In emotional ceremony, Argentinian president hands out new ID cards to transgender individuals

Photo: Several transgender leaders from Argentina received brand new government ID's at a ceremony officiated by president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in celebration of passage of a groundbreaking gender identity law.  Among them, Kalym Adrian, holding the white and rainbow-colored flag of the Argentinean LGBT Federation (YouTube screen capture).

Last week I was talking to a reporter about the marriage equality and gender identity laws in Argentina when she asked about my coverage of those stories on this blog over the years.  I told her that when I began to write about them it was a way to share my excitement at the fact that these tremendous advances were taking place in Latin America and because there was so little coverage of them in English-language media.  But then I joked that there was no point in writing about them anymore because media powerhouses such as The Associated Press and Reuters had caught wind of what they were missing out on and were now on the Latin American LGBT beat on a regular basis.

I bring this up because there was an incredibly moving ceremony that took place yesterday at the Argentinean government palace in Buenos Aires, better known there as The Pink House, and I thought I'd have the English-language exclusive today.  Except those pesky upstarts at the AP were all over it overnight and beat me to it ("Argentine leader proudly delivers new identity cards to transsexuals, saying equality matters").

So, yes, as the AP reports, Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner celebrated passage of the world's most progressive gender identity law by inviting a number of transgender leaders and personally handing them their new identity cards.  The law was adopted by the Argentinean congress in May by a vote of 55-0 and became law last month after getting the president's signature.  It allows transgender individuals to change their name and gender on government documents without having to prove that they have undergone gender reassignment surgery or need for court approval as had been the case before. It also grants government health coverage for transgender individuals who want to undergo a gender reassignment surgery.

Here is video of President Fernandez de Kirchner's comments at the event as posted on the government's YouTube page (in Spanish):

If you see lots of children in the room it's because the Argentinean president also signed a presidential decree yesterday which put an end to a legal loophole that kept same-sex parents who began raising children before the 2010 marriage equality law passed from registering as co-parents of those children.  If I understand correctly, the decree gives same-sex parents that weren't covered by the marriage equality law a full year to legally register their children as their own.

During her speech and before an image of Eva Perón, the president seemed to tear up a couple of times as she repeatedly invoked her husband Nestor Kirchner's name as having been key in securing passage of the marriage equality law.  Her husband, a former Argentinean president himself, died in October of 2010.

"Today is a day of tremendous reparation," the president said at the start of her speech, "today we do not shout for liberation but instead we shout for equality, which is just as important as freedom."

Referring to Kalym Adrian, who was sitting in the front row holding the flag of the Argentinean LGBT Federation (FALGBT), the president then stated that Mr. Adrian had known he was a man as early as when he was four years of age and said that it was only now at 42 years of age that he was finally being recognized for who he was. "He has waited all his life!" someone shouted from the audience which the president acknowledged by repeating "All his life".

Noting that the average age at which transgender individuals die in Argentina is 32, the president argued that part of it was due to the stress of being repressed and ignored and being denied legal rights. She said she hoped this law would change all that.

"I do not want to use a word that bothers me greatly: Tolerance. No. I do not believe in 'tolerance'. To tolerate is to say I'll allow you to be because I have no other choice", she said, "I want to talk about equality and I want to talk about all of you who will now have the same rights I have enjoyed from the moment I was born and the rights that so many millions of Argentinians have enjoyed from the moment they were born.  This is the society we want."

She later added "There is nothing new under the sun and let's see if we all can agree on that.  All these issues we are acknowledging today in a legal way are nothing new. They stem from the history of humanity and it's time for us to accept that reality is not how we'd like to be if I think in a certain way or someone else wants it to be but that reality is what it is."

The President then alluded to the days of the dictatorship when children were taken away from families and the Mothers of the Plaza began their silent protests to get their children back and championed a history of peaceful protests in Argentina in demand of human rights.  She compared it to the history of non-violent demonstrations by the Argentinian LGBT community and began thanking the LGBT activists and organizations present in the room until Alex Freyre shouted out "And those who are missing as well!"

Alex and José Maria Di Bello, who became the first same-sex couple to marry in all of Latin America when a court in Tierra del Fuego granted them a license in December of 2009, were sitting in the audience wearing their trademark red-ribbon sashes in memory of all those lost to HIV and AIDS.

