Uruguay: the failure of the initiative to repeal the rights of trans people

The plebiscite was not required; only those who accompanied the initiative to promote a referendum on the inhibition of the rights of trans people should vote; under a ballot that subscribes: "I am filing a referendum appeal against Law 19.684 of October 26, 2019".

The Integral Law for Transgender People (19,684), which recognizes and implements public policies to guarantee the human rights of trans people, was approved by the Parliament of Uruguay in October 2018, with 62 votes for, 88 votes in favor of the Chamber of Deputies. Representatives

In 2016, the first transgender census of Uruguay was conducted and the data showed that only 16% were over 50 years old. In turn, average per capita income was $ 7471, which is half the minimum wage.

67.5% of censored people said that they had to practice prostitution to generate income. 25% had to leave their home in adolescence because of the rejection of their family. While 18% of Uruguayan transgender people said they did not go to a health center for fear of discrimination.

This law, which seeks to correct the reality of transgender persons, establishes, in Article 1, the right to gender identity: "Everyone has the right to the free development of his personality according to his own gender identity, regardless of their biological, genetic, anatomical, morphological, hormonal or other bad.".

In turn, he created a comprehensive program in which the state must provide the necessary conditions so that transgender people are not excluded from the orbit of education. 2% of scholarships and 1% of places in vocational programs should be allocated to this group. In the cases required, the state must provide psychological and economic support so that they can complete their studies.

In addition, this law establishes a 1% labor quota in public sector jobs; as well as in the field of health, it guarantees free access to all services, without discrimination or pathologization. Even prepaid ones do not have the right of admission in these cases and the state is obliged to provide the services to adapt the bodies of the people to their gender identity through D & # 39; A universal, fair and inclusive coverage program.

Another suggestive point is that of the "restorative regime" which gives access to a pension for transgender persons born before December 31, 1975, who were victims of institutional violence or were imprisoned under the Uruguayan military and civic dictatorship. .

November 2018 neoconservative sectors they started a signature collection campaign in order to repeal the law. The misinformation maneuver involved at least three slogans: this law "denies biology"; that the children would be hormonized without the consent of the parents and that they would give a pension to every trans person just because they were there.

This initiative was supported by nationalist deputies Carlos Iafigliola and Álvaro Dastugue, accompanied by neo-Pentecostal church and evangelical leagues, although several MPs from different political spaces were also supported.

However, the Archbishop of Montevideo, Carlos Sturla, called not to participate in the plebiscite. Although it does not agree with certain points of the law because it stimulates "The ideological colonization which implies the ideology of the kind", He said that it would be wise for Parliament to change it.