translated from Spanish: Fran Bubani, CONICET’s first trans researcher

In science, when it comes to research, gender diversity can have great advantages: on the one hand, diverse teams are more likely to present new ideas and perspectives; on the other hand, the purposes and questions you choose to ask will not be the same. Adding diversity to the collective intelligence of a research group not only promotes creativity but also provides new contexts for understanding the social aspects of science. But reality is still quite far from this ideal plurality and that is when we find little or no information about dissenting identities in academic publications, with trans and non-binary people excluded from knowledge building and with a huge lack of visibility within the scientific community. But this lack is beginning to be filled with a little and an example of this Fran Bubani, the first trans woman in the CONICET Researcher’s Career who came from Brazil to Bariloche to devote herself to materials engineering and who in dialogue with Filo.News told both of her journey and of her experience as a trans person visible in the field of science.

Fran Bubani began his undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte, and continued with a master’s degree in materials at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, when he did not yet know that his desire would be to make a gender transition. He then came to Bariloche and did a PhD in Engineering Sciences at the Balseiro Institute, a free public institution created in 1955 and immersed in the spectacular beauty of the Patagonian Andean forest that aims to train scientists and technologists in both the nuclear area for peaceful and non-nuclear purposes. Finally, and never severing with academic training, she received a scholarship in Brazil to do a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials —which took her back to the Federal University of Minas Gerais —until she returned to our country under CONICET.” Here I work with material engineering, specifically with metal alloys, which in a nut words are mixtures of different metals with the ability or characteristic of remembering a shape that originally had [lo que se conoce como ‘efecto memoria’]. We can deform these alloys and with a small temperature change they return to the original form,” Bubani explains. She adds, regarding her position at the prestigious academic entity (here we do a parenthesis to clarify that she is the first trans woman with a position in the research career, but that there are already openly trans becarixs), who would never have imagined being the first person. The importance of a legal framework
Now, in order to understand the naive’s surprise at this news, it is necessary to remember that the Gender Identity Act, which gave everyone the right to adapt all their documentation to the sex, image and first name they wish, without resorting to justice, celebrated eight years last May since his sanction.
This advancement placed Argentina at the forefront of human rights across the continent and the world and recognizes its gender identity to all people in our country, ensuring the free development of its person according to its perceived gender identity. “When I made public my gender transition the law was already seven years old, it made a lot of noise to me and it was a big surprise to me. I was convinced that I would be one more person, perhaps one of the first or perhaps the first in the materials area, but not the first in the universe of eleven thousand people that we are in the research career across the country and all areas.” And I also found it ironic that the first person to be encouraged to do the process is, precisely, in engineering, which is an area that is usually very complicated.” 

Today marks the 8th year of the sanction of the Gender Identity Act. A law that tainted the enormous struggle of the trans trans trans transtious population in our country. This force motorized everything we have been advancing in these years and pushes us to conquer the rights we lack❤️ pic.twitter.com/QumF7PryEH — Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity (@MinGenerosAR)
May 9, 2020

In this regard, Bubani emphasizes that CONICET in terms of bureaucracy was well prepared: “Before I changed DNI, my first contact in terms of gender transition was to apply for medical leave for sex reassignment surgery. I had no problem with the paperwork and I was not questioned at all, as appropriate; and then, when I made the ID change, I did it at the end of allor as a last step, neither. I presented it at CONICET and the next day it was all up to date in the system.” I was positively surprised: from an administrative point of view I was left with the impression that it is really prepared to handle gender transitions and comply with what sets the legal framework.” But different is when we talk about social circles: “A gender transition is absolutely radical, it changes all the relationships you have in your life without exception. A lot of people came up—that was an excellent surprise—mostly women, not all but many. Some males also had super-positive reactions.” “And well, there are also people who walk away, there are people who no longer speak to me, people who avoid me. But there is not a single relationship that has remained the same in my life in general, beyond work.” 

Especially this long process, Bubani also stresses the importance of counseling and containment: “I was particularly afraid of the legal point of view, because I am one of the people who believe that beyond all the medical risks that come associated with a gender transition the main risk remains social.” It was very important for me to have legal advice to see if I was interpreting the Gender Identity Act well, whether I really had that right or if I could be kicked out for some reason… I was very concerned about the possibility of being out of work, that I could somehow pathologize and end up losing all my academic training. Then, on that side was super important the area of Gender and Diversity of the Municipality of Bariloche.” We are in a very heteronormative world, unfortunately, and that is noticeable in a lot of situations. When a visible gender transition appears, many people get confused,” Bubani argues, and exemplifies with phrases that commonly resonate in these cases: “A gender transition was made, from male to female because in reality he likes males. Or the other way around, he made a gender transition from woman to male because he actually likes women.” There are people, not all but others, who try to interpret gender transitions under a heteronormative look, in which gender and sexual orientation are related.”

The Gender and Diversity area of Bariloche was founded in September 2018 to promote a culture of equality and guarantee of rights as well as to generate and implement public policies with a gender perspective.

What’s going on in science?
“Diversity is everywhere, it’s always been and it’s going to stay, which is that in some places diversity is more visible and in others it’s more in the closet,” Bubani argues. Diversity, beyond that it is not a crime is very stigmatized, then the vast majority of people will tell you that it is heterosexual and you will have a number that is not representative of reality, generating a very large bias down.” And on the other hand, related to the construction of scientific knowledge, which ends up reflecting the biases of the people who generate it: “For this it is very important to have a certain diversity of people who are representative of our society and therefore more useful to our society.” And here I speak not only of sexual diversity but also diversity of territory, beliefs, origins, languages… More representative of what our country is. Thus we will have a scientific system with better ability to interpret demands and provide solutions. Of society, for society.”

With this goal in mind, Bubani, who knows that a great way to start changing the scientific system is from within, concludes: “My plans are to continue in research, I am working quite a bit on issues related to gender and diversity, now we have a diversity group in the Atomic Center of Bariloche and at the Balseiro Institute because we are also that move of making it visible that we exist and we are.” And we also often have to educate, say, for example, that gender identity is one thing and that sexual orientation is another. People make an inference that people are heterosexual, and that’s one of the issues we work on to try to move forward as a society, get out of those models that are so small, so simplified that they don’t represent all the diversity that’s in the human species.”

Original source in Spanish

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