translated from Spanish: 9th birthday of gender identity law sanction

The night vigil on May 9, 2012 was historic. At 21.10, with 55 affirmative votes, 0 negative votes and 1 abstention, the Senate passed Law 26,743 that would allow people to register with their ID with their name, photo and gender identity. It would also ensure access to health treatments for anyone who needs to modify their body according to self-perverted gender. The Act, passed on 9 May and enacted on 23 May, understands that self-perverted gender identity refers to “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. This may involve modifying the appearance or body function through pharmacological, surgical or other means, provided that this is freely chosen. It also includes other gender expressions, such as dress, speaking and manners.” Therefore, where the sex and first name listed in the ID do not match the person’s gender identity, a registration correction may be requested, even in the case of children or adolescents, who may also apply through a legal representative. This is the world’s first Gender Identity Act that requires no medical or psychiatric diagnoses, or gender change operations to prove identity. It also does not require a judicial or administrative procedure. To rectify the registration of sex, you only have to show up at an office of the National Register of Persons (Renaper). According to figures from this body, from 2011 to February 2020 9 thousand people performed “the record rectification of sex, the change of first name and image” in their ID. The majority correspond to the province of Buenos Aires (31.6%), the City of Buenos Aires (11.6%) and Santa Fe (9.2%), followed by Cordoba (8.8%), Salta (5.4%) Tucumán (4.4%). Among the total number of people who accessed this change, 72% self-per sprayed their gender as female. Between the age of 20 and 29, the highest number of DNI rectifications is concentrated according to their self-perverted gender. And more than 600 children under the age of 18, through their legal representatives and certified their full consensus, implemented law 26.743.La Law also regulates access to comprehensive health care for people. It indicates that all people will be able to access total and partial surgical interventions, hormonal treatments to adapt their body without requiring judicial or administrative authorization. He mentions that gender-appropriate medical treatments should be included in the Mandatory Medical Program (PMO), which ensures coverage of practices throughout the health system, both public and private. Nine years after the passage of the Act, while trans people and different diverse identities have a greater breadth of rights, it is still detracted from working on equitable programmes of labour inclusion, access to health, as well as combating other serious problems such as police persecution and the constant acts of discrimination and transphobia that continue to lead lives.

Original source in Spanish