Transgender and travesti rights in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

have been lauded by many as some of the world's most progressive. The country "has one of the world's most comprehensive

transgender rights A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth and also with the gender role that is associated with that sex. They may have, or may intend to esta ...

laws": its

Gender Identity Law The Gender Identity Law ( es, Ley de identidad de género, links=no), 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 n ...

, passed in 2012, made Argentina the "only country that allows people to change their gender identities without facing barriers such as

hormone therapy Hormone therapy or hormonal therapy is the use of hormones in medical treatment. Treatment with hormone antagonists may also be referred to as hormonal therapy or antihormone therapy. The most general classes of hormone therapy are oncologic ho ...

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pa ...

or psychiatric diagnosis that labels them as having an abnormality". In 2015, the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

cited Argentina as an exemplary country for providing transgender rights. Leading transgender activists include Lohana Berkins, Diana Sacayán, Mariela Muñoz, María Belén Correa, Marlene Wayar, Claudia Pía Baudracco,

Susy Shock Susy Shock (born 6 December 1968) is an Argentine actress, writer, and singer who defines herself as a " trans ''sudaca'' artist". Biography Susy Shock was born in the neighborhood of Balvanera, in the center of Buenos Aires, to a father from La ...

and Lara Bertolini. Currently, Argentine trans activists are pushing for

anti-discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

and employment quota laws, as well as to stop killings of trans people. The "Day of the Promotion of the Rights of Trans People" is celebrated in the city of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

and in

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco (divided by the 28th parallel south), Corrientes, Entre R� ...

on March 18, in memory of activist Claudia Pía Baudracco.

History

Indígena transgénero en Río Negro, Argentina en 1902

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. 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. In 2012, senators unanimously approved the "Gender Law". In mid-2018, the

cities of

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous city in the country, and is also the most p ...

and Santa Fe announced the incorporation of several trans people to the Historical Reparation program, which gives

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

s 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." On June 18, 2018, a Buenos Aires court sentenced Gabriel David Marino to life imprisonment for the murder of transgender activist Diana Sacayán. For the first time in history, the Argentine Justice acknowledged that the murder was "a

hate crime A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

against the travesti identity", known as "travesticide" or "transvesticide" (Spanish: ''travesticidio''; a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words The ruling was widely celebrated by LGBT activists and has been considered "one more example of the ocialchanges underway in Argentina." On March 1, 2019, trans activist Lara María Bertolini was allowed to change her official sex to the

transfeminine A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

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." On March 19, 2019,

Neuquén Province Neuquén () is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west. It also meets La Pampa Provinc ...

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". 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. 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. The 2022 national census, carried out less than a year after the resolution was implemented, counted 56,793 (roughly 0.12%) of the country's population identifying with the "X / other" gender marker.

Gender Identity Law

The Ley de Género (Gender Law) 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. 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. The law made Argentina the "only country that allows people to change their gender identities without facing barriers such as

or psychiatric diagnosis that labels them as having an abnormality". In 2015, the

cited Argentina as an exemplary country for providing transgender rights.

Trans employment quota in the public sector

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 The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

as various prospective bills. 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. 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 Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

in 2015. On 25 June 2021, the

Argentine Senate The Honorable Senate of the Argentine Nation ( es, Honorable Senado de la Nación Argentina) is the upper house of the National Congress of Argentina. Overview The National Senate was established by the Argentine Confederation on July 29, 18 ...

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Transgender rights in Argentina

Transgender law Human rights in Argentina

History

Gender Identity Law

Trans employment quota in the public sector

See also

References