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Loren Daniel Ibarra became the first transgender professor in Mexico to win a lawsuit against a university for discrimination. The Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL) unjustly dismissed him after he demanded recognition of his gender identity. After five years, one of the courts where he presented his case recognized and verified that the UANL violated his right to non-discrimination.

“ That an authority dared to investigate UANL is incredible. Mentioning that it was indeed discrimination is important because of the message it sends, and no matter how much they try to hide it and bureaucratize it, what matters is accountability, and that is my motivation. I am very happy that it has been achieved. For me, it's like the end ghosting I endured from all the institutions that told me the whole time that what I experienced was nothing,” Loren told Presentes .

According to her lawyer, María Romero, a human rights advocate with the organization El Clóset LGBT, this ruling is the first of its kind in all of Mexico . It recognizes and confirms that discrimination occurred in a workplace and specifically mentions that it was directed against a transgender person.

The award, as the final resolution of the labor dispute is known, was issued on August 2nd by Mónica Díaz Fraustro, president of Special Board Number Seven of the Local Conciliation and Arbitration Board of the State of Nuevo León. 

In Mexico, the Conciliation and Arbitration Board is an autonomous body responsible for administering justice, generating solutions and ending conflicts in labor relations, and although it is not incorporated into the judicial branch, its rulings are binding.

What does the sentence order?

The ruling orders that UANL reinstate Loren Daniel to his positions as a teacher and administrative assistant within the Faculty of Psychology, positions he held before being dismissed for transphobia.

The Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV) of Nuevo León must study the circumstances of vulnerability of Loren Daniel with the objective of being admitted to the National Registry of Victims.

For Loren to be recognized as a victim of discrimination, she had to prove moral damages through psychological evaluations. Loren had to repeat her story three times before three different professionals. The first, part of her defense team, confirmed the moral damages. The second, a psychologist from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL), revictimized and pathologized Loren. A third psychological evaluation, requested by the Conciliation Board and conducted without prejudice, confirmed that Loren suffered moral damages as a result of the wrongful termination.

Following the ruling, UANL can still file for an injunction. Loren says that if they succeed and the legal process is further prolonged, they will seek to escalate their case to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.

“I only demanded that my identity be respected.”

Loren Daniel completed his undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees at UANL, and after outstanding performance in 2015, Álvaro Antonio Ascary Aguillón Ramírez (then the administrative sub-director of the Faculty of Psychology) offered him a job. Thus, Loren began his employment with the University as a full-time administrative worker and adjunct professor in that Faculty.

In January 2016, Loren introduced herself to her classes using male pronouns. This marked the beginning of her social transition in front of her students, and by October of that year, Loren's gender identity was officially recognized on her birth certificate. Following this, Loren decided to inform Aguillón Ramírez (who was then serving as director of the Psychology Department at UANL) about her transition process and submitted her updated documentation to the Human Resources Department. 

“I still remember, it was January 23, 2017, when I had an appointment with the director. I told him about my transition and the need to correct my information. In that meeting, he made me see that there was no problem with being trans and that I should simply continue doing my job. But the correction of my information in the contract didn't happen, and they gave me a thousand nonsensical reasons,” Loren recalls in an interview with Presentes.

“Imagine, on Teacher's Day (May 11th), I was recognized as the best teacher in the performance evaluation administered by the UANL Evaluation Center, and at the ceremony, the human resources coordinator, Ana Laura Guajardo de la Garza, referred to me using feminine pronouns, and the diploma still had my former name. Months passed like this until the semester ended. I just didn't want to have to explain to the bank that I was a trans person every two weeks when my paycheck arrived. I simply demanded that my identity be respected,” Loren concludes.

Transphobia ultimately shattered her life plans

On May 12, 2017, Loren registered with the UANL medical service as part of her labor rights. “In my file they wrote that I had gender identity disorder, can you believe it? ...a university,” Loren says indignantly.

On August 7, 2017, at the start of a new semester, Loren arrived at work at his usual time. Upon leaving his first class, he was summoned by the administration. At that meeting, Aguillón Ramírez told him that he would be taking away the 15 teaching hours he had been assigned. 

“The reason he gave me was that, according to him, I had many responsibilities assigned to me as an administrative worker, a teacher, and while working on my doctoral thesis. This made no sense because my performance as a professor was never mediocre; on the contrary, the faculty itself evaluated me as outstanding,” Loren says. 

On August 15, Loren stopped teaching after the Dean of the Faculty ordered him removed from his position as an adjunct professor. This first unjustified dismissal shattered Loren's life plans, as his goal is to become a professor and researcher.

From August 2017 to February 2018, Loren Daniel continued to receive discriminatory treatment and exclusion from Aguillón Ramírez, who persisted in stating that Loren “did not have the profile of a teacher.” The human resources department still had not corrected her name and gender on the employee roster. 

