Name: Owen Luna

Identity: Trans man

Candidacy: City Councillor

Political party: Socialist Workers' Party (PTS)

List: 136A-Unite and strengthen the left

Position on the list: First

Why does a person from a diverse sexual/cultural background have to be in Congress or the Legislature?

We have to be present because equality before the law is not equality in life. As a trans man, I've experienced job insecurity, having to hide my name and identity to get a job, the reality for many of us who are left with only a precarious salary, no rights, no access to public healthcare. That's why being the voice of my fellow trans people, carrying out their demands and fighting for them both in the legislature and in the streets, is my activist commitment.

When did you decide to run for office and why?

It was a collective decision. For a year now, we in the PTS have been organizing in open assemblies with different sectors of workers in Esteban Echeverría: teachers, youth, workers, students, LGBTQ+ people, and women. We exchanged ideas among ourselves, and they proposed that I run for city council alongside Ayelén Córdoba, an aeronautical worker and mayoral candidate, along with Myriam Bregman and Nicolás del Caño, who are heading our list at the national level.

How do you think hatred can be combated through politics?

Through our greatest defense, which is organizing alongside workers, women, and youth who refuse to continue losing years of work while politicians like Massa, Grabois, Milei, and the JxC candidates continue guaranteeing profits for their business friends and maintaining their privileges at the expense of our hunger, we will confront the right wing and its attacks with the strength that we, the workers, women, and dissidents, possess.

Did you think of any strategies to respond to the smear campaigns and disinformation against LGBT people in the media?

There are always media outlets that use their reach to defame or spread fake news. That's why, from the PTS, we run an independent multimedia newspaper that's now available in 14 countries and 11 languages. It's a great tool for reaching every corner of the world. I regularly write for the newspaper; I started by writing and covering the Tehuel de la Torre case. And we provide daily updates on the non-compliance with the trans employment quota, something very few people talk about.

How do we prevent a decline in rights?

We must continue to take to the streets. It is there that workers, 100 years ago, achieved the reduction of the workday to eight hours, where women won the right to vote, where we won the right to marriage equality and the gender identity law, and where the green wave forced the Church to grant abortion rights. Now we must continue to take to the streets for the true implementation of the Trans Employment Quota and in defense of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE).

What is the first project you are going to present?

The implementation of a trans employment quota, along with job sharing and a reduction of the workweek to 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, with a salary that covers basic needs, is crucial. Currently, out of 7,748 applicants, only 709 positions are filled, and most of those workers receive precarious wages or are registered as self-employed. Young people are very concerned about what will happen to our future, and the FIT, together with Myriam Bregman and Nicolás del Caño, has a concrete proposal.

Recommendation

A film, song, book, or cultural experience that politically influenced you?

A documentary produced by the left-wing newspaper and the counter-imagen group "Footprints of a Future" features workers recounting how and why they came to take control and manage a factory in the industrial hub of northern Greater Buenos Aires. It shows that, faced with resignation, the workers chose organization. Another documentary, Pride, reflects the unity between LGBTQ+ activists and the working class, demonstrating alongside unions that the struggle is for all oppressed sectors.