By: Andrés Rivera Duarte, Human Rights and Gender Identity Consultant, Chile
On May 7, 2013, Ximena Gauché Marchetti, Juan Pablo Letelier, Ricardo Lagos, Camilo Escalona, and Lily Pérez—members of the Chilean Parliament from different parties—introduced the Bill for Recognition of Gender Identity at Chile’s Congress. This Bill was developed by the lawyer Ximena Gauché Marchetti with support from Andrés Rivera Duarte who, at the time, was executive director of the Organization of Transsexuals for Dignity and Diversity (Organización de Transsexuales por la Dignidad y la Diversidad (OTD)).
Ximena Rincón being interviewed about the introduction of the bill.
In a plenary vote, lawmakers approved the idea of the bill with a vote of 29 in favor and 3 abstentions. The bill was then passed on to the Human Rights Commission of the Senate, which, over the course of 13 sessions, invited various experts to share their point of view, some from a religous standpoint, some with a biological lens and others based on respect for human rights.
Until December 2014, while Senator Manuel Matta served as President of the Human Rights Commission, there were several debates on recommendations for inclusions and improvements to be made to the bill, including a recommendation from Senator Lily Peréz to incorporate protections for trans children and adolscents. In addition to this recommendation, which was approved, the Commission has, to date, approved the following articles:
Andrés Rivera (author) displays the proposed bill on the day of its introduction.
- Article 1: The right to Gender Identity
- Arictle 2: Gender Identity defined by the Yogyakarta Principles
- Article 3: Exercise of Rights
- Article 4: Requirements for the exercicse of rights (without surgery, psycological or psychiatric approval, nor hormone replacement therapy)
- Article 5: Competent Authority, Family Tribunal
- Article 6: Processing, no laywer needed, without medical exams.
During the 2015 legislative period, there was a change in the commission with right-wing Senator Jacqueline Van Rysselbergue joining the commission and becoming its President. Senator Rysselbergue is not only opposed to this bill, which she has made clear in several interviews, she has delayed discussions and refuses to table the bill for discussion.
Today we must secure the Government’s will to push the bill forward, but we also must secure more support from civil soceity organizations, to ensure that this bill is inclusive of all trans people—those who are single or married, with or without children, and above all, the law must include all trans children and adolescents.
We hope that the dignity and respect for trans people will be the essence and the engine that motivates our legislators so that in the course of this year Chile can have a law that recognizes gender identity and that dignity is restored to trans people who have been denied their dignity by being forced to use an identification card that does not reflect their true gender identity.