In the following months, Loren explored various avenues to regain her teaching position but continued to receive rejections from UANL. She then decided to report the discrimination she was experiencing.

Second unjustified dismissal and omission by the CEDH

On February 15, 2018, Loren filed a discrimination complaint with the Nuevo León State Human Rights Commission (CEDH). However, she was not offered any protective measures, such as legal counsel to seek an injunction and avoid losing her job. 

To date, the CEDH has not investigated or issued any recommendations and has not reviewed at least five complaints filed by Loren. 

On March 16, 2018, the UANL human resources coordinator informed Loren that his employment was being terminated due to the complaint he had filed with the CEDH (State Human Rights Commission). He was thus unjustly dismissed from his second job as an administrative assistant in the Faculty of Psychology. 

“The coordinator referred to my complaint to the CEDH as a 'labor claim' and at all times refused to give me any explanation for the cancellation of my contract. She only told me to submit any matter in writing to the legal department of the UANL,” Loren recalls.

“As a victim or a survivor, I’m required to comply with the terms, even though I’m in a chaotic situation. But they don’t comply with their own terms. In four years, I’ve handled many different cases and complaints. Ironically, some of those complaints to the CEDH (State Human Rights Commission) are because the other complaints haven’t been resolved. It’s absurd that those who are supposed to protect our human rights are also the ones who obstruct them and abandon us,” Loren adds.

In January and April of this year, Presentes contacted the CEDH (State Human Rights Commission) seeking answers regarding the lack of resolution of complaints, but they never responded to our request. On July 18, they replied: “Only the complainants can access the status and resolution of the complaint.” But none of the complaints have been resolved. 

“What Loren has experienced is also gender violence” 

The first agency Loren sought to obtain justice was the Gender Equality Unit (UNIIGÉNERO). This agency aims to “promote a culture to prevent and eradicate gender discrimination and violence,” as stated on its website . Based on this, Loren filed a complaint, but to date, UNIIGÉNERO has failed to address the discrimination she experienced.

“I only received one response from UNIIGÉNERO after four years. What the coordinator of UNIIGÉNERO, Dr. María Luisa Martínez Sánchez, who is a woman who belongs to UN Women, told me was that I, as a man, could not file a complaint of gender violence, that it was only for women,” Loren recalls. 

The UNIIGÉNERO protocol (updated to 2019) does not include a definition of gender-based violence. It also lacks an intersectional perspective on gender-based violence. In its definition of discrimination, it incorrectly uses the term 'sexual preference' to refer to sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

“The UN has clearly stated that the LGBT+ population is subject to gender-based violence because we are treated according to how we are perceived. It is important to understand that what Loren has experienced is also gender-based violence because he is a trans man,” explains María Romero, the litigator in the case.

Multiple violations of his human rights

After facing obstruction of justice from the CEDH and UNIIGÉNERO, Loren sought legal counsel from the civil association El Clóset LGBT. Her lawyer, María Romero, has filed more than twelve lawsuits against Álvaro Antonio Ascary Aguillón Ramírez and the UANL for discrimination based on gender identity.

Romero mentions that multiple human rights have been violated: “The right to a dignified life, to equality, to non-discrimination, to prompt and expeditious justice. The right to the truth, with so many unanswered legal proceedings, the right to the free development of his personality, and this translates into having his life project and his goals as a researcher shattered. For one person to experience all of this is too much, and Loren has been very brave and resilient, but it is something that cannot be repeated in Nuevo León or anywhere else,” Romero added.  

In these five years, the communications offices of UANL and UNIIGÉNERO have not issued any statements regarding the dismissal of Loren Daniel for transphobic hate. Álvaro Antonio Ascary Aguillón Ramírez continues to work at the University. 

What's next?

After five years of fighting for justice, complaints, labor lawsuits and denunciations, a hashtag (#TransfobiaUANL) to make her case visible, almost 100 days in a sit-in set up in the vicinity of the UANL Rectorate, institutional violence, psychological evaluations, revictimization and living in economic and labor uncertainty, Loren Daniel feels that "finally a cycle closes". 

“I can finally feel at peace because, as a survivor, it was recognized with evidence that what I experienced was wrong and was discrimination. At the same time, I feel motivated because, although this whole process was very confrontational—not with the university, but with my aggressor—I feel that these five years are just another motivation for the Faculty to improve,” Loren adds. 

Although the ruling states that UANL must reinstate them, Loren feels ambivalent. He says he doesn't see UANL as a safe space for him. But at the same time, he feels motivated by the transformative power that these five years might bring to him and the university. 

“My motivation is that this five-year nightmare will turn into the dream I had from the first day I started, to teach, and from the first day I was fired, I hoped they would give me my job back. My former students are motivating me a lot. These five years are simply a motivation for the Faculty to be better.”