Members of the transgender community in Buenos Aires marched to Congress on Wednesday to demand the approval of a bill that would provide financial reparations for trans individuals who have suffered abuses at the hands of state security forces.
Activists say they have been persecuted, tortured, raped, and killed during the military dictatorship (1976-1983) and during the democracy period that followed, when police edicts made it illegal to cross-dress.Maria Lorena Caldara says she was detained In 1988, when she was 16.”Despite being a minor, they put me with adults where I was forced to have sex, even with the police,” she said.In some provinces of the country, these police edicts lasted until 2012 when Congress approved the gender identity bill, allowing people to change their gender.
Argentina then became the first country in the world to guarantee citizens the right to register their self-perceived identity in the document regardless of their biological sex.Speaking in front of Congress before hundreds of protesters, transgender activist Paula Luana Salva said the crimes against the community amount to genocide.
“We have been victims of crimes against humanity in the context of a genocide,” she said. “The debt that the Argentine state has with us be paid once and for all.”The activists have presented the bill for the eighth consecutive year.
Courtesy : TOI
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights
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