They demand urgent reparations for elderly transgender women

In front of the Casa Rosada, self-organized transvestites and trans people requested an audience with President Alberto Fernández to ask for urgent compensation for elderly women.

transvestite transvestite compensation claim

September 10, 2021

Self-organized transgender women held a press conference yesterday in front of the Casa Rosada (the presidential palace) to present a letter requesting a meeting to demand compensation and reparations for “the violence suffered for years.” Most of them had come from the province of Buenos Aires or the City of Buenos Aires, but were there “on behalf of our comrades in the provinces and those in self-imposed exile abroad.”

“We, the trans women who survived a state that deprived us of all our rights, have come together without political affiliation to request a public meeting with President Dr. Alberto Fernández,” they stated in a press release shared on social media. They also requested that “the dialogue be direct, without intermediaries.”

The demonstration in Plaza de Mayo, "seeking compensation for rights violated by the Nation-State," began at noon under a gray sky and a steady drizzle. Those present chanted "Compensation and Reparation" with their gaze fixed on the pink facade of the Government House.

“We are demanding compensation for women over 50 years old for state terrorism and the crime against humanity aggravated by its duration. Furthermore, we demand historical reparations that address the damages already inflicted and those that will be inflicted on the transvestite, transgender, and transsexual population,” said transvestite activist Lara Bertolini during the event.

Luisa Domínguez, 58, one of the self-organized protesters, told Presentes that the term “reparation” is actually “misused.” “ No one will ever repair all the psychological damage, the rapes and abuses we have suffered for decades . Even as a minor, at 15 years old, I was already in jail.”

“Our lives are marked by genocidal practices. To this day, we continue to live an average of 32 years, despite the good intentions of including us in public policies, which we consider failed and insufficient,” the group stated. “Insufficient because those who receive social assistance eat only once a day, and failed because, as all international regulations regarding crimes against humanity state, the responsibility is to provide reparations.”

Regarding the initiative, transvestite artist and activist Marlene Wayar told Télam: “With this project we want to generate a social dialogue and make it understood that it is not only the police who exercise violence, even if it is the most cruel, but that all of society has been involved in expelling us, pathologizing us and stigmatizing us.”

“It’s super important that they get out,” Domínguez added. “There are 64-year-old women standing on the side of the road, others who eat only once a day because they go to a soup kitchen. Most of them rent, and some receive the ‘Hacemos Futuro’ program or a pension, but nobody can live on 12,000 pesos. So they have no choice but to go out and prostitute themselves.”

“We didn’t expect so many women to be together for this second march, and many also offered their support from different provinces. We’re thrilled with what we’re achieving in such a short time,” Luisa concluded.

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