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For the first time, a court in Paysandú, a department in Uruguay, granted custody of a four-year-old child to his aunt, a transgender woman. The ruling coincided with the day the Uruguayan Senate gave preliminary approval to the Comprehensive Law for Transgender People.

In 2014, after discovering that her nephew had no one in the family to care for him (he was in the INAU children's home), she began the legal process to obtain custody. Nicole Vázquez lives in Buenos Aires with her partner, so her goal was to be granted custody so she could live with the child in the capital.

After several hearings, Nicole managed to get the child to temporarily go live with her, while a final decision was being made.

According to the local newspaper El Telégrafo, the court ruled in her favor on Tuesday, granting her legal custody of the child. "Today, Paysandú made history and showed that it cares about the struggle of the LGBT community and the well-being of children living in families. I am very emotional after a three-year struggle," Nicole said at the end of the hearing.

In an interview with Radio Uruguay, she said: “I did have access to justice, I have to say that, because mostly we transvestites and transsexuals don't have access to justice, or we have unfair access. It wasn't easy because there was an appeal at the beginning. I was completely denied custody of my son without any legal basis. We deduce that there was discrimination and prejudice. Luckily, not everyone in the justice system is the same. The judge who denied me custody from the start—that's in the file—was told that she had discriminated. (…) I had to go home without my son at that hearing. Because of the unfavorable ruling, the whole process was delayed, and an appeal was filed. Now, with Judge Jimena Haw from Paysandú, I take my hat off to her and applaud her. It's a source of pride to have judges in Paysandú who truly care about children. Because I'm not even talking about them caring about me, or the LGBT community, but about them caring about children. Because the fundamental right to live in a family belongs to the child.” I'm the aunt, for now. My goal is to fight for my rights as a mother. For now, I'm going to take a break from the legal issues, but I will begin the process. I have full custody, and that's already a huge achievement. With or without custody, I already feel like a mother. I already am his mother, because being a mother isn't just about giving birth, and being a father isn't just about providing sperm; it's a relationship that develops through the bond with the child.