The president took note and recognized that the fight for human rights sometimes left people feeling worn out but said that she was grateful for the altruistic efforts by some to not only fight for their rights but also the rights of others.

"It's better to have lived a worn out life than to always live like a flower or a butterfly without having achieved a thing," she said.

She finally closed by apologizing to people like Mr. Adrian for having had to wait for almost forty years to finally be recognized.

In the room, along with Alex and José, Kalym and members of the FALGBT were also Marcela Romero, Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Trans People (RED LACTRANS), Alejandro Iglesias, who revolutionized how people in Argentine felt about transgender individuals through his participation in the hugely popular Argentinean edition of "Big Brother", members of the Argentinean Association of Travesti, Transsexual and Transgender Individuals (ATTTA), Husbands César Cigliutti and Marcelo Suntheim who lead Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA) who laid some of the groundwork for the gender identity law in the during the last decade, Diana Sacayan who leads the Anti-discrimination Movement for Liberation (MAL) and who was a recipient of one of the ID's handed out by the president, Maria Rachid, Esteban Paulón, María José Lubertino and so many other individuals who have played such integral parts in getting these laws passed.

The Argentinean fight for LGBT equality has not come without internal community tensions and ongoing differences between organizational leaders but it was a beautiful thing to see so many women and men I so admire sitting in that room at yesterday's event. I have covered their awesome work from afar and even met some of them during the past few years and I cannot tell you how much pride I have for them right at this moment.  Bravo!

Side-note: During her speech, president Fernandez de Kirchner held a puppet version of herself which she dubbed "Cristinita". She joked that some of her critics had called a witch in the past and that perhaps the puppet should carry a broom.

The puppet was one of many created one of the lesbian couples who received a co-parenting certificate - including puppet versions of Nestor Kirchner and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. The president said they would be offered for sale at government chambers.

Shamefully, in their coverage of the event, Spain's EFE treated the reason for the ceremony as a side note and focused mostly on the president's joke about the puppet ("Argentine president presents her doll 'Cristinita'").

Extra: Video of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner handing out new ID's to transgender leaders as well as co-parent certificates to a number of lesbian couples.

Previously:

• Argentina on the verge of adopting far-reaching transgender rights law (April 23, 2012)
• Stunning LGBT campaign ads from Argentina (November 21, 2011)

Reaction:

• Argentina passes progressive gender ID law; will Australia follow? (Xtra)
• Argentine president: Equality as important as liberty (Michael-In-Norfolk)
• Quote of the Day - Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (JoeMyGod)

Argentina on the verge of adopting a far-reaching transgender rights law

Photo: Claudia Pia Baudracco, founding member of the Argentinean Travesti, Transexual and Transgender Association.

Taking the next step in becoming the most progressive Latin American nation on LGBT issues, Argentina is poised to adopt a far-reaching gender identity law that would grant transgender individuals the right to change their name and gender on their official identification records.  From ABS-CBN:

Pending in Congress since 2007, the bill hurdled Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies in December last year, with majority (167-17) voting in favor of it. It is now being debated in the Senate. If it becomes law, the bill is seen to benefit not only Argentina’s transsexuals or those who have had sex reassignment surgery.

Under the proposed measure, anyone who wants to change his or her gender and name no longer has to get a court order and comply with stringent requirements. He or she just has to go the Registro Naciona de las Personas (National Registry of Persons) with a request. Those below 18 have to get the consent of legal representatives, like parents and guardians.

The new gender and name will be used in one’s birth certificate, national identity card, and other government records.

The bill also requires government to subsidize the cost of surgery, hormone treatment, and other medical procedures for those who wish to have physical sex change.

As the article indicates, after passing the Chamber of Deputies by an overwhelming margin back in December, the bill was set to be introduced in the Senate last week.  Instead, it was side-tracked by emergency legislative action stemming from President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's decision last week to nationalize the YFP oil company from Spain.

AG Magazine says that they now expect the bill to reach the Argentinean Senate floor on May 2nd.

[Update (4/24/12): A Senate committee approved a draft of the bill that is identical to the one passed by the Chamber of Deputies.  The bill is expected to reach the Senate floor on May 9th and there are sufficient votes to insure its pasage, according to Parliamento. President Kirchner is expected to sign the bill into law once it reaches her desk.]

