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Selenna is seven years old and the youngest child on record in the history of the trans rights movement in Chile. A visible figure, she lives her journey with pride while the approval of the gender identity law is delayed in Congress. Trans children are currently the focus of attention, debate, and the epicenter of Chilean political and moral controversy. Transitions, denunciations, and a Foundation that brings together 57 families and supports these children.

“A tree house
where I keep my drawings
and my stories,
where the birds sing.”
Jorge González

By @elchedelosgays from Santiago, Chile

Photos: Courtesy of Fundación Transitar 

“I’m Evelyn Silva, and I have four children. Until January 2016, I had two girls and two boys, but now I have three girls and one boy. It all started when my youngest son, at three and a half years old, said that when he grew up he wanted to be a girl,” says Evelyn Silva, mother of little Selenna Paz. Selenna is seven years old and is currently in second grade at Colegio Trigal in Maipú, a popular district of Santiago. “My daughter always identified with the accessories and games associated with girls. For me, it wasn’t a problem because I thought it was just a phase she would soon outgrow. However, that didn’t happen. Every day, my son felt more and more like a girl and wanted to live as one,” she adds. “Once she started preschool, these behaviors became a problem for her relationships with her peers and teachers, so I decided to take her to a psychologist, since the pediatrician had warned me that my child was most likely a transgender girl,” Evelyn reveals, illustrating the sea of ​​doubts and anxieties that flooded her life, while the little girl only wanted to play and be called Selenna Paz. The journey was complex and lonely for Evelyn. She recounts losing friends and family and entering into a bitter legal battle with her daughter's father in Family Court; she was even labeled “crazy” and faced arrest warrants.

The Transitar Foundation marching in 2016

The name, a cry of freedom

Selenna's transition began with her name. The simple act of naming herself, speaking out, and identifying herself becomes, for these children, a portrait, their first cry for freedom and gender identity. “Raised in a society where colors, toys, clothing, and games confine us to a binary and sexist system that prevents the right to explore, create, and even think, Selenna, as well as her other friends from Fundación Transitar, which brings together trans children and young people, rebel at a very early age,” reflects Niki Raveau, a graduate in Art and director of Fundación Transitar. “There are no wrong bodies,” the same young children point out in the acclaimed documentary “Pink Boys and Blue Girls, ” which the Foundation shows in schools and universities. “Trans bodies travel beyond the alliance between functions and forms. Trans children do not simply walk from one extreme of male and female to the other, but rather, they fluidly extend across the entire spectrum, being able to choose not to be only 'girls or boys,'” says Raveau, recognizing in those words her own transsexual transition.

When Selenna began to live her gender identity, she was only four years old, and there were no schools prepared to receive her. Therefore, Evelyn had to take her back to kindergarten, and then they attended seven different schools within the Maipú district before arriving at the one she attends now. This is the educational odyssey experienced by families with a transgender child. Today, Selenna is a visible and conscious transgender figure, living her journey with pride and constantly constructing her gender identity according to the notions she herself creates and recreates.

The Transitar Foundation and the families encourage the visibility of the trans children they support. 

Selenna is the youngest child recorded in the history of the trans rights movement in Chile. Her story and her mother Evelyn's struggle inspired them to join forces with other families with trans members— 57 families currently —to create Fundación Transitar. The organization emerged politically and publicly on August 15, 2015, when they marched for an Administrative Gender Identity Law for all trans children , a march that no other LGBTI group attended. The organization arose from the need to establish a safe and welcoming environment for trans children and youth in Chile.

What is transition? The term “transition” is often used to describe the process by which a person moves from the sex assigned at birth, choosing how to present themselves in terms of gender identity. It is a process with its own timeline and needs, specific to each individual. It refers to a period of indefinite duration, during which a person ceases to be identified exclusively by the sex assigned at birth. Sometimes it involves a journey from one sex to another. Other times it means not reaching any destination within the two most socially recognized genders . For some people, transition is a process with several stages, not always easily understood by others.

A frozen bill 

Selenna plays, studies, and attends meetings about her rights, while the Gender Identity Bill slowly advances in the Chilean National Congress. The Gender Identity Law has been under consideration since 2013. Among the issues addressed by the Senate Human Rights Commission, where the discussion is taking place, are several points regarding biological and legal changes for minors under 18. A total of 225 amendments (observations) were discussed in 2016 alone. The bill has had to navigate three and a half years of discussion and 13 amendment periods in Congress. In early November, the initiative suffered another setback with the postponement of its Senate vote, and this past week 78 new amendments were added to the discussion, mostly from right-wing and pro-government Christian Democratic parliamentarians seeking to delay the debate . At the time of this writing, independent Senator Alejandro Guillier had submitted two amendments, the only ones favorable to the Gender Identity Bill. Guillier, who met with the Transitar Foundation, proposes that adolescents be able to request a change of gender marker at the Civil Registry with the permission of one of their parents, or through family courts if they lack such authorization.

One of the most controversial points was the proposal by Pinochet-era Senator Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe, which sought to "annul the marriages of transgender people who change their legal gender." Alongside this proposal, controversial statements have emerged from members of parliament who disregard the right of children to change their legal gender. "It's a completely incongruous law because young people under 18 can't drive, and those under 16 can't get married even with parental consent. They can't eat junk food at school, but they can request a change of sex on their birth certificate," Senator Andrés Allamand, a former presidential hopeful for the Chilean right, told the press. On the other hand, senators who are more in favor of the urgency of granting this fundamental human right that remains to a group of citizens – to legalize identity and see if it is possible in the future to access health, work and education more equitably – are requesting “expert reports” on the minors, pathologizing them and showing once again the lack of education on the subject being legislated.

From left to right: Evelyn Silva; Socialist MP Maya Fernández Allende; Transitar Foundation Director Niki Raveau; Selenna and Alex. 

Transgender children are currently at the center of attention, dispute, and political and moral controversy . “Certain extremely conservative ideological positions, tinged with religion, are using transgender children to obstruct the advancement of the Gender Identity Law,” denounces Niki Raveau, director of the Transitar Foundation and former candidate for city council in Santiago.

“The Gender Identity Law cannot be an excuse to, for example, make their identities invisible. Young children are not particularly affected. It is the parents, on the other hand, who must give explanations, and for that, they must be prepared,” says Tránsitar. “Currently, there is a dialogue of the deaf between conservatives and large LGBTI groups. Neither of them has listened to nor is aware of the grassroots work of real transgender children's communities,” accuses Niki Raveau.

At the door of a hair salon. Trans children have a free monthly visit to the salon to adjust their visual identity as they see fit.

The right to identity, education and work

Katty Fontaine of TravesChile , 65, a pioneer in the organization of transgender women's collectives, points out: “The Gender Identity Law is very important because it opens many doors, both professional and personal. It is a sign of dignity for trans people.” For her part, trans feminist activist Claudia Rodríguez warns : “The gender identity law devours our undeniable and monstrous identity, which is not that we are stupid or incapable, but rather that we are marginalized, excluded from the social struggle of workers and political parties.”

Despite the necessary and interesting political debate among the communities involved, the public dispute has been stalled around the demand for a law for all children. Official LGBTI agendas, Fundación Iguales and Movilh, which do not work with transgender children, insist on including them in the law administratively from early childhood, while opposition groups insist on removing them. “We cannot continue delaying the demand for a right based on mere agendas, beliefs, or third-party testimonies,” protests Fundación Transitar.

Thus, while LGBTI groups tally up votes and parliamentarians delay the political debate, Selenna and other children visibly wander through the former National Congress building, taking photographs in the gardens and climbing the trees to construct and imagine their own beautiful stories of struggle.