Theme: Law & Policy

By executive order, Argentina’s national government outlaws access to trans-specific healthcare for children and youth under 18, including those who had already been prescribed hormones and puberty blockers.

Trans and travesti workers in Argentina’s public sector, many of whom had been hired through the national and county-wide travesti-trans quotas, begin organizing under the name Zaguán TranSindical. Zaguán TranSindical aims to improve conditions for all workers and bring trans issues to the attention of labor unions. When the national government begins firing employees in 2024 under Javier Milei’s presidency, Zaguán successfully appeals the dismissal of several trans individuals.

For the first time, an Argentine trans woman is made legally eligible for economic reparations granted to those arrested for political activism during the nation’s last military dictatorship (1976-1983). This recognition explicitly names the ways that trans or travesti identity was seen as “subversive” and a menace to national security.

In April 2022, a federal judge issues an indictment against police and military officials for kidnapping, torturing, and sexually abusing travesti and trans people at the Pozo de Banfield clandestine detention center. It was the first time an Argentine court recognized the dictatorship’s persecution of travestis and trans people as a systematic, state-organized crime against humanity.

Argentina passes a law expanding abortion rights. Thanks to the presence of transmasculine activists within the reproductive justice movement, the wording of this law affords these rights not only to women, but also to “people of other gender identities with the capacity to gestate.”

The president of Argentina passes an executive order reserving at least 1% of federal government jobs for travesti and trans workers. This quota, which builds on the trans labor quota law of Buenos Aires, becomes a national law in 2021, with additional provisions promoting trans employment and tax benefits for employers.

Travestis and trans people help organize with Argentina’s marea verde (green tide), the feminist movement in favor of expanding abortion rights. Travesti activists like Lohana Berkins are among the first public supporters of abortion, pointing out that bodily autonomy is a shared principle among both movements. Transmasculine people also highlight that abortion rights are needed by many people who aren’t women.

The province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, passes a law that reserves 1% of jobs in the provincial public sector for travestis and trans people. This quota was a direct result of grassroots travesti-trans activism, headed by working-class, travesti activist Diana Sacayán.

Starting in 2014, trans organizations present several bills in Argentina demanding economic reparations for travestis and trans people, targeted by the police for their gender identity. As of yet, none of these initiatives have been approved by the National Congress, but in 2023, the province of Santa Fe passes the Post-Dictatorship Reparation Law for Trans and Travesti People. These groups continue to fight for reparations.