Share

Share

Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Tweet Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina . Trans lawyer Cristina Montserrat Hendrickse will exercise her conscientious objection to Resolution 2566/2020 of the Buenos Aires City Government, which prohibits the use of inclusive language in the district's schools.

“I don’t intend to go against myself, I don’t intend to deny myself, make myself invisible, or censor myself. I will not comply with this clearly discriminatory and unconstitutional ruling,” she told Presentes . In addition to practicing law for 28 years, Cristina is a history teacher at the Vicente López y Planes Higher Normal School No. 6 in the City of Buenos Aires.

On Monday the 13th, she received an email from the educational institution where she teaches, informing her of a resolution issued by the Minister of Education, Soledad Acuña . The resolution states that “teachers in educational establishments at the initial, primary, and secondary levels, and their modalities, both public and private, must carry out teaching activities and institutional communications in accordance with the rules of the Spanish language, its grammatical norms, and the official guidelines for its teaching.”

"I'm not going to deny myself."

In response to the email, Cristina replied: “I will not yield to the attempt to speak in a way that denies the gender diversity to which I proudly belong as a trans woman. I will not censor myself, deny myself, or make myself invisible.” “I hereby declare my conscientious objection to complying with a resolution that violates my human right to gender identity,” she emphasized . She will continue to use inclusive language. She added: “Therefore, I request that the Minister be informed that I will not comply with her arbitrary, illegitimate, discriminatory, and unconstitutional resolution. And that I reserve the right to take legal action against this government for affecting my most intimate feelings and my life plans.”

Furthermore, Hendrickse argued that the measure infringes upon her right to gender identity. This right “is recognized as a human right by Article 13 of Law 26.743 (Gender Identity Law) and by Advisory Opinion 24 of 2017 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights .”

This last point “links the right to gender identity with the human right to identity, to freedom of expression, the human right to non-discrimination, to a whole series of human rights that as such are inherent to the person and inalienable. For this reason, they cannot be suspended by any government,” Cristina emphasized.

"Ideologization of the new right"

According to the teacher and lawyer, the Buenos Aires city government's resolution reflects a "burden of ideology from the new right." also points out that "they haven't prohibited the use of many words that are being incorporated into the language, such as Anglo-Saxon neologisms."

“There is a significant advance by the far right against the recognition of the human rights of LGBT people. It seems that the minister, who carries with her academic convictions from right-wing institutions, wants to impose a cosmopolitan, intolerant city and her ideological vision on all the residents of Buenos Aires,” she told this agency. Regarding the education ministry's justification that this decision was based on students' language test results, Cristina stated: there is no “causal relationship.”

"Without evidence"

“Acuña fails to demonstrate any causal link between inclusive language and test results. And there isn't a single study that supports this hypothesis. It also lacks any scientific basis. There's simply an obvious ideological underpinning of LGBTQ+phobia.” Cristina is 53 years old and says that, at her age, she isn't used to using inclusive language. But she believes that this prohibition “encourages us to reinforce and solidify it to ensure visibility.”