{"id":9174,"date":"2016-06-17T13:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T07:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak?p=9174"},"modified":"2019-03-26T17:03:03","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T11:33:03","slug":"everything-needed-changed-fortunately-already-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/everything-needed-changed-fortunately-already-started\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEverything needed to be changed. Fortunately, we have already started\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A late chronicle: May 17 in Argentinean travesti and trans women voices<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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by Alejandra Sard\u00e1 – Akahat\u00e1-Working Team on Sexualities and Genders<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This is a late chronicle for several reasons. The obvious one is that it has already been more\u00a0than 10 days since May 17, the International Day against Transphobia (and other wrongly called\u00a0\u2018phobias\u2019 as they have nothing to do with personal pathologies but rather are social devices to\u00a0preserve privileges). Another reason is that the writer of this chronicle is an activist who only\u00a0now is again taking part in the activist movements in her country after having spent many years\u00a0(and the best years for our country at very many levels, on top of that) far away.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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In one of those\u00a0overpowering\u00a0rooms with\u00a0polished wood\u00a0and chandeliers\u00a0that can only be\u00a0reached through\u00a0marble labyrinths,\u00a0city MP Andrea\u00a0Conde (FPV –\u00a0Nuevo Encuentro,\u00a0my party, an early\u00a0confession to be\u00a0made in case I\u00a0sound too partial\u00a0later) organized\u00a0the roundtable\u00a0Obstacles in\u00a0access to rights\u00a0for trans persons\u00a0and travestis, an\u00a0excellent\u00a0opportunity to\u00a0learn how Buenos Aires travestis and trans women (in spite of the title, there were no trans men\u00a0at the table) are experiencing the neoliberal restoration in Argentina after 12 years of the\u00a0Kirchner governments under which our country deservedly became a world leader with a 100%\u00a0depathologizing\/ depathologized Gender Identity Law and remarkable rates of access to\u00a0education and work by trans persons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We went from invitations to the Government House\u00a0to be given our IDs to rubber bullets. – Gabriela Abreliano (Personas Trans Autoconvocadas)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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The speakers at the\u00a0roundtable were pretty\u00a0diverse and soon after it\u00a0started it was possible\u00a0even for a \u2018late-newcomer\u2019\u00a0like me to perceive\u00a0significant tensions\u00a0between the speakers, and, between them and the audience. Nothing to be afraid of \u2014 this is\u00a0how movements that are alive look like.<\/p>\n

In the eyes of this onlooker, the differences were around two issues: prostitution vs sex work (a\u00a0feminist classic debate) and who is to be credited (mainly) for the advances made in recent\u00a0years. The agreements, even for the most critical speakers, were around the huge setback that \u00a0the current government has caused for their rights.<\/p>\n

