Darn, Still No South American Trans National Legislators Yet

While South American nations have made outstanding progress on trans issues over the last few years and leaders are emerging like Venezuela's Tamara Adrian who are garnering international recognition, looks like the international trans community will have to wait a little longer before we see a trans legislator elected on the South American continent.

Colombia's Shelcy Sanchez attempted to make that giant electoral leap for transkind back in 2010 when she became the first open transperson on the South American continent and first in her nation to run for a seat in their national legislature but was unsuccessful in her Colombian House of Representatives race. 


Back in February 30 year old Diane Rodriguez became the first out transperson in Ecuador to run for a seat in her nation's national legislature.  

The election was held on February 17 and unfortunately the psychology student came up short in her history making run as a member of the leftist Ruptura 25 party for a seat in Ecuador's National Assembly.

The eyes of the international trans community turned to Chile's Valentina Verbal as she picked up the baton in the attempt to make international trans history as the South American continent's first trans national legislator 

Verbal was also making history as the first open trans candidate in Chile.  She was running for the seat in Chile's national legislature representing northern Santiago’s Recoleta-Independencia district as a member of a center-right political party with a campaign message focused on achieving equality rather than her district’s specific needs.

Chile's parliamentary election isn't until November, but unfortunately Verbal announced she is dropping out as a candidate for a reason that is painfully familiar to trans people world wide:  documentation issues. 

Verbal ran for office having applied for a legal name change that isn't official yet.   She is a well known activist in the country and active in her party but was told by Chilean election officials she either had to run for her seat with her old male name on the ballot or pull out of the race.  


“I thought, perhaps naively, that given the vacuum of electoral laws, and filling in that space with the anti-discrimination law, there wouldn’t be trouble getting what I asked,” Verbal said.

The reason Verbal pulled out is she felt that having been in Chilean politics for  several years and risen to prominence as Valentina Verbal, voters wouldn’t recognize her old male birth name on the ballot and connect it with the person she is now and the campaign would be a wash.

While she may have been sidelined for this election cycle by the name change issue, Verbal said, "I’m sure of one thing: I will continue in politics.”

Verbal also said something that I and a lot of folks have made the case for here in the States and on this blog in terms of having more trans people get involved in electoral politics and running for office at all governmental levels. 

“In order to get strong social changes, it’s necessary to make them from a position of power, in particular from Parliament. Because Chile is a very legalistic country, it’s important to have laws to provoke these changes.”

While the first South American, first in the Western Hemisphere and fourth trans person worldwide elected to their national legislature won't happen in this election cycle unless there's somebody running I'm not aware of yet,  it's only a matter of time before it does.   

Guyana Reviewing British Colonial Era Crossdressing Ban

I wrote about this February 2009 case in the South American nation of Guyana in which several of our transsisters there were arrested for violating the British colonial era anti-crossdressing statute that for now is still in effect in that nation.   They were fined and given a faith based lecture from the bench by Guyanese Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson, the judge handling the case. 

The four transwomen involved in the case filed a lawsuit on February 20, 2010 to challenge that 1893 law.

Three years have now passed since that case was filed, and Guyana's chief judge Ian Chang is holding hearings on whether to eliminate that colonial-era prohibition on cross-dressing that Seon Clarke, spokesman for the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination alleges is being selectively used by the police to target the country's trans population.

“The law is plainly at odds with the ethos and provisions of the Guyana constitution, which states that it is committed to eliminating every form of discrimination,” said Clarke.

Guyanese officials who attend an annual United Nations conference on human rights issues have promised to review the British colonial era law.   The Government of Guyana committed at the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations in Geneva in May 2010 to “hold consultations on this issue over the next two years.”

But as you probably guess, because of faith based opposition Christian, Hindu and Muslim groups no action has been taken so far to keep that promise to review the law the faith based haters wish to keep in place.

The first hearings to review the law were recently held, with the government response coming on June 4. 

“Tuesday’s full-day court hearing is really the culmination of more than 4 years work between SASOD, U-RAP, Guyanese human rights attorneys and the transgender folk who suffered egregious abuses and enduring injury to their human dignity during the February 2009 police crackdowns on cross-dressing,” said SASOD’s Co-Chair, Joel Simpson. “Justice can only be served by the court declaring this insidious law unconstitutional, null and void,” Simpson concluded.

