By Gabriela Mansilla*

Photo: Presentes Archive

From a very young age, transgender and transvestite girls and teenagers have been systematically expelled from their homes by their own families. Rejection of their identities due to misinformation, prejudice, or for not conforming to established norms are some of the excuses given. Other forms of violence, such as straying from the "path of the Lord," ultimately lead to their being thrown onto the streets and abandoned.

Often, the expulsion stemmed from an inability to endure living like that, forced to be someone they weren't, subjected to disciplinary measures and repression. They were the ones who left, without any family members coming to get them. This is compounded by the migration of women from the provinces to Buenos Aires, and the structural poverty that frames these experiences. The national government has been absent for them for decades.

The saddest part is that the abandonment of these girls and teenagers is not a thing of the past. Many of our trans and gender-diverse daughters live this reality.

The statistics from the book " The Butterfly Revolution" , published in 2017 by the Public Defender's Office of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, reveal some terrible and alarming numbers.

Age at which those who are now adults began in the prostitution system:

29.6% between the ages of 11 and 13

46.1% between the ages of 14 and 18.

24.3% 19 years and over.

This means that 75.7% of those who survive through prostitution do so from an age of 18 or younger.

Entry into the prostitution system is also related to the level of education attained. The higher the level of education, the later the entry.

My question is: Where were these girls' families? What did the state do? Why did no one register that they weren't in school? What did we do as a society to allow this to happen? Why is it still happening? How can we prevent it?

What can families with a trans daughter do today to prevent this story from repeating itself over and over again?

“If there is a trans girl on the street, all of society is responsible.”

We need to reflect a lot more; we need to realize that if there's a trans girl or trans woman on the street, it's because she's not at home or in school. She's there because no one has bothered to look at her. Socially, it's a predetermined place, a place they must occupy simply for being trans, and we can't continue like this. 

All of society is responsible; we are all the ones who put them there. No one has gone to rescue them. What has happened to us as a society that we haven't been able to see the danger these girls and teenagers face? How can we allow them to endure so much violence and abuse while still children? What is happening to us as humanity?

We should unify our struggles. Just as we in various feminist spaces shout "girls, not mothers," we should shout "trans girls, not prostitutes," because they are simply girls.

Can we accept that prostitution is not a job for teenage girls? Can we acknowledge that a minor should be protected?

Let's talk about what has always been covered up: Why does the shield of patriarchy continue to protect those who solicit prostitutes? Cisgender pedophiles are never discussed. They face no social condemnation, no prosecution, no reports. Neighbors seem oblivious to the man seeking out a trans girl. The society that has historically concealed this crime is complicit, as is the State.

As our transvestite comrade Florencia Guimaraes says: who are these men who solicit prostitutes? Because they seem like ghosts, and they are not, they live beside us, those men who go to "prostitutes" are usually our fathers, our friends, our brothers, our partners, our coworkers, they are the same ones who consume a transvestite/trans girl.

The term "sex work" must be immediately erased when we talk about minors. The demand for protection from the State must be forceful. We urgently need our outcry to be loud enough to make our need and plea for help heard. Because the families of these girls no longer want this fate for them.

“They do it because they like it,” they say. Really? Do they think they enjoy being there? Do they believe a girl consents to being sexually abused by adult men? What perverse mind could harbor such a thought when talking about children? Do they truly believe that a 13-year-old girl, or sometimes even younger, “chooses” to be prostituted? Everything has been stolen from them. They have been stripped of love, of embraces, of their innocence, and even of their games. They have been violently thrown into prostitution without a drop of humanity, much less love and responsibility.

There are so many things we need to review, so many discourses to unmask, so much business to denounce.

To illustrate, there's a system in place to keep trans and gender-diverse girls and teenagers out of school classrooms, because their bodies are more useful when sexually exploited on street corners. Trans girls in classrooms are seen as a nuisance, a source of discomfort, highlighting their lack of rights and exposing a perverse indoctrination.

By expelling transvestite and trans girls and adolescents, the education system becomes complicit in their ending up in the prostitution system.

The accumulation of so much violence leads these girls to have a life expectancy of less than 40 years.

“Let’s start by embracing them in every home.”

The reality faced by the trans community from childhood is cruel, even ignored by most of society, but today there is a possibility of change. Change is possible when families take responsibility, embrace, and support them; when the education system is held accountable for respecting the laws that the trans community has won; when the State listens to the demands of its citizens and puts on the agenda what has never been considered before. Therein lies hope.

How are we going to get trans and gender-diverse girls and teenagers out of the sex industry? Let's start by embracing them in every home, ensuring their families love them, and that schools embrace and respect them. Let's educate cisgender men so they don't believe they can do whatever they want with their bodies, fostering a society that values ​​equal rights.

Making our daughters strong means forcing them to resist the hatred of this society. They are not safe; hatred constantly obscures all our hope, and rage fuels our fight, because we will never negotiate our daughters' lives. We will try to force the system to back down. Enough of girls going hungry, feeling cold, humiliated, stripped of everything, manipulated by an adult and pedophilic world that makes them believe that this is what they deserve. And the worst thing is forcing them to resign themselves, to end up believing that there is nothing that can save them.

The lack of value placed on the lives of transvestites and trans people. This is part of the social transvesticide and transfemicide. There is no intention to change it, but here we are, their families. They are no longer "the nameless ones," those no one claims, those forgotten since childhood. Those whom no one wants to see and respect.

We will not allow them to continue stealing the innocence, freedom, and lives of our trans and travesti daughters.

It is everyone's responsibility to do something now, because it is urgent. We can do it right now. What are we waiting for? Don't be complicit.

*Founder and president of the organization Free Childhoods

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