This text was originally published in Spanish in the book “Con Nombre Propio. A diez años de la Ley de Identidad de Genero” and translated into English in my book The Time of Revolution is Now!: A Social History of Trans and Travesti Argentina.
Writing about the history of political processes is always challenging. It is a subject as alive as flesh and blood, involving partisan disputes, legacies, and futures. I will nevertheless take the risk to review in this text the political activities of Argentine travestis, trans, and transsexual people from the second half of the 20th century to the present. The aim is not to set in stone an official history of trans people in Argentina, but rather to produce some basic historical guidelines to organize political and historiographical debates. For this purpose, I will use the notion of “political itineraries (1),” introduced by Lohana Berkins in Un Itinerario Político del Travestismo [A Political Itinerary of Transvestism]. We might consider this text as the foundation work on the historical concern with trans issues in Argentina. Berkins constructs a chronology that shows the formation of the first organizations and spaces for political action, the formation of coalitions with feminists and human rights organizations, and the significant events of a struggle agenda between 1991 to 2003. But this chronological order proposed by Berkins is only one of many possible itineraries. Each itinerary reflects a narrative voice and focuses on a particular type of experience. Therefore, in order to produce a history of travesti/trans activism in Argentina, we must collect and systematize these itineraries and confront their tensions and contradictions.
There is another political itinerary strongly popular among younger generations and encompasses the legislative achievements of the last decade, from the enactment of the Gender Identity Law in 2012 to the present. This “post-Berkins” itinerary focuses on the demands that travesti and trans organizations made to the Argentine government, which were channeled into legislative initiatives and the creation of spaces within the government from which to promote specific actions for the trans population. It is an itinerary centered on public policies that has been vigorously supported by LGBT organizations, travesti and trans associations, and political parties identified with the progressist wing of Peronism. Although this narrative is recognized as the legacy to the struggles of leaders such as Lohana Berkins and Diana Sacayan, it does not delve into the complex tensions between grassroots activism and state initiatives. Finally, there is a third political itinerary still developing, led by the oldest travestis, self-denominated as “the historical ones” [las históricas], which aims to reconstruct the moments and strategies that preceded formal activism. The most recent is a collection of stories, memories, and audiovisual records produced by travestis who survived the extreme violence perpetrated by the Argentine state between the last military dictatorship (1976-1983) and the return to democracy (1983-1994). This narrative voice highlights the strategies of peer support, cunning in the face of police control, and the first forms of assembly and anarchy that developed under the umbrella of sex work.
Obviously, there are other necessary and urgent political itineraries in Argentina, such as non-metropolitan activism, transmasculine, and non-binary activism, although their development is still limited to a few research projects. In this text, I will focus on the interweaving of all these paths to construct a timeline that arbitrarily encompasses a complex set of travesti, transsexual, and transgender political experiences. I will divide this timeline based on some significant events that allow us to establish temporal milestones and extreme dates.
United Faggots of Argentina and the first lawsuits for the recognition of transsexual identity (1951-1986)
There is a wide variety of sources available to document trans history in Argentina: medical, legal, police, psychiatric, and criminal records, etc., produced by the governments and its agents; editorial archives produced by journalists and photojournalists; memoirs and biographies; other literary and film archives, etc. Memoirs are especially useful for reconstructing certain periods, as they record terms, experiences, and identifications that were censored or omitted in other kinds of records. It is through one of these biographical memoirs, that of Malva Solís, that we can learn about one of the first attempts at political organization in the country: United Faggots of Argentina (UFA).
UFA was a mutual aid group founded in 1951 by gay and queer people detained in Devoto Prison accused of wearing clothes contrary to their gender or offering sex in public. These two actions had been classified as crimes against morality in Buenos Aires police ordinances in 1935. As a result, persecution of queer people was commonplace when Malva Solís moved from Chile to Buenos Aires in the 1940s. Each of these detentions in Devoto could last up to sixty days, during which time they suffered from hunger and cold. That is why they decided to create a support system among queers, where each one contributed some money to help those detained with the promise of being helped in the event of a future arrest. In addition, UFA had a homemade newsletter through which queers learned about the situation of those detained, community news, gossip, and invitations to parties and meetings. On one occasion, one of the copies fell into the hands of the police and triggered a large raid, after which this early attempt at organization was dismantled.