History Making Argentine Trans Woman Murdered

Sad news coming out of Argentina.  

32 year old Laura Aguilar, one of the first people to obtain a gender ID change under the Argentine Gender Identity Law in Tierra del Fuego province, was killed in the city of Rio Grande.

She was fatally stabbed May 12 in the home of her former partner Carlos Humbeto Traberg in what appears to be a relationship quarrel that went horribly wrong.

According to a spokesperson, Aguilar had gone to the home of the 55 year old Traberg where he cares for his mother with the intention of trying to rekindle their relationship.   In the midst of a heated argument in the kitchen he took out a knife and stabbed Aguilar in the heart and neck.  

Aguilar had recently filed a complaint because she was facing resistance in terms of local implementation of the nearly year old Gender Identity Law and access to trans specific medical care mandated in it.  With the help of local OHA activists and the backing of Tierra del Fuego provincial Governor Fabiana Rios she prevailed and was on track to get SRS before her untimely death.
   
She is being mourned by her activist colleagues in Argentina and hailed for her history making role.


H/T Eduarda Santos Transfofa em Blog

Valentina Verbal Running For Office In Chile

If Diane Rodriguez fails in her bid to get elected in Ecuador, then the opportunity to become the first open trans legislator on the South American continent would fall to Valentina Verbal.

Verbal is a trans activist and coordinator of the trans commission at the Chilean LGBT rights organization Fundación Iguales, and has surprised people in that nation by attempting to make this historic bid for office with the National Renewal center-right party.   It's a party she's been a member of since her youth and she defended her choice a post on her blog.
Verbal if elected in the November congressional election said in a Santiago Times interview that she intends to work for changes in the laws that affect trans people in her nation.


'We have to change the law that recognizes the sexual identity of transgender people without the state obligating them to have an actual sex change,' Verbal said

Chliean trans activists have observed what happened in their next door neighboring nation of Argentina, and have been pushing for a similar Gender Intetitly law in their nation.  .There's also positive momentum on TBLG rights issues with the recent passage and signature into law of hate crimes legislation that covers gender identity and sexual orientation.

We'll find out in November if Valentina makes history in her nation and internationally.

Ecuador's Diane Rodriguez Poised To Make History

February 17 could see international trans history being made if all goes well for 30 year old psychology student Diane Rodriguez on election night.

The student and trans activist from Guayaquil heads a trans rights organization called Silhouette X and is running for a seat in Ecuador's 100 member  unicameral Congress as a member of the leftist Ruptura 25 party.  

"My focus will be on all minorities, vulnerable ethnic groups and feminist causes,: she said in an AFP interview.   One of the legislative agenda items she'd like to see happen is same gender marriage in her nation that is 85% Catholic. 

But then again, Argentina is heavily Catholic and not only has marriage equality but a groundbreaking gender identity law on the books as well.

She came out as trans as a teen. In a scenario far too familiar to many of us around the world, she was kicked out of her parent's home for a while before being allowed to return home and pursue her dreams.

Rodriguez also won a precedent setting legal battle in 2009 that allowed her to change her name on her ID card but not the gender marker. 

She subsequently with the help of other NGO's launched a campaign that calls for individuals to be allowed to choose which gender they want to register as

If she is successful, she would become not only the first open trans lawmaker in her nation, but the first on the South American continent and the only the fourth ever in the entire world.  If she goes into a runoff election for this open seat she is competing for, that would take place on April 7.   

Trans History-Roberta Close

Contrary to this article implying that trans models like Lea T, Felipa Torres and Carol Marra are some 21st century twist to the Brazilian modeling scene, that isn't the case.  There was a trans woman strutting the catwalks in Brazil and elsewhere in the world back in the 80's.

This latest group of twentysomething Brazilian models need to bow down and recognize their trans sister who paved the way for them to be able to strut those catwalks in Rio, New York, Milan and Paris.

The pioneering transwoman in question is Roberta Gambine Moreira, who was born on this date in 1964 in Rio de Janiero.  

Known professionally as Roberta Close, she started surreptitiously taking hormones in her teens and began her modeling and film career at age 17.

The 5'10 1/2" beauty won the Miss Gay Brazil pageant at age 20, appeared in a popular Brazilian soap opera and print ads. 

