reflect the operation. [9]
In 2009, Marcela Romero won the legal right to have her identity changed, and was given an honorary title by the government. She was awarded by the Honorable Congress woman of the year. Romero remains one of the leading advocates for the human rights of transgender people in Argentina. [10]
In 2012, senators unanimously approved the "Gender Law".
In mid-2018, the Santa Fe Province cities of Rosario and Santa Fe announced the incorporation of several trans people to the Historical Reparation program, which gives pensions to victims of the last military dictatorship. Newspaper Página/12 considered that "the action, unprecedented at a national level and throughout Latin America, establishes a new standard in public policies." [11]
On June 18, 2018, a Buenos Aires court sentenced Gabriel David Marino to life imprisonment for the murder of transgender activist Diana Sacayán. [12] For the first time in history, the Argentine Justice acknowledged that the murder was "a hate crime against the travesti identity", known as "travesticide" [13] or "transvesticide" [12] (Spanish: travesticidio; a portmanteau of "travesti" and "homicide"). [14] The ruling was widely celebrated by LGBT activists and has been considered "one more example of the [social] changes underway in Argentina." [14]
On March 1, 2019, trans activist Lara María Bertolini was allowed to change her official sex to the transfeminine non-binary label "travesti femininity" through a judicial ruling that was considered a landmark for the travesti movement. Buenos Aires judge Myriam Cataldi felt that the Gender Identity Law applied to Bertolini's case, citing the law's definition of "gender identity" as: "the internal and individual experience of gender as each person feels it, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth, including the personal experience of the body." [15]
On March 19, 2019, Neuquén Province announced a pension for trans people who are older than forty years and do not have registered employment. They will receive a monthly economic contribution as part of a Historical Reparation program, which "recognizes the systematic violation of their rights". [16]
On 20 July 2021, President Alberto Fernández signed Decreto 476/2021, mandating the National Registry of Persons (RENAPER) to allow a third gender option on all national identity cards and passports, marked as an "X". The measure applies to non-citizen permanent residents who possess Argentine identity cards as well. [17] In compliance with the 2012 Gender Identity Law, this made Argentina one of the few countries in the world to legally recognize non-binary gender on all official documentation. [18] [19] [20] The 2022 national census, carried out less than a year after the resolution was implemented, counted 8,293 (roughly 0.12%) of the country's population identifying with the "X / other" gender marker. [21]
The Ley de Género (Gender Law) [22] grants adults sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy as a part of their public or private health care plans. The law also allows for changes to gender, image, or birth name on civil registries without the approval of a doctor or a judge. [4] In 2013 a six-year-old girl named Luana, who was designated male at birth, became the first transgender child in Argentina to have her new name officially changed on her identity documents. She is believed to be the youngest to benefit from the country's Gender Identity Law. [23]
The law made Argentina the "only country that allows people to change their gender identities without facing barriers such as hormone therapy, surgery or psychiatric diagnosis that labels them as having an abnormality". [4] [5] In 2015, the World Health Organization cited Argentina as an exemplary country for providing transgender rights. [5]
On 4 September 2020, President Alberto Fernández signed Decreto 721/2020, which established a 1% employment quota for trans and travesti people in the national public sector. The measure had been previously debated in the Chamber of Deputies as various prospective bills. [24] The decree mandates that at any given point, at least 1% of all public sector workers in the national government must be transgender, as understood in the 2012 Gender Identity Law. [25] The initiative had previously been proposed by Argentine trans and travesti activists such as Diana Sacayán, whose efforts led to the promotion of such laws at the provincial level in Buenos Aires Province in 2015. [26]
On 25 June 2021, the Argentine Senate passed a law mandating the continuity of Decreto 721/2020. The new law, called Promoción del Acceso al Empleo Formal para personas Travestis, Transexuales y Transgénero "Diana Sacayán - Lohana Berkins" ("Promotion of Access to Formal Employment for Travesti, Transsexual and Transgender People Diana Sacayán - Lohana Berkins"), also establishes economic incentives for businesses in the private sector that employ travesti and trans workers, and gives priority in credit lines to trans-owned small businesses. [27] [28]
Florencia Trinidad, better known by her stage name Flor de la V, is an Argentine trans-woman, actress, television personality, comedian and vedette. As producer Gerardo Sofovich's protégée, who discovered her in a 1998 revue in Buenos Aires, De La V gained media exposure and got small television roles. Her role in the widely successful Los Roldán gave her international notoriety. Over the years, she has become a household name in Argentine show business.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Argentina rank among the highest in the world. Upon legalising same-sex marriage on 15 July 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America, the second in the Americas, and the tenth in the world to do so. Following Argentina's transition to a democracy in 1983, its laws have become more inclusive and accepting of LGBT people, as has public opinion.
The term travesti is used in Latin America to designate people who were assigned male at birth and develop a feminine gender identity. Other terms have been invented and are used in South America in an attempt to further distinguish it from cross-dressing, drag, and pathologizing connotations. In Spain, the term was used in a similar way during the Franco era, but it was replaced with the advent of the medical model of transsexuality in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in order to rule out negative stereotypes. The arrival of these concepts occurred later in Latin America than in Europe, so the concept of travesti lasted, with various connotations.
