Flor de la V, Argentine actress
The
Buenos Aires Herald reported yesterday that the World Health Organization has cited Argentina as a leadership example for transgender issues. Some of the significant affirming policies that make a difference in Argentine transgender folk's lives are:
- Legal right to gender alignment procedures (surgical, hormonal, etc.), fully covered through both public and private health care systems
- Self-declaration is sufficient for the above, no longer requiring a trans person to convince medical or other authorities of the validity of his/her gender self-identification
- Legal right to change all necessary documentation to match gender identity, such as passport, birth certificate, national ID card, etc. (of course, this is Argentina so I'm sure there will still be a ton of paperwork and bureaucracy!)
In 2012, the country passed its Ley de Identidad de Genéro (Gender Identity Law) which granted the rights listed above. Having also passed legislation enabling gay marriage in 2010, Argentina has been an outstanding leader in LGBQT rights for all of Latin America.
I recently wrote another diary about Cristina Kirchner, the president of Argentina. It mostly recapped a lengthy interview with her but there was quite a bit of discussion in the comments about her and her husband's (he was president before her) policies. While progressives can debate the merits or faults of Kirchner policies in economics or foreign affairs (the Falkland Islands obsession, for one), their administrations have been very good on most human rights issues, far ahead of not only the region but of many First World countries as well.
Argentina has a tradition of being accommodating and "fluid" about gender issues. There are quite a few high profile trans people, like the actress Flor de la V. Indeed, one legend about the origin of the famed Argentine tango is that it arose from the "conflict" of gauchos (cowboys) dancing with transvestites out on the pampa where few cisgender (genetic/biological) women were to be found. Tango's dramatic approach-and-turn-away moves supposedly reflect the men's ambivalence or uncertainty about their partners.
As many trans folk can attest, in the U.S. there is often overt opprobrium cast on the male partner of a trans woman, sort of an attitude of "that must mean he's a f*g, not a real man." In Argentina, I have never witnessed that. I've seen stereotypical macho construction workers with a trans girlfriend and nobody bats an eye. Whatever social code is operative, it seems like it is more about supporting the appearance of traditional roles than the physicality of them. In other words, if a macho guy has a girlfriend--genetic, dress-and-cosmetics, or gender surgery--then she's his girlfriend and they don't see him as any different than other straight guys. Although some might raise an eyebrow about him if he had a boyfriend, there seems to be little, if any, objection to trans relationships that give the appearance of traditional male-female couples.
That's not to say discrimination and the threat of violence don't exist. That can, and does, happen anywhere. But on the whole, Argentina has seemed to me, in my almost-a-decade here, far more accepting and tolerant of trans folk than all but a few locales in the U.S.