During this period, the word “marica” (faggot) referred to a wide spectrum of sex-gender experiences that cannot be reduced to what we today name as travesti. The word travesti became popular in 1971 after the presentation in Buenos Aires of the group “Les Girls,” a group of Brazilian artists who “dressed up” as women as part of a theatrical performance. The term was used to refer to other artists (always suspected of being effeminate) who cross-dressed. Later, the word travesti was also used to refer to those who wore women’s clothing and had undergone silicone and/or hormone treatments and engaged in sex work. Outside of this characterization, another type of gender experience developed: transsexual identity.
In 1966, a very popular newspaper reported on a court case involving “sex change” surgeries. Doctors Clemente Rodríguez Jáuregui, Alejandro Pavlosky, Ricardo San Martín, and Francisco Defazio were accused for the “mutilation” of five transsexual patients: Liliana Vega, María Vega, Derito Armesto, Marta Fábregas, and Patricia Rojo. The controversy began after Maria Vega filed a lawsuit seeking recognition of her identity in her documents, claiming that she had changed her sex through surgery. The courts investigated the doctors, imprisoned them, and finally acquitted them in 1969. This controversy led to the reform of the Medical Practice Acts, to ban surgeries on reproductive organs without prior judicial authorization. This event promoted the political decision of the Argentine government to regulate the bodily self-determination of transsexual people.
The Travesti’s Front and the Pan-American Highway Crimes (1986–1993)
In the 1980s, some red-light districts began to form around the neighborhoods in northern Buenos Aires, and gradually spread toward the Pan-American Highway. Unlike in previous times, when travestis worked alongside cisgender women and pretending to be cisgender, the Pan-American Highway red-light district was recognized by clients, the police, and neighbors as exclusively for travestis. The performance of travestis, inspired by theater and cabarets, moved to the streets. This decade was also marked by the emergence of clandestinely applied silicone injections, a technology that allowed travestis to build voluptuous figures while avoiding the negative effects of hormone therapy.
Between 1983 and 1993, nearly one hundred travestis were murdered in Pan-American Highway in at least three different ways: crimes directly related to police violence, murders characterized as “crimes of passion,” and accidental deaths while fleeing between cars. Newspapers speculated that there was a serial killer whom they called “The butterfly hunter.” Fabiola, an 18-year-old Paraguayan travesti, was run over by a patrol car, and her death encouraged her friends to protest. Led by Mónica Ramos and Perica Burrometo, travestis living in Tigre and other neighborhoods in the northern zone of the city protested for the first time on December 21, 1986. They arrived at Plaza de Mayo with banners reading “We want tolerance,” “Stop the abuse,” and “We want equal rights,” while displaying the bruises made by the police and showing their bodies. This group proclaimed itself the Travesti’s Front and submitted a list of demands to Interior Minister Antonio Troccoli.
The Travesti’s Front aimed to become an union for sex workers, but it was dismantled due to police repression, forcing its leaders into exile or leading to their deaths. This event demonstrates that the violence experienced by travestis during the dictatorship continued and even intensified during the first years of democratic restoration.
The First Organizations and Debates on Travesti Identity (1993-1997)
The first trans organization to participate in pride parades and raise awareness of their issues in the media was Transexuals for the Right to Identity and Life [Transexuales por el Derecho a la Vida y la Identidad]. It was founded in 1991 by Karina Urbina, a prominent transsexual activist, editor of Confidencial Magazine, and director of the first trans-themed magazine in Argentina: The Transsexual Voice. The political actions of Urbina and other transsexual women of the 1990s, such as Patricia Gauna, Yanina Moreno, and Mariela Muñoz, constitute a transsexual political trajectory that deserves a specific and detailed study.
Carlos Jáuregui and his colleagues from Gays for Civil Rights were interested in including travestis in the parades and other activities, but their reality as young, middle-class gay men had little to do with the marginalized conditions of travestis. Travestis accessed gay and lesbian spaces through two paths: legal assistance provided by Angela Vanni and the Metropolitan Community Church, a congregation led by Pastor Roberto González. These welcoming spaces provided the first opportunities for travestis to organize. In 1993, United Travestis participated in the second Pride Parade. Although it presented itself as an organization founded by Kenny de Michelis, Sandy González, and Gabriela Carrizo, not many people were actually involved in this group. Also in 1993, during a birthday party, a group of travestis noticed the absence of some guests who had been arrested on their way there. Tired of the persecution, Claudia Pía Baudracco, María Belén Correa, Dahiana Diet, Alejandra Romero, Cinthia Pérez, Wendy Leguizamon, Veruska, Fidela Colman, Sara Gómez, and Jeanet Contreras founded the Argentine Travesti Association (ATA).