In the meantime, the team that produced this amazing transgender rights public service announcement for the Argentinean LGBT Federation (FALGBT) and the Argentinean Travesti, Transexual and Transgender Association (ATTTA) are back!  Director Juan Pablo Félix and Producer Matías Romero have launched this 2:30 minute spot featuring some of the leading advocates behind the push for the law.

Poignantly, it includes some of the last images captured of Claudia Pía Baudracco, a founding member of the Argentinean transgender rights movement who died of natural causes on March 18th at 42 years of age.

Baudracco always told her friends she dreamed to become the first transgender president of Argentina. She passed away before being able to see her ID reflect who she really was and before passage of a law in which she had such an integral part of making it a reality.

She leaves an impressive legacy and her spirit will undoubtedly be celebrated when the bill is signed into law.

Argentina became the first nation in Latin America to pass a comprehensive marriage equality law in 2010.

Related: Last week by a vote of 203 in favor, 0 against and 1 abstention the Argentinean Chamber of Deputies also approved a bill that would increase penalties for hate crimes committed based on “gender or sexual orientation, gender identity or its expression".  The bill now goes to the Senate as well.

Argentina: A new government ID for Alejandro Iglesias as he becomes the poster boy for transgender rights

The end of "Gran Hermano 2011": This weekend brings the season finale of "Gran Hermano 2011" - the Argentinean version of the international "Big Brother" reality show franchise.  As you know, if you have been following this blog, the show started with a bang when it was revealed to viewers that one of the contestants - Aejandro Iglesias - was a transgender man.

Surprisingly viewers quickly warmed up to Alejandro and some media observers named him an early favorite to become the winner. That didn't happen: He was voted out in March after having spent three months as a contestant (pretty respectable, considering he outlasted two of the guys in this weekend's final only to see producers bring them back into the house).

Interviewed after leaving the house, Alejandro said he had no regrets about participating in the reality show and revealing his identity in such a public way.  His hope, he said, was that his visibility might have helped others going through the same struggles he experienced earlier in his life as he realized his true identity and that his participation in the show might have led to a national dialogue on transgender rights.

"What I'd like?," Alejandro said to an interviewer, "To have the law passed so it won't be as tough to get to where I am... because people like me might be fighting the same battles and when they realize there is so much they have to do, they become depressed, they shut down."

The law Alejandro mentions in the interview is a gender identity bill expected to be introduced for debate in the Argentinean legislature later this year. If approved, the law would make it easier and faster for transgender individuals to request a new government-issued national ID, or DNI, which better-reflects their current gender.

With Alejandro becoming a pop-culture phenomenon, the Argentinean LGBT Federation (FALGBT) and the Travesti, Transexual and Transgender Association of Argentina (ATTTA) realized Alejandro had also created a tremendous opportunity to educate the public on the bill and, after reaching the producers, they were given a chance to address "Big Brother" viewers back in March. Here is the 14-minute clip of their appearance on the show, which I've translated (turn annotations on).

It's quite an amazing clip, considering it was shown on mainstream Argentinean television as part of one of the top rated shows in the country.

The gender identity bill: In the clip, FALGBT President Esteban Paulón explains that the gender identity bill is now the top priority for the organization that led the successful push for marriage equality in the country (in 2010, Argentina became the first Latin American country to pass a law granting marriage rights to same-sex couples).  He explains that the bill would allow transgender individuals to request a change of name and gender on their government-issued ID without having to be diagnosed as suffering "gender dysphoria" and without being required to show proof of having undergone gender-reassignment surgery.

Paulón also says that there are similarities between the successful campaign the Federation mounted for marriage equality and the current campaign for the gender identity bill.

He says that the Federation worked with a number of same-sex couples who went to the courts to demand the right to marry on the basis of discrimination and that nine of those couples were granted the right to marry months before marriage equality became the law of the land.

Similarly, he says that the Federation is working with several transgender individuals who have gone to court to argue the current regulations for changing their ID's are discriminatory and places an unfair burden on them and the courts have ruled in favor of three transgender individuals since December (Paulón says that there are another 30 cases pending in the courts of Buenos Aires and 100 cases total pending in Argentinean courts).

