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GENERAL SPEECH – PRIDE MARCH 2017 Lee Kalim Soria (RITTA): Twenty-six years ago, we gathered for the first time in this square to make diversity visible. We proudly showed ourselves as we were and as we wanted to be. We proudly responded to the shame that they tried to impose on us for centuries. We also proudly responded to the policies of neoliberal austerity and repression. For 26 years, we have proudly gathered to reclaim each and every one of our rights, to look each other in the eye and reaffirm that our horizon is the same, even though our paths are different: to achieve true equality, one that we feel every day, not only in the laws but in the streets. We intend to continue celebrating, with pride, all the achievements we have won, and to continue joining forces for those rights that are still pending. We have been winning battles; we are an example to the world in terms of recognition and equality of rights. We reaffirm each of our victories and strengthen ourselves to continue fighting for new wins. Pablo Vasco (Libre Diversidad – MST) reads: It is essential for us to reflect on our history and all that has been achieved by those who, through rebellion and disobedience, refused to submit to abuse and violence; who took to the streets, organized themselves to fight for their rights, in search of freedom and equality. The first marches were not easy. Our community was the victim of raids, harassment, and persecution by the police and institutions. Today, the increase in social and institutional violence against our entire community puts us on alert once again. Days ago, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich decreed a new police protocol to register and detain LGBTIQ people. WE CONDEMN BULLRICH AND MACRI'S REPRESSIVE “LGBT” PROTOCOL! Because on the eve of Pride Marches across the country, it is a true provocation to impose a protocol that does NOT respect our gender identities and empowers this persecutory and repressive police force to legitimize the punishments and abuses they constantly inflict upon us. Madam Minister: strip searches in police stations violate national and international human rights standards. No to police torture of our community! Read Josela Aramburu (UyO) In this context of criminalizing social protest, we want to stand up for those who fight, resist, and organize. That is why we come to demand TRUTH AND JUSTICE FOR SANTIAGO MALDONADO. Because in the midst of a democracy, we are governed by a political force that covered up the forced disappearance of a comrade during a Gendarmerie crackdown. They criminalize our protest, deny rights, and silence critical voices. The Macri government is responsible. Since this neoliberal, conservative, and right-wing government took office, its intention to persecute political leaders—those of us who lead popular struggles, sustain activism in the neighborhoods, and take to the streets—has been clear. This same persecutory practice keeps many of our comrades imprisoned, disregarding the rule of law and the demands of international and human rights organizations. Therefore, we say: FREEDOM FOR MILAGRO SALA, FACUNDO JONES HUALA, AND ALL OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS. Read Paula Caceres (Descamisadxs) Because cases of marijuana use have multiplied, because it serves as an excuse to detain members of our community in order to exercise police and institutional violence. Because we advocate for freedom and the right to decide about our lives: We demand the legalization of the self-cultivation and consumption of cannabis and the decriminalization of simple drug possession. WE CONTINUE TO DEMAND THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. To be a fully democratic country, we need the Church to stop interfering in state affairs, attempting to dictate codes, laws, and public policies. Enough with subsidies to the Catholic Church. We repudiate the proposed religious law and the use of conscientious objection to limit our rights. We also repudiate the Church's interference in educational content and health policies. NO to the inquisitorial persecution of those who speak out against the Church! We demand the EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMPREHENSIVE SEXUAL EDUCATION LAW and the UPDATING OF ITS CONTENT. Because 11 years after the enactment of Law No. 26,150, the Ministries of Education are unaware of the cross-curricular approach that should have been implemented since its enactment. The content of this law is confined to biological sciences classes or special sessions where professionals unfamiliar with students' educational backgrounds present knowledge based on heteronormativity and binary thinking. For SEXUAL EDUCATION IN AND FROM DIVERSITY! Read Horacio Barreda (RAJAP) We denounce the shortages of medications, reagents, materials, and STI prevention policies that the media ignores. In a present where the entire community continues to be affected by an epidemic that shows no signs of receding, we demand specific policies, respect for our identity, and dignity when accessing our healthcare. NO TO HIV testing in pre-employment medical exams. NO TO the forced extraction of blood in police stations and other state agencies. Because THERE IS NO MORE TIME, we demand the enactment of a NEW LAW ON HIV, VIRAL HEPATITIS, AND SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS. We need trained and sensitized healthcare professionals for the comprehensive care of trans children and adolescents. We demand real access to comprehensive healthcare for children and adolescents, as established by the Gender Identity Law. We demand depathologization and shout: #RESPECTMEWHATYOM Read Berno Boonman (Non-Binary Assembly) We also come to shout FREEDOM AND VISIBILITY FOR INTERSEX BODIES, No to mutilating surgeries, nor to forced hormonal treatments in childhood. Enough of