Photos: Josean Rivera / Presentes Archive.

After Michelle Bachelet's government sent a letter requesting "immediate discussion," the bill was approved by the Human Rights Commission of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies and will be debated for the first time on the floor next Tuesday, the 16th. This unexpected and very positive news came after four years of processing and more than 14 revisions of the bill in the Senate. The Executive's urgency in addressing the initiative has a specific reason: after winning the presidential elections, Sebastián Piñera agreed with Chile Vamos—his party—to reject the flagship legislative proposals of the Bachelet administration, particularly this one and others they consider "bad." In other words, this is the last opportunity to discuss and attempt to pass the law, because when Piñera assumes the presidency, the law will lapse.

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They want to return to the original project The Bachelet administration is not only seeking approval for the initiative but also aims to restore the bill to its original form. After passing through the Senate, it lost several key articles, such as the right to legal name and gender change for children and adolescents. They are also seeking to eliminate the requirements added for adults, such as medical and psychiatric evaluations required to authorize the change. In total, the Organizing Trans Diversities (OTD) association submitted six observations to the bill that will be debated in Congress on Tuesday. The others are the provisions for “protection of third-party rights,” which implies that direct ascendants and descendants can object; the obligation to terminate the Civil Union Agreement—which exists for heterosexual and homosexual couples—before being able to access legal gender recognition; the obligation to change one's name if it does not match the new legal gender; and finally, the use of 16 as the age of adulthood, when the law considers minors adults and therefore criminally liable, for males from 14 and females from 12. All of this will be discussed on Tuesday the 16th, which will also coincide with Pope Francis's visit to the country and will be front-page news in all the newspapers.