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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. The digital platform “Transforming the Gaze” seeks to serve as a bridge between the transvestite, trans and non-binary (TTNB) community and employers in the public and private sectors. 

The initiative aims to "highlight the value of transgender people's work," stated Maryanne Lettieri, treasurer of the Mocha Celis Civil Association, one of the driving forces behind the proposal, along with the Muchnik Group and Sunshine Lab. It also seeks to make visible the contributions this community makes to businesses and address the exclusions that transgender people experience throughout their lives.

Transformar la mirada has two main sections: a form for job seekers and another for talent scouts. Users submit their information there to be contacted. The main objective: to ensure compliance with the transgender employment quota.

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It starts with the interviews.

In June 2021, the National Congress approved the Diana Sacayán – Lohana Berkins Law (No. 27,636), which promotes access to formal employment for transvestite, transsexual, and transgender people. This law guarantees a minimum of 1% of public sector jobs for transvestite, transsexual, and transgender individuals and encourages the private sector to include transvestite, transsexual, and non-transgender people in their workplaces.

“Our goal is to get companies to commit to ensuring the quota is implemented. Remember that a company that hires trans, gender-diverse, and non-binary people also receives tax benefits,” said Maru Mireles, secretary of Mocha Celis, in an interview with Presentes.

In Argentina, 70% of trans people never went to a job interview after assuming their gender identity, according to data from La Revolución de las Mariposas (The Butterfly Revolution).

Cuca, Nehuen, Marianne, Manu and Morena are some of the 12 people who shared their stories related to access to employment, within the framework of the Transforming the Perspective initiative.

The experiences

Cuca has been a bus driver for 45 years. “In my early days, I obviously had to work dressed like a regular boy,” she says in a video.

Since the Gender Identity Lawwas passed in 2012, she has been able to begin presenting herself to the world as she wished. Her hope is "for an equitable, inclusive, and conscious State, one with the heart to say yes: let's give these people jobs."

Nehuen, on the other hand, always felt “terrified” about job interviews because of “being trans, her age, and her lack of education.” “It’s not easy for a trans person to get a job,” she says. She believes that “a company can do so much by hiring a trans person” because “it can change a person’s life.”

According to data from La Revolución de las Mariposas (The Butterfly Revolution), 80% of the transvestite and trans community cannot access formal employment. Furthermore, 60% of this community engages in sex work, although 87% would stop if given another option.

“We are aiming for a world where there are CEOs who are transvestites, trans and non-binary”

“They shouldn’t limit themselves to that possibility,” says Morena Pinat, a trans woman from the city of Quitilipi in the province of Chaco, in a message of encouragement to companies to hire TTNB people.

“We all have infinite capabilities in different areas. Let’s not lose sight of that aspect of us. We’re not just about the streets or the night; we know so much more,” she adds.

The initiative not only aims for job inclusion in entry-level or basic positions, but also aspires to enable people to occupy leadership positions.

“We aim for a world where there are CEOs who are transvestites, trans and non-binary, where there are project leaders, managers, thinking about a world where we have equal opportunities,” Manu Mireles concluded.