She was the first trans woman to appear on the cover of Brazilian Playboy (while preoperative), and hosted a late night talk show in her homeland.  Even though she was comfortable with her pre-op status during that time period, she eventually had SRS in Britain in 1989, appeared in a post-operative photo spread in the  Brazilian mens magazine Sexy and was voted the 'Most Beautiful Woman In Brazil'.

In 1993 she married her Swiss manager, Roland Granacher, in Europe since in Roman Catholic Brazil she wasn't able to do so.



She also fought a lengthy legal battle in the Brazilian court system to challenge the laws that refused to recognize her femininity in her documentation.  She lost an initial round in 1997 and another in 2003, but eventually won her case to have her birth documentation changed.

On March 4, 2005, Roberta Close acquired legal status as a female in Brazil after Judge Leise Rodrigues de Lima Espiritu Santo of the 9th Family Court of Rio de Janeiro legally recognized her as a woman.

Roberta Close is the reason that the current crop of Brazilian trans models have their opportunities to make it in the fashion world today, and hope these 21st century ladies appreciate the barriers Roberta broke down for them.


   

Miss Transsexual Brazil 2012 Pageant

Brazil has been a good news, bad news place for our transsisters living there.   While this emerging South American economic power nation has free SRS coverage in their national health plan, is the home of trans supermodel Lea T and has had transwomen openly walking the runways at Rio's fashion week since Roberta Close first did so in the 1980's, at the same time it has seen a horrific spike in anti-trans violence and murders aimed at our Brazilian trans sisters.

Back on October 30 the first ever Miss Transsexual Brazil 2012 pageant happened in Rio de Janeiro, and here's some video from AFP documenting what happened during that first ever pageant  

Rio Fashion Week 2011 Documentary

Interesting documentary that focused on Rio's 2011 edition of International Fashion Week.   It's one of the few that has no problem using trans models, and that tradition goes back to Roberta Close in the 1980's  

This one mentioned trans model Carol Marra, who parlayed this Fashion Week 2011 appearance into a Brazilian TV reporting job..

 

Chile Activists Beginning Push For Trans Identity Law

With Argentina's successful passage and enactment of a groundbreaking Gender Identity Law, their next door neighbors on the western side of the Andes Mountains want to take a page out of the Argentinian activist playbook and enact a similar law in their country.

According to Blabbeando, the Chilean Transexual Organiztion for the Dignity of Diversity (OTD) has already produced a few ads confronting discrimination against transgender individuals but started launching on June 10 a campaign specifically advocating for a nationwide gender identity law.

They are beginning to produce ads and videos like this one with many more to come.



Since trans human rights issues have been on a roll lately in Latin America, South America and the Western Hemisphere, we can only hope that the Chilean 'Fir The Dignity Of Identity' themed campaign results in the same successful conclusion that happened on the eastern side of the Andes.

Argentina's Gender Identity Law Takes Effect

Our trans cousins in Argentina are also savoring a huge win for transkind as their groundbreaking Gender Identity Law took effect on June 4. 

It overwhelmingly passed both houses of the Argentine Legislature by lopsided margins.  It passed in the Argentine Chamber of deputies by a 167-17 margin and a 55-0 one in the Argentine Senate before being signed into law by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez. 

It makes it easier for trans people in that country to change their national identity documents to reflect who they are now in addition to adding groundbreaking benefits that ensure access to trans specific medical care in their national health plan..

Transpeople in that nation are eagerly lining up to take advantage of their new rights to change their identity documents without having to navigate the hurdles of a doctor or a judge and it's something that needs to be replicated in the United States.

Chile To Cover SRS

South America is quickly becoming the most trans friendly continent on our planet.  

Argentina just passed a groundbreaking Gender Identity Law  and now their next door neighbors in Chile have made some moves that benefit their trans population.

Chile will soon cover sex reassignment surgeries under its public health plan in order to allow citizens of limited means to “recover their true sexual identity,” Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

Brazil and Cuba are the other nations in Latin America that offer SRS as part of their national health plans to their citizens.

Until now SRS operations were only offered in private clinics at a cost of $20,000 to $30,000 but will now be performed in public hospitals in the capital of Santiago and the cities of Concepcion and Valparaiso, the health minister said late Thursday.

Before the reforms, “a poor person had no possibility of completing the process of femininization or masculinization,” Rolando Jimenez, head of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), told AFP.