Photo: "Gran Hermano 2011" contestants Luz Rios and Alejandro Iglesias (wearing red-ribbon sashes) meet gay Argentinean hubbies Alex Freyre and José Maria Di Bello, the first gay couple to marry in all of Latin America (photo courtesy of Alex).

"Gender Dysphoria": You might never have heard of the term "gender dysphoria" but, thanks to Alejandro, most people in Argentina probably have heard of it by now.  On his casting tape, he used the term "disforia de género" as an issue he wanted to highlight as a contestant in the show and, as he "came out" as a transgender man inside the house, he also explained to them that he had "gender dysphoria" (Search for "disforia de género" on Google News and you'll get hundreds of news articles that have followed Alejandro's lead and used the term when talking about him).

In my original blog post about Alejandro I alluded to the discontent that exists out there about the term "gender dysphoria" in certain segments of the transgender community.  I did this by linking up to a blog post by Alexandra Billings in which she reacted to the casting tape clip of Alejandro I posted on my blog ("Big Latin Brother", January 6, 2011).

Basically, the argument is that "gender dysphoria" is a medical term long used to designate being transgender as a pathology or illness.  The insidiousness of the term is that it is also a diagnosis that transgender individuals must seek if they want to have access to gender-reassignment surgery or a change in their government ID in many parts of the world, including most of the United States.

What's interesting about this clip is that Marcela Romero, Director of ATTTA, takes the term - as well as Alejandro's embrace of "gender dysphoria" - head on.

"Throughout the world the transgender community is fighting to remove 'gender dysphoria', it doesn't exist" Romero says at the 8:00 minute mark, "France already removed it from its health manuals, 'gender dysphoria' doesn't exist. What exists is the guideline for a court judge to say that you have 'gender dysphoria' in order to grant you a document and delay it for four years, ten years in my case".

She also speaks directly to Alejandro, who is in the audience, at the 13:50 minute mark and says "I wanted to tell you, Ale, that 'gender dysphoria' no longer exists, let's stop 'gender dysphoria', let's stop it" to which Alejandro meekly responds "Yes, of course" and defends himself by saying "It was the only concept I had."

Paulón also puts Alejandro on the spot by asking him to commit to working with the Federation and tells him that the Federation is committed to work with him not only to make sure Alejandro gets a new ID but also in assessing whether he wants to go to the courts and demand that the state respond to the need of transgender people who want to undergo gender-reassignment surgery as a health issue.  Paulón says that this is part of a second transgender rights bill that the Federation is working on which would require the government to respond to the integral health of all Argentineans, including transgender folk.

Alejandro, who is sitting next to Luz Rios - a lesbian contestant who was his closest ally during the current season of "Gran Hermano" - commits himself to working with the Federation and ATTTA just as Luz is seen to become overwhelmed with emotion and starts to cry.

It's really an amazing clip. Perhaps I'll get to translate it down the line.

Alejandro gets his new ID: Last week, Paulón came through on one of his two promises to Alejandro. Working with Maria Rachid, Vice President of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), Alejandro received his new government ID on Thursday morning.  He is now officially registered as "Alejandro Iván Iglesias" and as a male for all intents and purposes.  Here is a (translated) clip of the ceremony in which he was handed the new documents...

Imagine the marriage equality movement in the United States working as closely with transgender rights activists in this way?

Of course, the battle for the right of transgender folk to change the name and gender on their ID's is not unique to Argentina.

In the United States there are varying policies on changing one's ID documents, most requiring a transgender person to show they've had a psychiatric evaluation and show proof of having undergone gender-reassignment surgery.  Last month, three transgender individuals sued New York City arguing that the city's requirement for proof of surgery and a psychiatric evaluation made it extremely difficult for most transgender New Yorkers to get their ID's changed.

Pakistan was in the news earlier this week after their Supreme Court granted transgender individuals to register for a "third gender" category on their government ID's.

But I am am so glad I picked up Alejandro's story early on when he was introduced as part of the "Gran Hermano" contestants back in December. It's really been an incredibly moving story.

Related:

• Genderkid: Thoughts on gender by a queer Argentinean trans boy (Blog)