#LaPlataMeeting: conclusions of the workshop on transvesticide and transfemicide

Photos: Luli Leiras. Our agendas for the trans and travesti movement are also built through horizontal dialogues that we don't want to lose; that's why this workshop was based on respect and exchange. We reaffirm the horizontal nature of our activism and recognize that this Gathering is a Plurinational Meeting of Women, Travesti, Trans, Bisexual, Non-Binary, and Intersex People. We demand that in plenary session…

October 14, 2019

Photos: Luli Leiras

Our agendas for the trans and travesti movement are also built through horizontal dialogues that we don't want to lose; that's why this workshop was characterized by respect and exchange. We reaffirm the horizontal nature of our activism and recognize that this Gathering is a Plurinational Meeting of Women, Travesti, Trans, Bisexual, Non-Binary, and Intersex people. We demand that in plenary session we decide together on the identity shift of this 34th Gathering.

We decided, in a collaborative manner, to transform what the Organizing Committee, in a paternalistic and forceful way, had decided would be a mere talk into a workshop. We demand that our conclusions be incorporated into the conclusions, reports, and official documents of this 34th Meeting.

We thus point out that our group identity is defined by our transvestite and trans identity, which shapes living conditions marked by exclusion and violence, at the intersection of ethnicity and class. We are poor transvestites and trans people who grew up in heterocisbinary societies, without the most basic rights, and this is how our life paths, activism, and militancy were formed.

Today we know that we assume our identity between the ages of 8 and 13, and from there many of us end up on the streets. Between the ages of 8 and 13, society is indifferent to this violence and the resulting defenselessness and extreme vulnerability. And so we migrate by force, because we are not only crossing (geopolitical) borders, but we are migrating from the heterosexual family to nothingness, to absolute vulnerability. Under the complicity of an indifferent society, this genocidal dimension is gestated, where we come to know the police and the state through systematic persecution, forced prostitution, sexual exploitation, imprisonment without legal justification or due process, bribery, and violence, and they didn't ask us if we were abolitionists or proponents of regulation.

These experiences are shared by almost all transvestites and trans people; this is the common thread that unites us in discussing transvesticide and transfemicide. This chain of violence is what we bring to this 34th Gathering, because our transvestite and trans sisters aren't targeted for murder just once, but are targeted by the police, clients, and the state—it's a chain of multiple forms of violence, and this is criminal.

This structural violence is at work, exposing us and our friends to being murdered by anyone who crosses our path. And the cycle of violence also stems from the State's active disregard for the fact that this (all of this) is happening; it's not just about going to a hospital and not being treated. Because for many, it's preferable to stay home and die with dignity, alone or with our friends.

And when we say that our sisters are survivors, it's because they are! And in different ways. Even when they have jobs, they are still exposed, much more so, and we can't apply the same prevention strategies as in cases of femicide, because the level of exposure for transvestites and trans people is different.

It might seem that trans women aren't victims of domestic violence like cis women. But how many trans women have we seen murdered by their partners? The boyfriends of trans women are also killed. And this is a form of transvesticide, when the murderer is someone very close to the victim, or part of their inner circle.

That's why it's important to talk about transvesticide and transfemicide, that's why we have a particular interest in having our narratives heard, that's why we have a separate march, that's why the category of femicide isn't sufficient. And in the case of Diana Sacayán, these facts were present because there was gender-based violence, but there's also the issue of identity.

These specific forms of violence kill us because we are not cisgender, we do not claim heterosexuality, and femicide does not encompass that, and it is important to recognize and understand this in order to give political dimension to our demands.

Diana Sacayán's activism, and the struggle of the Justice Commission of family members and comrades, marks a historical reference for us, of collective knowledge that is not present in state spheres, such as in the judicial system, and that social struggle incorporates.

These multiple forms of violence shape our lives, and this fact is fundamental to understanding that our deaths are preventable, and so are the murders. With genuine alliances that transform our existence, we can achieve this, without piecemeal policies or by using trans "fetishes" for photo ops.

We come from different provinces because we believe in a convergent, plurinational feminism, but not all of us arrive, because there has to be recognition of our lives in order to inhabit the Encounter.

This year we denounce the increase in attacks by militants and religious fanatics against our gender identities, putting our lives at risk and contributing to violence against transvestite and trans children and adolescents; one dimension of this chain of violence is the religions that oppress and violate our lives.

Year after year, our sisters are gone. They were here last year, but now they're gone because they were killed or died. We speak of La Loba, Niki, Mirna, Paola Braga, and all our trans and travesti sisters who are victims of transphobic violence. We remember them and embrace them in the streets, now and forever.

For all these reasons, we commit to ensuring that at the 35th Encuentro, the workshop on transvesticide and transfemicide will be officially included, and that the workshops on Trans Quotas and Trans Children and Adolescents will be opened . And we will forge more and better alliances to ensure that this Encuentro is recognized as Plurinational, for Women, Lesbians, Transvestites, Transgender people, Bisexuals, Non-binary people, and Intersex people.

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