The cost for SRS covered by the national health plan will now depend on the patient's income bracket, with the poorest citizens able to get the operations for free. 

Chile also enacted other reforms and measures to help prevent discrimination aimed at its TBLG population.  The health ministry ruled that blood banks cannot refuse donors based on sexual orientation and that hospitalized transsexual patients can and should room with patients of their desired gender.

If a nation of 17 million people can do this, what holding up the United States from doing so?

Argentine Senate Passes Gender Identity Law

The United States rainbow community wasn't the only one getting some wonderful news today.

My trans cousins in Argentina according to Blabbeando and Rod 2.0 tweets witnessed their national legislature passing a bill affirming their human rights.  

Been talking on these electronic pages about their Gender Identity Law that has been winding its way through the Argentine legislature.

It would make it easier for transgender peeps in that country to change their national identity documents to reflect who they are now in addition to groundbreaking benefits that ensures access to trans specific medical care in their national health plan..

It passed the Argentine Chamber of Deputies by a lopsided 167-17 margin and has been percolating in the Argentine Senate pending today's vote

It passed the Argentine Senate today on a 55-0 vote with one abstention and is now headed to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's desk for her signature.

Nice to see at least one country doing some groundbreaking things for its trans population and hope other nations emulate this.

Argentina Gender Identity Law Advancing In Senate

I've been keeping up with the Argentine legislature's attempt to pass the groundbreaking Gender Identity Law that would make it easier for its trans citizens to change names and gender codes on their identity documents without surgical intervention.

Here's the great updated news about how that is progressing for our Argentine trans cousins.   According to Blabbeando the Gender Identity Law is now in the Argentine senate.  

It passed a Senate committee with the identical language from the one passed in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies by a lopsided 167-17 margin.   It is scheduled to hit the Argentine Senate floor for debate on May 9 and if it passes, President Kirchner has indicated she will sign it into law when it hits her desk.

Wow.  More groundbreaking trans positive bills from a Latin American national legislature on the verge of becoming law. 

It leads me to ask the question when am I going to see the same trans positive law coming from my own national legislature?

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Has Successful Surgery

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez was recently sworn in for her second term as president of Argentina, and for those of us marveling at the rainbow community human rights progress in that nation we saw her landslide reelection victory in October as great news. 

The international community was alarmed to hear not long after her inauguration that during a routine checkup just before Christmas a papillary carcinoma was discovered that necessitated the removal of her thyroid gland in a 3.5 hour operation.

"The surgery on President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was carried out without any complication," presidential spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro told reporters, adding that she will remain hospitalized for about 72 hours.

Her doctors stated that she has a better than 90% chance of recovery in this case, which is welcome news to Argentina and the international community concerned about her.

Argentine Gender Identity Law Overwhelmingly Approved In Chamber of Deputies

Was perusing XQsi Magazine and was overjoyed to read that our Argentinian trans brothers and sisters are one step closer to having their Gender Identity Law become a reality.

The groundbreaking Gender Identity Law would be the first of its kind in Latin America and the world that doesn't require medical, psychiatric or surgical interventions to simply change your name and gender marker on identity documents.

If passed, the Gender ID Law would simplify the procedures needed for a person to change the name and gender code on all government documentation.   Instead of going through the court system to do so, under the proposed law you would make a request through the National Register of Persons.  For trans youth under age 18 the request would have to be made through their parents or legal guardian. 

The other wonderful feature about the Gender Identity Law is that it would guarantee that Argentinian trans people be granted access to vital and gender-affirming health services, including full or partial surgical interventions and hormone replacement therapies.

It was introduced earlier this year and according to an XQsi Magazine post by Danny Olvera cleared a joint meeting of the General Legislation and Justice Committees in early November.

On the November 30 last day of the session for the Argentinian Camber of Deputies,  the Gender Identity Laws passed on a lopsided 167-17.vote with 7 abstentions.

Needless to say the local rainbow community groups and trans people residing there were ecstatic about the fantastic legislative news.

“We can’t believe that the margin with which [the bill] has been approved had been so broad, and that all political blocs had accompanied the project, ” said Marcela Romero, president of the Argentine Association of Trans* People (ATTTA) and Secretary General of the Argentine Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans people (FALGBT).

The Gender Identity Law now moves on to the Argentine Senate for its approval.  If it passes there it will need Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's signature to become law.. 


H/T  XQsi Magazine