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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. “Any trans person—because there are trans men too—who goes to any civil registry office in the country will be able to change their ID card and won’t have to pay with their body or with any psychiatric or medical evaluation, which are terrifying,” said the veteran trans activist Lohana Berkins in November 2011 , when the Gender Identity Bill was awaiting debate in the Chamber of Deputies. Ten years later, 12,655 people have been able to access this right and obtain an ID card that reflects their gender identity.

With 55 votes in favor, none against, and one abstention, the Senate passed into law on May 9, 2012, the bill championed for years by trans and travesti organizations. It was thus officially established that “every person has the right to recognition of their gender identity, to the free development of their personality in accordance with it,” and to be treated with dignity according to their identity.

president of Mujeres Trans Argentina and one of the activists who participated in drafting the bill, told Presentes

“The human rights perspective was consolidated and ratified in a democratic vote where one of the most important laws on this matter was approved,” said the recently appointed Special Representative on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship.

Furthermore, it was made possible after “social and collective struggles”, which is “a lesson in how to develop policy”, the official added.

Law No. 26,743 changed the lives of those it affected, as well as the lives of the entire Argentine population. Ten years after its enactment, Presentes spoke with activists and officials to learn about its impact and the current challenges in ensuring its implementation.

The figures of a necessary change

Since its approval, 12,655 people have corrected their national identity document (DNI) to reflect their gender identity. This is shown in the report "Sociodemographic Characterization of People Who Corrected Their Identifying Data in Accordance with the Gender Identity Law ," published in April of this year by the Population Directorate of the National Registry of Persons ( Renaper ), under the Ministry of the Interior.

Of the people who are currently alive and changed their ID card, 35.15% chose the male option (4,331), while 61.98% opted for the female category (7,635).

Within the first group is Ese Negro Montenegro, a trans male activist for Human Rights and advisor to the Women and Diversity Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.

The impact for him is “obviously positive” in terms of access to the administrative processes that the registration change allows. “Our lives are permeated and conditioned by the right to a national identity document, and we know the multiple human rights violations that occur when one cannot access this type of documentation due to action or omission by the State ,” he said.

But it also had an impact on shaping her personality. “What happened to me with the Gender Identity Law was being able to think about my identity: to denaturalize the fact of what was given to me or imposed on me and to hack those norms under which I had lived my childhood and adolescence ,” she expressed.

“It is necessary that we work on the gains we have made so that they become rights.”

From the province of Córdoba, Ivanna Aguilera, a long-time trans activist from Rosario , told Presentes that this law is “a model for the world.” However, she also believes that its implementation still needs strengthening. “Ten years after the law was passed, state institutions, various offices, and agencies that depend on the government are still not adequately prepared and lack training on this legislation,” she stated.

And she emphasized: “It is necessary that we work to transform the gains we have into rights. That is what we have to do: enjoy them and work to ensure that the rights, which have cost us so much, are enshrined for future generations.”

In 2018, at the age of ten, Tiziana became the first child in Salta to legally change her name and gender on her national identity document . This meant having her true identity reflected, and also empowered her to "be a humble role model for many trans children and teenagers who were or are afraid to speak out."

Echoing Ivanna's words, she told Presentes that there are still "many things that haven't changed" such as "not respecting the law in many institutions, especially in schools, and even in families themselves."

“Unfortunately, having a law to protect us doesn't guarantee that it will be enforced at all times. That's why we mustn't be complacent and must continue fighting,” he said.

Despite the changes, the violence continues

For Greta Pena, Undersecretary of Diversity Policies at the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, the law has been “a watershed moment, a milestone in our country’s democracy.” However, she added, “this does not mean that it has automatically erased the historical and structural violence suffered by trans people.”

In this regard, the report from the Population Directorate of Renaper notes that among the 335 people who changed their gender on their national identity document and are now deceased, the average age at death was 40, and 75% died before the age of 53. This data demonstrates the low life expectancy that characterizes this group.

Although the values ​​“correspond only to people who carried out the gender change process and not to the entire LGBTIQ+ community”, these “coincide with the estimates of the low life expectancy of the trans population.

According to various community organizations, the average life expectancy is between 35 and 41 years of age,” the document stated.

So far this year , the organization La Rosa Naranja has recorded 26 deaths due to social transvesticide (deaths due to state and/or social abandonment) of trans women, trans men, transvestites and transgender people, in addition to 4 transvesticide/transfemicides.

The law, meanwhile, promoted over these ten years the deployment of laws and policies that deepened access to rights for the transvestite and trans population.

Along this path lies the enactment on June 24, 2021, of the Transgender Labor Quota and Inclusion Law “Diana Sacayán – Lohana Berkins . “The number of transgender people entering the national public administration has increased tenfold. Furthermore, our voluntary registry for access to employment already has 5,800 registered individuals,” reported Undersecretary Pena.

The freedom to decide

Another milestone that would not have been possible without the precedent of the Gender Identity Law was Decree 476/2021, which allows the incorporation of the "X" option in the field designated for sex, to move away from the binary scheme of "female" and "male".

From the decree until March 31, 354 corrections of ID cards with the nomenclature “X” were made, Renaper reported in its report.

“Children are being born who will have, and do have, the possibility of freely expressing their gender identity, their gender expression, without any kind of interference from the State. I believe that is the challenge that the Gender Identity Law presents us with: to continue deepening this new country that has brought freedom to all of us,” Pena affirmed.

For activist Alba Rueda, it is not the same to go through life "without allies in the State, without rights, without institutions that defend our rights, as to live them debating with those logics not only from the State but from a framework of rights that protects us."

In this regard, she asserted that "it is urgent that all countries have a gender identity law."