pathologizing our bodies. Enough of hiding medical records and forcing us to conform to a gender. For this reason, we are also giving space for the first time in this Pride march to the slogan: Visibility and depathologization of non-binary identities, since the norm always confines us to CISEXISM. We, the non-binary voices, express that WE ARE, WE EXIST, AND WE DEMAND. We want a law for the right to free, safe, and legal abortion, so that we can continue deciding about our bodies without being persecuted; that the State guarantees information, access, and public production of misoprostol. Let's prevent deaths from clandestine abortions. Legal abortion for everyone, everywhere! Read Georgina Orellano (AMMAR). Deciding about our bodies is also fighting for the social and labor rights of sex workers. And also for job alternatives for people in prostitution in this march. We fight for the repeal of the municipal codes that penalize offering sexual services and give the police the power to abuse us, especially if we are trans and migrants. We also demand a reform of the human trafficking law that criminalizes sex work. Because sex work is not the same as human trafficking; sex work is work. We demand an anti-discrimination law NOW! that includes us and is effective in combating discrimination. A law that is a tool to transform culture, to prevent and eradicate impunity for discrimination. We advocate for a cultural shift that requires society as a whole, once and for all, to completely reject racism, xenophobia, sexism, and all forms of discrimination, and to embrace the values ​​of diversity. For a multicultural and multiethnic Argentina! Read Daniela Zein (La Fulana). Our country has a Gender Identity Law that establishes that self-perceived identity must be respected in all areas, and sports are no exception, even though they continue to systematically exclude us. We call for a break from the current archaic cultural model in the sports sphere, for visibility, self-acceptance, respect, camaraderie, education in diversity, and the fight against all forms of discrimination, both on and off the field. Lesbians and bisexual women resist the physical, institutional, and verbal violence that is increasingly being perpetrated against our bodies since this right-wing government took office. In public spaces, hatred and discrimination against lesbians and bisexuals have intensified. We resist sexist, patriarchal violence! STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST LESBIANS AND BISEXUAL WOMEN! ACQUITTAL FOR HIGUI AND FOR ALL THOSE WHO RESIST THE CORRECTIVE RAPE OF THIS HETEROPATRIARCHAL SYSTEM! Pepa Gaitán / PRESENT / NOW and FOREVER. Read Paula Arraigada (La Nelly Omar). We demand that the Judiciary bring to trial and punish those responsible for the transphobic murder of our comrade Diana Sacayán. Based on all the existing evidence, we expect a swift conviction of the accused. Diana Sacayán Present, NOW AND FOREVER. One more year we take to the streets to say Enough with the femicides of transvestite, transsexual, and transgender people! Here we stand, the survivors of the most brutal transvestite-trans genocide ever inflicted upon a segment of the population, demanding justice! Here we are with our mutilated bodies and our throats parched from pleading for respect for our identity and our history. Systematically, our population has been raped, mutilated, and murdered by an indifferent and irresponsible state that has never, under any government, looked upon or legislated with benevolence toward our identities. The transvestite-transsexual, transgender population has been the victim of one of the cruelest genocides in the world, whose sole cause is the desire to live in freedom. That desire, as great as the torture we have suffered and continue to suffer, is the source of our deaths, due to the intolerance of a society that does not accept what it does not understand and that fears the freedom, joy, and dreams of those of us who only wish to be ourselves. Read Estefania Menzel (Trans Art Cooperative) : Oppressed and forgotten, we denounce the cis-sexist and patriarchal state reproduced by men and women that leaves us by the wayside without housing, education, healthcare, or work. Yet we survive. To that state that erased our past and seeks to make our present invisible, we say… Here we are, and we will not leave, for those who come after us and because we swore to our dead to live to make the dream of freedom a reality… The implementation of the trans employment quota in the Province of Buenos Aires, stalled by Governor María Eugenia Vidal and her cabinet, is urgently needed. The passage of the Trans Employment Quota at the national level is also urgent. Furthermore, we demand the labor inclusion of people leaving incarceration. Because making ends meet in a system that excludes the trans population is much more difficult after experiencing the deprivation of liberty. Lee Magui Fernandez Valdez (NE) Even so, and in this context, this March is a demonstration in defense of labor rights, so we can love and live freely in a liberated country. We say NO to the labor and pension reform loudly announced by Mauricio Macri. May our voices and our bodies, our choices and our desires not be grounds for dismissal, discrimination, and vulnerability. Because after 26 years of standing in this square, we must continue to embrace the challenges of valuing diversity in all its forms, through resistance, debate, reflection, making visible the work that still lies ahead, and developing public policies that can serve as useful tools for building a just and egalitarian society. For all this, we will continue fighting together, preserving equality under the law and building equality in practice. STOP THE FEMICIDES OF TRANSVESTITES, TRANSSEXUALS, AND TRANSGENDER PEOPLE. STOP INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE! PRIDE IN DEFENDING WON RIGHTS!