Two other central figures of travesti activism were prominent on the scene during those years. Lohana Berkins participated in the founding of the Association of Sex Workers of Argentina and was vice president of the Argentine Homosexual Community. In 1994, she witnessed ATA’s participation in the third Pride March and approached the group, feeling that she needed to become politically active alongside other travestis. Also in 1994, Nadia Echazú made contact with ATA through an invitation from Angela Vanni. Therefore, from 1994 to 1997, ATA was the space that brought together the main travesti activists, although not without tensions. In 1995, they held two large-scale demonstrations: a sit-in in front of the Casa Rosada under the slogan “We sit down so we can walk,” demanding the repeal of police edicts, and organizing the March Against Police Violence, jointly with the University of Buenos Aires, human rights, and LGBT organizations.
In 1996, the 1st National Lesbian, Gay, Travesti, Transsexual, Transgender Meeting was held in Rosario. This meeting, spearheaded by Carlos Jáuregui, served as a catalyst for shared concerns and experiences and definitively established the acronym LGBT as a space for political articulation. In 1997, the political tensions between Lohana, Nadia, and the founders of ATA became evident. The focus of the disputes was sex work, while ATA had adopted a neutral position on the issue, Nadia wanted to take a stance in favour of sex work and openly acknowledge her status; and Lohana preferred a more nuanced approach that addressed sex work without explicitly endorsing it. These controversies led to the creation of the Organization of Travestis and Transsexuals of Argentina, founded by Nadia Echazú, and the Association for the Struggle for Travesti and Transsexual Identity, led by Lohana Berkins.
Lohana Berkins and coalition strategies (1997–2012)
The political strategy that distinguished Lohana Berkins from other travesti activists of her generation was the creation of coalition spaces with feminist groups, academic groups, and human rights organizations. When she founded the Association for the Struggle for Travesti and Transsexual Identity, Lohana already had in mind a universe of original political demands. Her strategy was to move beyond the issue of sex work and the fight against the code of misdemeanors, without abandoning it entirely, to advance the right to identity, understanding it as the gateway to other fundamental rights.
Between 1994 and 1999, the central issue for activists was the repeal of ordinances 2H and 2F, which criminalized offering sex and wearing clothing considered inappropriate for one’s assigned sex. With the autonomization of the City of Buenos Aires, following the 1994 constitutional reform, the debate on codes of misdemeanors opened up, in which travesti activists participated to achieve the finishing to police persecution. During those years, the conflict between travesti sex workers and residents of the fanciest neighborhoods occupied the front pages and prime time of the media, and travestis appeared on television to popularize their demands. Lohana differentiated herself from this media strategy and built political alliances in a different way. When the ordinances became ineffective following the enactment of the new urban coexistence code in 1998, Lohana deepened her activism and progressively approached feminist assemblies, academic spaces such as the Sexual Politics Group of the University of Buenos Aires, and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Other fundamental alliances were constituted through left-wing parties, and she was hired in 1999 as an advisor to Congressman Patricio Echegaray of the Communist Party.
Through the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo publishing house in 2005, Lohana Berkins and Josefina Fernández published The Quest for One’s Own Name, the first report on the situation of the travesti/trans community in Argentina. In 2007, she published Cumbia, Guzzling, and Tears [Cumbia, Copeteo y Lágrimas] and participated in El Teje Magazine, an editorial project directed by Marlene Wayar with the support of the Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center of the University of Buenos Aires. Also in 2007, she spearheaded the creation of the “Nadia Echazú” Textile Co-op, a project for the labor inclusion of travesti and trans people. In 2011, she was involved in the founding of the first high school for trans people, the “Mocha Celis” High School.
This network of alliances was undoubtedly key to Lohana’s political trajectory and to the achievement of the Gender Identity Law in 2012. True to her strategy, Lohana promoted the creation of the Front for Gender Identity, a space that brought together gay, travesti, trans, and other allied groups. From this platform, a Gender Identity Law bill was promoted to counter the one presented by the Argentine LGBT Federation. While the LGBT Federation’s bill included requirements for stability and permanence in gender identity, the Front’s bill promoted the notion of self-perception and advocated for access to trans-specific healthcare as a central and indivisible part of the right to identity. The passage of the Gender Identity Law bill in 2012 crowned Lohana Berkins’ political strategy and served as a catalyst for demands for the right to employment, education, and healthcare for the travesti/trans population.
