By not being able to change their roles officially, trans people face problems finding work, accessing health services and doing paperwork; have constant obstacles to exercise their rights
Tuss spent three years without being able to fully exercise his right to identity. As a trans man, they spent three years waiting for his trial to be resolved in order to change his gender identity on his official documents, because in Puebla there is no law that allows trans people to update their papers.
During this time, the uncertainty and frustration that he experienced affected his health, work, and daily life: every time a resolution deadline expired, something new happened and the process dragged on, as both judicial authorities refused to resolve, turning to another instance, reaching the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, so that Tuss finally managed to change his identity, a basic right enshrined in the fourth article of the Constitution.
From the impossibility of changing their documents due to lack of a law, trans people see their rights violated both for not having their identity documents and for having to resort to jurisdictional procedures to obtain their papers. This is explained by lawyer Irvin Bonilla, co-coordinator of the Legal Transformations strategic litigation clinic at the Universidad Veracruzana, where they have carried out more than 50 gender identity procedures.
In an interview for SIDE B, the lawyer explained that the fact of not having papers drives trans people to continually reveal that their identity is different from the one contained in their official documents in the most everyday acts. This, he said, violates the right to honor, privacy and human dignity, as a condition and basis of human rights.
In addition, the rights to equality and non-discrimination based on gender expression, to the free development of the personality, to work and to health are also violated.
On the other hand, the judicialization of these procedures entails “official” or normative discrimination, since the norm or law itself is establishing a differentiated treatment for trans people so that they can obtain their identity documents.
A simple right
Why is it important for trans people to be able to legally change their identity? The answer is simple: to exercise your basic rights. From accessing public health services, looking for a job, paying with a card in a supermarket, to more complex things such as obtaining pensions, Afores, Social Security, or acquiring a bank loan.
In Puebla, trans people still cannot change their documents according to their assumed sex-gender identity; Within the framework of this struggle, the discussion and approval of the so-called Agnes Law is pending, which seeks to make this change official.
In theory, the local deputies and deputies promised to legislate on the subject no later than February 15, 2021, based on the demands of the feminist collectives and trans people in the seizure of the Congress facilities at the end of the year. past.
While time is running out for legislators, the trans community continues to have problems doing things of daily life: going to the doctor, doing a paperwork at the bank, getting a job, among others.
Alec, for example, is a trans man and is one of the people who has experienced such difficulties. He recounts that, once at the bank, the girl he attended told him that she needed the account holder to be present, because since it was in the name of ‘Alejandra’ she could not carry out the procedure she requested.
He adds that when they ask the INE to identify him, the moment becomes uncomfortable, even when he goes to bars or clubs. At first the treatment is friendly, but when they see their identification and see that the name on it corresponds to someone of the opposite sex, people sometimes get upset: “they think that for some reason I lied to them, [and] the treatment becomes derogatory ”.
Diana, another of the interviewees, shares that her main problem has been on the subject of the degree. She already has two careers, but she has not been able to get her title because she would come out with a different name, one that has not been hers for a long time.
Recognize the trans community
What trans people who cannot change their identity face, as in Puebla, is not existing legally. Perhaps, says Diana, “your environment recognizes you, people close to you, in daily coexistence. But in everything legal you can’t do many things, because you don’t exist”.
There is a problem that Diana identifies, for example when carrying out a medical procedure with a document that does not coincide with her sex-gender identity. Sometimes a trans person can be denied attention or a service, and yes, sometimes it is due to an act of discrimination, but on other occasions it is simply because if they validate a document that has a name that does not seem to correspond to the person seeking the service, may commit a crime or endorse identity falsification.
“As much respect and empathy as you can find, in the end you need a document that supports you, because other people could be committing a crime if they receive it.”
“I would say to people, simply: ‘why don’t you like that I have rights?’”, he questions. For Diana, the legitimate question is that if people like what she does: how she cuts her hair, the shows she puts on, why don’t they like that she and the rest of the trans community enjoy their basic rights? .
Alec shares another bad experience in social security, when he went to the clinic for a consultation, because he has asthma. One of the nurses did not want to attend to him because his card did not have the photograph. They told him that this couldn’t be him, and he had an argument, until another person attended to him. Finally, in addition to the procedures, what is in the background is the lack of recognition of a sector of the population: the trans community.
For Alec, the system does not make the trans community visible, and is made for cis people, that is, those who have the same gender and sex assigned at birth. “In general, I think that the important thing, for everything, is to recognize ourselves before this CIStheme: we exist, we are worth it, we are”.
