The Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies passed the Comprehensive Protection Law for Women Against All Forms of Violence, but without mentioning the word "gender" in the text or including transgender women. That same day, December 6, a transgender woman was shot and killed in Ciudad del Este. Since 1989, 57 hate crimes have been recorded in Paraguay. What's happening with the debate on a gender identity law? By Fátima Rodríguez, from Asunción. Cover photo: Adriana Lugo. Andrea was twenty years old, had a disability, and was murdered in the street with six shots in Ciudad del Este, in the tri-border area of ​​Paraguay with Brazil and Argentina. The crime occurred on the night of Tuesday, December 6, hours after the Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies in Asunción approved a Comprehensive Protection Law for Women Against All Forms of Violence, which excluded transgender people. With Andrea's death, the number of cases classified as hate crimes by the Panambí Organization, which promotes and defends the rights of transgender people in Paraguay, has reached 57 since 1989. The institutions in charge of investigating the murder were unable to identify Andrea; she was not carrying an identity card, and even if she had, the document would likely have shown a name she did not use. “They kill us because we are trans women, they kill us out of hatred, they kill us because they cannot forgive us for disobeying their rules and roles, they kill us because they know they are in a country that lacks the resources to protect us,” Panambí stated in a press release. The organization demanded that the authorities clarify the case and punish the perpetrators to end impunity for murders of transgender people. Paraguay is one of the countries where the rights of transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and intersex (TLGBI) people are still denied by institutions. While there is currently no bill recognizing the right to gender identity, there is an emerging debate in society and a small step forward: a recent resolution from the Ministry of Health allowing transgender people to register with their chosen name in health services. The Comprehensive Protection Law for Women Against All Forms of Violence, in its initial version, included protection for people with gender identities, but all articles containing the term "gender identity" were removed, as was the word "gender." The bill was approved almost two years after its introduction. "There is a debate that didn't exist before, which was introduced by this law: while social and human rights organizations have embraced the right to gender identity as a key element of their struggle, the conservative sector has insisted on opposing it to the point of opposing any mention of the word 'gender.' This has generated an interesting debate, but one that is still very limited," acknowledges Lilian Soto, a feminist and member of the Center for Documentation and Studies (CDE), one of the organizations that conducts gender studies in Paraguay. Yren Rotela, trans activist. Credit: Edilberto Alvarez/ @bago76 For trans activist Yren Rotela, from Panambí, this law forced debate not only in social and human rights organizations and political spaces, but also within the trans community. “We understand that this debate and the increased visibility of the right to identity is also a product of the impact we are achieving through our actions as a collective,” she explains.

Advances and silences

“There is a draft gender identity law that we in the trans community have been working on, and we have requested technical support from the United Nations Human Rights Office in Paraguay,” says Rotela. However, she believes this is not the right time to pass a law. “The first step forward we have in terms of identity recognition is respect within healthcare services. It is the Resolution 695 “The Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare has issued a resolution requesting all health services and networks to register transgender people with their chosen names at the time of consultations,” says Rotela, but the resolution has not been disseminated at all. website From the Paraguayan Ministry of Health, and although activists have shared photos with Minister Antonio Barrios on social media, there is no further mention of it on official websites. It is possible that the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare's strategy of silence stems from fear of potential political repercussions: conservatives have recently created a “Parliamentary Front for Life and Family” which aims to “fight against gender ideology and abortion.” Paraguay was the first country in the region to return to an ultraconservative government after the impeachment of Fernando Lugo's government in record time, and today it has a bill to give identity to unborn children in Parliament, but it does not have a bill that recognizes gender identity.

The fear of the word “gender”

In the Chamber of Deputies, there was no debate. Voting was done solely by raising hands for or against each article. When the Comprehensive Protection for Women Bill was discussed in the Senate, legislator Esperanza Martínez, of the Frente Guasu party, urged a debate within Parliament and requested that it be broadcast online: “Even if there is a prior agreement on how to vote, we cannot avoid defining what gender is,” the legislator stated. Esperanza Martínez, national senator of Paraguay. Credit: Luis Vera The conservatives, who a few years ago wondered "How can we be tolerant of homosexuals and transvestites!?" They remained silent this time, even though it was a project to “protect women” that had emerged from the massive international #NiUnaMenos mobilizations. Martínez, who belongs to the bloc of former president Fernando Lugo, insisted that “violence against women is not defined solely by their sex; it is not only because they have ovaries, because they have larger breasts, because they have a clitoris, or because they have a series of biological characteristics.” Martínez reminded the plenary session why there have been 56 unsolved murders of transgender people in this country in recent years. “It is important that the debate takes place here,” she said, referring to parliament. Rocío Casco is a deputy for Avanza País, the other left-wing parliamentary group in Paraguay, and one of the bill's authors, which was recently approved with modifications. For Casco, the debate on gender identity “is still in its infancy.” “I think various organized sectors of society have spoken both for and against. Religious groups have, of course, publicly stated their opposition to legislative initiatives related to gender identity. It’s a debate that hasn’t yet been conducted in depth. I believe there are statements and positions from organizations and groups working on human rights issues, as well as from some legislators, but we still need more public debate,” she says. For Casco, there is a lack of debate in academia. “I think it’s extremely important as one of the spaces where the issue of gender identity should be debated, because currently, with this predominantly conservative parliament—its term ends in 2018—any legislative initiative that raises the issue of gender identity will be rejected by an absolute majority,” she explains. Casco maintains that conservative legislators hide behind “the national constitution” when it comes to issues of rights for non-heterosexual people in Paraguay. “They only recognize the identity of men and women, stereotyped from a social construct, imbued with hegemonic thought which in our country is predominantly conservative,” she says. The congresswoman is clear that there wouldn't be enough votes in this session for a legislative initiative on identity, but perhaps a bill could help the discussion and debate in the political sphere, that is, in Parliament.