Gender Identity Law and Trans Labor Quota Law, a decade of public policy (2012–2022)
The right of accessing ID cards that reflect self-perceived identity also represented access to citizenship for trans and travesti people. This key concept of trans citizenship is the central focus of the last decade of political achievements. The coalitions forged by Lohana Berkins deepened during this period, consolidating the idea that trans rights are human rights and therefore must be addressed by society as a whole. Travesti and trans participation in feminist movements increased, although resistance from conservative sectors persists. Travestis also joined social movements, and labor organizations. Maite Amaya, a travesti activist from Córdoba, participated in the Federation of Grassroots Organizations (FOB), embodying an anarchic and critical voice regarding the patriarchal practices of working-class political organizations and feminist movements. Diana Sacayán founded the Anti-Discrimination Liberation Movement, from which she promoted inclusion projects for the LGBT population in the shantytowns and working-class neighborhoods of the La Matanza district, Buenos Aires Province. Lohana Berkins deepened her participation in the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion, extending the debate on abortion to the field of bodily autonomy and the right to self-determination.
Access to work, health, and education were the main issues on the agenda of travesti/trans activism after the approbation of the Gender Identity Law. Lohana Berkins and Diana Sacayán promoted trans employment inclusion projects under the slogan of the “derecho al travajo” (right to work, written with a v instead b in reference to the word travesti) In 2015, a law was passed in the Province of Buenos Aires establishing a 1% quota in the public administration. Many universities and federal institutions established similar quotas in their jurisdictions. In the health sector, intense disputes arose over the effective implementation of Article 11 of the Gender Identity Law, which establishes that hormonal and surgical treatments for the personal development of trans people must be guaranteed in the public health system. In 2015, some specific services for trans individuals were established, sometimes referred to as trans-friendly clinics, and the Ministry of Health drafted guidelines and recommendations. Trans and non-binary activist groups, particularly in Buenos Aires, held assemblies to protest the shortages of hormones during the Mauricio Macri administration, and in 2018, they created the Trans Resource Guide, a website that collectively compiles information on healthcare services for trans people.
In 2017, Marlene Wayar presented the “To Recognize Is to Repair” project, a legislative initiative aimed at obliging the Argentine State to acknowledge its responsibility for the crimes and offenses committed against travesti and trans people during the military dictatorship and the subsequent democratic period. Drawing on the concept of genocide, Marlene proposed the notion of “travesticide” as a particular form of state-sponsored extermination focuses on dissident sexual identities. In 2012 and 2014, Buenos Aires legislator Maria Rachid had presented similar projects, which were met with rejection from society and the media. In line with the demands for historical reparations, the Trans Memory Archive was founded in 2014.
The social agitation surrounding the debate on the right to abortion in 2018 brought the issue of who has abortions into public discussion, demonstrating that cisgender women are not the only ones who have abortions. Organizations such as Putos Mal [bad faggots] and the Transmasculine Front (FTM) intervened in the debates, demanding that the right to abortion include trans men. Lesbians and Feminists for the Decriminalization of Abortion also intervened to challenge the notion of women as the sole gestating body. These debates provided the foundation for the deepening of transmasculine and non-binary activism. Eugenio Talbot Wright, Blas Radi, Mauro Cabral, and other activists established theoretical and programmatic bases for contemporary transmasculine activism.
In 2020, the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity was created within the national government, and Presidential Decree No. 721/2020 was enacted, establishing a 1% trans employment quota in the national public administration. On June 24, 2021, the legislative chambers approved Law No. 27.636 on Access to Formal Employment for Travesti, Transsexual, and Transgender People, named “Diana Sacayán-Lohana Berkins.” Also in 2021, a third category for recording sex was established through a presidential decree, indicated by the letter X. This enables gender to be registered in a non-binary way.
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We still need more theoretical and methodological debates about perspectives on trans history in the region. This essay is a first attempt to bring together a complex set of political experiences on a single timeline. However, many parts of the narrative remain open, requiring further development and in-depth exploration in future research. It is the task of the new generation of researchers and social scientists to translate memory into history, with all the responsibilities that this mission entails. After so many years of being narrated from outside the trans community, the time has come to reclaim the narrative of history and recover the power of a vast universe of practices, experiences, and emotions that still remain submerged beneath the waters of academic cissexism.
(1)I decided to translate Berkins’s term “itinerarios políticos” literally as “political itineraries,” trying to maintain the ambiguity of the term “itinerary,” which is usually used to describe a journey or travel plan. In this case, however, it is used to describe the trajectories and agendas of the travesti activist movement.
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