Kim Joaquina Pérez Fernández-Fígares (1941 – 27 February 2025) was a Spanish teacher and

trans rights The legal status of transgender people varies greatly around the world. Some countries have enacted laws protecting the rights of transgender individuals, but others have criminalized their gender identity or expression. In many cases, transg ...

activist who was the first

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

to take part in an electoral candidacy in Spain.

Biography

Kim Pérez was born in

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

in 1941. She earned a licentiate in history from the

University of Granada The University of Granada (, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Apart from the city of Granad ...

, and taught ethics and philosophy there from 1968 to 1970 and from 1976 to 2006. She was a teacher at various educational levels. She was also a communications attachée at the Spanish embassy in Algeria. Pérez

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as a

in 1991, at age 50. She was co-founder and president of the Gender Identity Association in

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, and of the collective Conjuntos Difusos-Autonomía Trans. In 1999, while Pérez was serving as president of the Gender Identity Association, Andalusia became the country's first

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

to include

gender affirming care Transgender health care includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions which affect transgender individuals.Gorton N, Grubb HM (2014). General, Sexual, and Reproductive health. In L. Erickson-Schroth. ...

and

surgeries Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery ...

in its catalog of health services. In 2007, she was number 17 on the electoral list of the United Left in municipal elections for the Granada City Council, becoming the first trans woman to be part of an electoral candidacy in Spain. In 2010, Pérez demanded that the government add an option for a neutral gender on official documents. In 2013, she chained herself to the doors of the Andalusian Parliament and began a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...

to protest a delay in the approval of the Comprehensive Transsexuality Law. In 2019, she again went on a hunger strike to denounce

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

support for the

Regional Government of Andalusia The Regional Government of Andalusia () is the government of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. It consists of the Parliament of Andalusia, Parliament, the President of the Regional Government of Andalusia, President of the Regional Government ...

, saying that the Vox party's platform could result in a reduction in the rights of trans people. Pérez died on 27 February 2025, at the age of 83.

Awards and recognition

* 2010 – FELGTBI+ Pen Award * 2017 – Gold medal of merit from the city of Granada * 2017 – "Seniors of the Year" winner from the

Ayuntamiento de Granada The Ayuntamiento de Granada is the institution charged with the government and administration of the Spanish municipality of Granada. History ;Early modern period Following the conquest of Granada in 1492, the offices of ''corregidor'' and ''r ...

* 2018 – Herald of Granada's LGBT Pride Day * 2019 – COGAM Pink Triangle Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Kim 1941 births 2025 deaths 21st-century Spanish LGBTQ people Academic staff of the University of Granada Spanish LGBTQ rights activists Spanish transgender women Spanish transgender writers Spanish women activists Transgender rights activists Transgender women writers United Left (Spain) politicians University of Granada alumni