Photo: Presentes Agency. LGBTI leaders rejected the Mendoza provincial government's initiative to create a database of people from that community. They consider it discriminatory and persecutory, and a setback for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. According to a press release from the Ministry of Health, Social Development, and Sports—which is no longer online—the registration forms were designed based on those created by the Single Registry of Cases (RUC), which is used in the province for cases of violence against women. “The information has been misrepresented. It is actually an administrative form, confidential, anonymous, and voluntary. We believe it is necessary for LGBTQ+ people to review government practices and how we are reaching people. The form covers many aspects of education and health, and it will help us gather statistics on the situation of the LGBTQ+ community in Mendoza,” said Fernanda Urquiza, a trans official in charge of provincial diversity coordination, on FM Agora.

“The abnormal ones”

“This Sunday I felt like a mutant again, with all the good and bad that implies, I felt like an X-Men again,” wrote Mario Vargas, a leader of the CLICK organization in Mendoza, on his Facebook account when he heard the news. “It’s one thing for organizations to produce information about themselves, and another for it to be produced by a police state that criminalizes minorities,” Vargas told Presentes. He added: “The Code of Misdemeanors, which continues to penalize prostitution and exposes women to very dangerous situations, isn’t even being discussed; pensions for people with HIV are more than a year and a half behind schedule; and the trans job quota projects that have been presented in the municipalities are working against us,” he listed.

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Julieta Antúnez Ríos, a trans activist with Diversidad Peronista and a leading figure in the league of LGBTIQ+ organizations in Argentina, told this publication: “We cannot allow this to progress and be registered like cattle. The only registration we have is our national ID card. Why should the ‘abnormal’ ones have another registration? I find the impunity with which they roll back our hard-won rights appalling, and it’s worrying that members of the community who have become public officials are deciding to implement these measures, ignoring the work our organizations do on the ground.” The activist pointed out that the registration is anonymous and not mandatory, but she wonders: what will this data be used for? “They say they’re going to use it for health policies, so why don’t the health departments do it, or why don’t they expand the gender violence records, which they claim are the same ones they’re going to use?”

A registry for the poor

The Argentine LGBT Federation does not agree with the creation of any type of registry based on people's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, "much less in contexts where social and institutional violence towards diversity is increasing," Secretary General María Rachid told Presentes.

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“The objectives set by the Mendoza government can be achieved through quantitative or qualitative surveys that do not require the creation of a registry. The only acceptable case would be for the effective implementation of affirmative action, such as the trans quota in the public sector, and even then the system must preserve the rights of individuals by treating all their information as sensitive data,” she added. For her part, trans activist Alma Fernández told Presentes that “it’s time we draw the line so we don’t backslide. We want to set a precedent in Mendoza so this doesn’t happen at the national level. This measure is against the poor. They’re aiming to have the girls who are on the streets be the first to appear in that registry.”