Let’s start with the agreements. Marcela Romero (ATTTA and Federaci\u00f3n LGBT) said that they\u00a0are in \u201ca Trans alert\u201d because of the arrests and police abuse that the community is facing once\u00a0again, and particularly those of them who are doing sex work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0The arrests often lead to madeup\u00a0drug-related charges. She also exposed the situation of the shortage of hormones available \u00a0for the treatments that fall under the Gender Identity Law and that the Ministry of Health \u2013\u00a0unfunded and lacking staff due to the \u201cmodernizing\u201d lay-offs of the current administration \u2013 is\u00a0now unable to provide. Daniela Ruiz, from Cooperativa Arte Trans, revealed the difficulties that\u00a0her cooperative and many others are facing because the Central Bank has cancelled the\u00a0special (no-fees) accounts through which they operated while subjecting them to a review,\u00a0supposedly to distinguish between \u201cgenuine\u201d cooperatives and others. In the meantime, the\u00a0women working at the cooperative are back to street \u00a0work to survive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The feminist classic sex work vs prostitution debate was played out in this context in a way that\u00a0was different from what happens in cis feminist spaces. In\u00a0the eyes of this narrator, cis feminists who have never\u00a0engaged in sex work have a lot to learn from travestis and\u00a0trans women. First of all: the respect. The accusations of\u00a0\u2018being pimps\u2019, the screaming of insults and the physical\u00a0violence I have often seen in feminist spaces were\u00a0completely absent. I had a \u201cBack to the Future\u201d moment\u00a0when Sabrina, from La C\u00e1mpora Diversa (whom I hope to\u00a0live long enough to vote for as MP, Senator and why not\u00a0something more than that), repeated the words of renowned\u00a0trans activist Lohana Berkins ten years ago, when she and I\u00a0together organized the Dialogue Prostitution-Sex Work: In\u00a0the First Person Only: \u201cThe federal and provincial police will\u00a0not ask us if we are abolitionists or we favour regulation \u2013 they take us away all the same. This\u00a0is not a time for divisions\u201d. Diana Aravena (Putos Peronistas) summarized travesti wisdom on\u00a0this issue well: \u201cIf with that you pay for your stew, your room, and even manage to help your\u00a0family, it\u2019s fine. We don\u2019t argue over prostitution vs sex work. What we want is everything, for all\u00a0of us\u201d. From the audience came voices saying, \u201cI do not feel dishonoured being a sex worker\u201d\u00a0and \u201cI am a sex worker, I don\u2019t regret it\u201d, and their abolitionist compa\u00f1eras did not insult them. I\u00a0apologize for the emphasis, but this is not what I am used to in cis feminist debates (in\u00a0Argentina and elsewhere).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As for the advances made in these last few years, the scope went from the positions of Marcela\u00a0Romero and Yahaira Falc\u00f3n, who works at the City Public Defenders\u2019 Office (\u201cThe State is yet\u00a0to give me anything; it was the trans community that got us the Law\u201d) to that of Marcela Tobaldi,\u00a0from La C\u00e1mpora Diversa who works at the National Public Defenders\u2019 Office: \u201cSince 2003 a\u00a0piece of me was resurrected everyday, I felt part of a collective project. Now with the Neoliberal\u00a0model, the person is out of the picture\u201d. From the audience Paula (another one I would like to\u00a0vote for), displayed her ID saying, \u201cMy ID is the decision of a State that heard those who had\u00a0never been heard before. It is the result of the political will of a President who included those\u00a0who had never been included. And this is why people like me got into politics\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With everything I\u00a0have already paid\u00a0the police as bribes,\u00a0I could have retired\u00a0already.\u00a0– Marcela Romero\u00a0(ATTTA \u2013\u00a0Federaci\u00f3n LGBT)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"The title of this chronicle\u00a0comes from something\u00a0said by Victoria, who\u00a0works at the National\u00a0Bank and who also said\u00a0that knowledge has\u00a0given her freedom.\u00a0Prospects for travestis\u00a0and trans women are as\u00a0hard as those for all of\u00a0us, people apparently\u00a0spoiled by the populist\u00a0governments that got us\u00a0accustomed to exercise\u00a0our rights. But they are\u00a0also more and less\u00a0difficult for trans than for\u00a0cis Argentineans. Why\u00a0they are more difficult\u00a0should be obvious:\u00a0because they have\u00a0inherited a history of\u00a0exclusion and that\u00a0legacy is in their bodies,\u00a0like Diana Sacay\u00e1n and\u00a0Lohana Berkins \u2013 much\u00a0remembered at this\u00a0event, both of them\u00a0victims of an untimely\u00a0death like hundreds of\u00a0others \u2013 knew only too\u00a0well. Why they are less\u00a0difficult is because one\u00a0thing on which all of us,\u00a0watching the Neoliberal\u00a0and revengeful banquet\u00a0with pain and outrage,\u00a0agree is that from this\u00a0brutal labyrinth we can\u00a0only get out hand in\u00a0hand, bound together.\u00a0Sadly, we just seem\u00a0unable to do it. What\u00a0divides most cis-led\u00a0social movements is still\u00a0stronger than what binds\u00a0us together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But they \u2013 travestis and\u00a0trans women (or trans\u00a0persons, in general)\u00a0have already proven,\u00a0first by their survival and\u00a0also in the process\u00a0towards the Gender Identity Law, that they do know how to discriminate between what is\u00a0important and what is secondary. Sabrina said: \u201cWe live in societies geared to bring up selfish\u00a0individuals\u201d.<\/p>\n

They are lucky enough to be very \u201cbadly brought up\u201d in this regard.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0This article was originally published<\/a> on the Akahat\u00e1<\/span> website.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
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The feminist classic sex work vs prostitution debate was played out in this context in a way that was different from what happens in cis feminist spaces. In the eyes of this narrator, cis feminists who have never engaged in sex work have a lot to learn from travestis and trans women. First of all: the respect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":9220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,1,688],"tags":[697,34,25,329,617],"class_list":{"0":"post-9174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog-roll","8":"category-categories","9":"category-work-and-sexuality","10":"tag-argentina","11":"tag-sex-work","12":"tag-sexualities","13":"tag-trans-women","14":"tag-work"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9174"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14929,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9174\/revisions\/14929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}