Photo: Ariel Gutraich.  The Argentine Ministry of Security has approved the "General Protocol for Personal Searches and Detentions of LGBT Individuals," which will be used by federal police and security forces. The measure appears in Resolution 1149-E/2017, published in the Official Gazette this Monday and signed by Patricia Bullrich. Shortly after the news broke, various LGBTQ+ organizations and activists expressed their deep concern and condemnation of this regulation, which they consider more of a warning than a guarantee of rights.

A context of police pursuit

“This protocol is being sanctioned in a context of increased institutional violence and government persecution against the LGBTIQ community: raids and closures of LGBTIQ cultural, social and recreational centers; the clear application of lesbophobic profiles in the arrests made before and after the 8M march and for the release of Jones Huala, or simply for kissing in the street,” says the lawyer and lesbian activist, Luciana SánchezSánchez is a member of COPADI (Colectivo para la Diversidad), a civil association that has already filed injunctions against the persecution and police repression of the collective.

[READ ALSO: “The police are a constant threat to the lives of transvestites and trans people”]

In the arguments of the protocol, the Ministry recalled that Law No. 26,743 establishes that "every person has the right to the recognition of their gender identity, to the free development of their person in accordance with their gender identity and to be treated in accordance with it and, in particular, to be identified in that way in the instruments that certify their identity with respect to the first name(s), image and sex with which they are registered therein."

[READ ALSO: Lesbian arrested and beaten for kissing his wife: police must be held accountable]

"This was already established in a resolution by former Security Minister Nilda Garré in 2011, something that anticipated the gender identity law," Sánchez added.

“It is also to repress migrants.”

“These are measures that already existed, and one has to wonder why the Ministry is bringing this up now. In fact, they should never have clarified it in the first place.” It's like they want free rein to go out and repress. It's a disgrace that they're bringing this up now, at a time when the police are raiding hotels, asking if transvestites and migrants live there. This is also a covert attempt to persecute migrants.” he said Present the transvestite activist Lara Bertolini, a member of the Las Bases Collective. The protocol details in nine pages in which cases the security forces can deprive a person of their liberty and what the initial acts of the apprehension are (securing, communication of rights, preparation of the arrest report…).

The approach of the Pride March

“We wonder if the timing of the publication of this protocol in the official gazette is related to the proximity of the XXVI Pride March in Buenos Aires - with the slogan 'Stop the femicides of transvestites, transsexuals and transgender people. "Enough of institutional violence. Pride to defend the rights we have won," and those taking place throughout the country in November," says the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Trans people in a statement. It adds: "Furthermore, we believe that if the security forces truly respected and complied with current laws and human rights—in general—and the Gender Identity Law—in particular—this Protocol would have no reason to exist."

“A smoke bomb”

For their part, Dario Arias, a member of the organization Conurbanos por la Diversidad, told Present that it is a “dangerous smokescreen” by the government. “This initiative is in line with this government's strategy of pretending to take action for the community, but it's a trap, a smokescreen. It's to mask the increase in social violence and hate crimes. Because from the outside, it might seem positive, but it isn't. We believe that we need to create public policies that guarantee access to justice and protection, not protocols that endorse repression and violence.”

Fifty pages with conceptual errors

The president of 100% Diversity and Rights, Greta Pena, told Present that a protocol for detaining LGBT people is unnecessary: ​​“There is a gender identity law, and international regulations that state that sexual orientation is not an aggravating factor at the time of arrest.” The activist agreed with Bertolini that the publication of the resolution, 20 days before the Pride March, is worrying, “in a context of institutional violence against our community.” The activist also pointed out that the protocol “is 50 unnecessary pages that repeal a resolution that already addressed this issue, with serious conceptual errors because they confuse sexual orientation with gender identity.” And she added: “What we need from the Ministry of Security is for it to issue a political order to the security forces not to discriminate against or abuse the LGBT community.”.

"Simulation"

“The new government’s ability to pretend it’s implementing public policies for our community doesn’t reflect the reality that our living conditions have worsened. This protocol tries to appear as a protective measure for us when in truth it’s a profound setback,” said the Sexual Diversity Front of the Province of Buenos Aires. Say Sacayán, a leader of the Anti-Discrimination Liberation Movement (MAL), told Presentes that “the protocol is written from the perspective that if you’re trans, lesbian, gay, or intersex, you’re a criminal.” She added: “They aren’t thinking about respecting the human rights of the community, because if they were, they would be complying with the trans employment quota law.” What they're proposing with this protocol is a witch hunt; they want to intimidate us.”Sacayán said. He also referred to the resignation of the Attorney General of the Nation, Alejandra Gils Carbó: “They are taking away the autonomy of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which, as an independent body, is an indispensable institution for maintaining the rule of law.” The brother of the murdered activist Diana Sacayán said that from the moment this government took office, the organization he leads understood what its plan was, “that is why we are firm in our demands,” he said.

The resignation of Attorney General Gils Carbó

Lawyer Luciana Sánchez adds that the current protocol “is published just as Alejandra Gils Carbó has submitted her resignation, effective December 31 of this year. This resignation, to which the Attorney General was pressured by the current government authorities, leaves us without PROCUVIN, without UFEM, without PROTEX, without UFISEX, without DOVIC, among other specialized units and prosecutor's offices against institutional violence, all established during her administration. In other words, in a context of police abuse, a protocol appears that is supposed to be overseen by a Public Prosecutor's Office whose head has just resigned.”