Letter from a transvestite activist to the President regarding the coronavirus pandemic

"The transvestite-trans population suffers from particular social conditions that place us in specific situations, aggravating our vulnerability and making us unable to take the proposed health measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic."

March 17, 2020

By Violeta Alegre

Photo: Ariel Gutraich/Presentes Archive

Health measures were taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in a society where social bonds and a sense of community are broken. We need to rebuild them.

I am writing this letter to President Alberto Fernández after hearing and feeling the desperation of colleagues who cannot comply with these measures. Panic is turning into sadness and anguish.

This country owes us everything, from the State to the society that, through action or inaction, has deprived us of fundamental human rights essential for survival. Under a binary, heteronormative, cisnormative, and patriarchal pedagogy, it has managed to expel us from our own homes, and subsequently render education, healthcare, employment, and housing inaccessible.

How do trans comrades who make a living selling self-produced goods on the street manage? How do comrades whose only means of survival is prostitution manage? How do those of us who weave together other kinds of relationships, other kinds of connections, manage?

For these reasons, and many more, we declare ourselves without resources to address this health emergency. Therefore, I am writing this letter to request concrete measures from the government and society as a whole.

Mr. President Alberto Fernández:

Understanding and accepting the social responsibility you propose we assume, I would like to express our concern as a group. The trans and travesti population in our country suffers from particular social circumstances that place us in specific situations, exacerbating our vulnerability and making it impossible for us to take the proposed health measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic; this not only threatens our health, but also that of society as a whole.

While we are at a juncture that gives us hope for the advancement of our rights, we are also aware that social change will take time. For this reason, the lack of access to fundamental human rights such as work, education, housing, and health remains an alarming reality for our population.

Nearly 90% of our community relies on prostitution as their sole source of income. Many of us lack family and social support to take the necessary steps, so we build other forms of connection, mostly with other women in the same vulnerable situation.

The fact is that, for the most part, securing our food and shelter requires contact with other people, primarily through the exchange of sexual services. In this particular situation, the demand has not decreased, which puts both those who hire these services (who mostly have families) and us at risk, as we don't know where these people come from. But we have no other alternatives to guarantee our survival.

Given this worrying situation, we ask that you please guarantee food and housing through an emergency subsidy for our population.

We remain attentive to the dialogue and to develop an urgent plan that addresses our specific needs.

Sincerely,

Violeta Alegre, trans activist

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