The history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) in Argentina is shaped by the historic characterisation of non-heterosexuality as a public enemy: when power was exercised by the Catholic Church, it was regarded as a sin; during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was in the hands of positivist thought, it was viewed as a disease; and later, with the advent of civil society, it became a crime.
Diana Sacayán was an Argentinian LGBT activist who fought for the legal rights of transgender people in Argentina.
LGBT in Argentina refers to the diversity of practices, militancies and cultural assessments on sexual diversity that were historically deployed in the territory that is currently the Argentine Republic. It is particularly difficult to find information on the incidence of homosexuality in societies from Hispanic America as a result of the anti-homosexual taboo derived from Christian morality, so most of the historical sources of its existence are found in acts of repression and punishment. One of the main conflicts encountered by LGBT history researchers is the use of modern concepts that were non-existent to people from the past, such as "homosexual", "transgender" and "travesti", falling into an anachronism. Non-heterosexuality was historically characterized as a public enemy: when power was exercised by the Catholic Church, it was regarded as a sin; during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was in the hands of positivist thought, it was viewed as a disease; and later, with the advent of civil society, it became a crime.
Lohana Berkins was an Argentine travesti activist.
Marlene Wayar is an Argentine social psychologist, travesti-transgender activist, and author of the book Travesti: una teoría lo suficientemente buena.
Claudia Pía Baudracco was an Argentine activist for the rights of women, sexual minorities, and LGBT people.
The Gender Identity Law, Argentina's law number 26,743, allows transgender people to be treated according to their gender identity and have their personal documents registered with the corresponding name and gender. In addition, it orders that all medical treatments for transitioning be included in the Compulsory Medical Program, which guarantees coverage by practices throughout the health system, both public and private. Approved by the Senate on 9 May 2012 and promulgated on 24 May, it has been lauded by the United Nations as a pioneering step for transgender rights in the region.
Mariana Alarcón was an Argentine human rights activist focused on labor rights for trans women, establishing citizenship, and the health of transgender people. A member of the Crisálida Popular Library of Gender, Sexual Affective Diversity, and Human Rights of Tucumán, she was a pioneer in the public visibility of the trans community in the social sphere of San Miguel de Tucumán. From 2012 to 2014, she conducted training and sensitization of the police forces of Tucumán Province for the full application of the Gender Identity Law.
Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta is an Argentine lawyer, professor and politician. She was the first Minister of Women, Genders and Diversity of Argentina, serving under President Alberto Fernández from 10 December 2019 to 7 October 2022.
The March of LGBT Pride is an annual pride parade in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The march promotes the equality and rights of LGBT people. It takes place in November in memory of the creation of the first Argentine and Latin American LGBT organization, Nuestro Mundo, in November 1967.
Cris Miró was an Argentine entertainer and media personality who had a brief but influential career as a top-billing vedette in Buenos Aires' revue theatre scene during the mid-to-late 1990s. Miró began her acting career in the early 1990s in fringe theatre plays and later rose to fame as a vedette at the Teatro Maipo in 1995. For years, she hid her HIV positive status from the press until her death on 1 June 1999, due to AIDS-related lymphoma.
Gabriela Beatriz Estévez is an Argentine politician, currently serving as National Deputy representing Córdoba. A member of the Justicialist Party, Estévez was first elected in 2015 for the Front for Victory, and was re-elected in 2019 as part of the Frente de Todos. She is a member of La Cámpora.
María Rosa Martínez is an Argentine trade unionist and politician, currently serving as National Deputy elected in Buenos Aires Province. A member of Kolina, she was elected in 2019 as part of the Frente de Todos. Martínez previously worked in a number of positions in the Ministry of Social Development during the administration of Alicia Kirchner (2007–2015), and as a city councillor in Almirante Brown. She is also active in the Corriente Federal de Trabajadores (CFT).
Alba Rueda is an Argentine politician who became the first openly transgender politician in the country to hold a senior governmental position when she served as the Undersecretary of Diversity Policies within the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity between January 2020 and May 2022.
Karina Dora Urbina is an Argentine transgender rights activist. Urbina, who was one of the first activists to speak out publicly in Argentina in support of transgender rights, is also considered the first openly transgender activist in Argentine history, and was a central figure of the trans rights movement during the 1990s. She was a leader of the organisation TRANSDEVI, alongside Yanina Moreno and Patricia Gauna, and she co-organised and participated in the first pride march to take place in Buenos Aires.
Lara María Bertolini is an activist, researcher, and author of the book Soberanía Travesti, una Identidad argentinatransl. Travesti Sovereignty, an Argentinian Identity. She holds a position with the Public Ministry of Argentina and is a law student at the National University of Avellaneda. She won a historical case in Argentina that changed her birth certificate and I.D. to signify her identity with "travesti femininity".
The Law to Promote Access to Formal Employment for Travestis, and Transsexual and Transgender People "Diana Sacayán – Lohana Berkins", identified as the Law 27,636, is a law in Argentina that establishes that the national public sector must reserve at least 1% of its positions and vacancies for trans people, and encourages the private sector to take similar measures. It was passed by the Argentine Senate on 24 June 2021, and enacted on 8 July 2021, during the government of Alberto Fernández. The law is named after trans activists Diana Sacayán and Lohana Berkins.
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