For the first time, a trans person in El Salvador was able to change their name and sex on their ID.
It's an unprecedented and historic step. Karla Guevara is a lawyer and had initiated the process three years ago.
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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador. A court in El Salvador authorized an unprecedented name and gender change for a transgender person. Karla Guevara is a lawyer and had initiated the process three years ago.
“Therefore, in the name of the Republic of El Salvador, I rule in favor of decreeing the change of proper name (…) the change of reference to the male sex to the female gender is warranted,” established the court ruling to which Presentes had access.
Karla, director of the Alexandria Collective for the human rights of the LGBTI population, told Presentes that on August 11 she had the final hearing in a family court in which she did not have much hope of obtaining a favorable resolution in her case.
“I feel immensely happy. I can’t explain the happiness I feel because it’s something only a trans person knows. All the ordeal I suffered throughout my life and now being able to access my identity documents with my documents as a trans person,” she told Presentes.
A tough process
According to Karla, during the process, overseen by a family court judge, she suffered discrimination because her gender identity was not recognized.
“I practically left the courthouse in tears because it was a very revictimizing hearing because I really had no hope that it would be a favorable ruling,” Karla told Presentes.
Last February, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador issued a partial ruling recognizing that trans people can change their name on identity documents according to their self-perceived gender and ordered Congress to legislate to comply with the ruling.
However, to date the draft Gender Identity Law presented in 2018 has not been discussed.
“The Legislative Assembly must issue the necessary reform to provide for the conditions that any person who wishes to change their name must meet in order to be compatible with their gender identity,” the text of the measure says.
The court ruling responds to a constitutional challenge filed in 2016 by human rights advocates. In it, they argued that Articles 11 and 23 of the Law on the Name of Natural Persons (LNPN) violate the right of transgender people to change their name.
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