Chile: President Boric in commemoration of the trans community

SANTIAGO (AP) — Chilean President Gabriel Boric and the first lady participated on Thursday in the commemoration of the International Day of Trans Visibility and pledged the government’s appreciation of difference and self-determination of gender identity.

In a ceremony in the Plaza de la Constitución, in front of the La Moneda government palace, Boric and his partner Irina Karamanos, accompanied by parliamentarians and representatives of groups from the transgender community and other LGBTIQ+ groups, led the act in which they hoisted on two central poles huge flags of the movement.

“We are very excited to make it really visible, because it is true that it is exciting to see two trans flags raised here in the palace,” Karamanos said in her first official activity as first lady. “The government is committed to valuing the difference,” she added.

Later, in a ceremony in one of the courtyards of the Karamanos Palace, he announced the creation of an interministerial table “to advance in raising the priorities for public policies in terms of advancing the right of trans people.”

“We must value the ability to dissent, the difference and also thank the different organizations that are fighting from the bodies and from the questioning of regulations,” he added, indicating that the political and social responses to face the problems of the community trans “have been unusually slow.”

He then greeted those who have been vigil for Amelia, a 25-year-old trans woman stabbed three days ago and who is hospitalized in critical condition, in what has been described as a hate attack by the transgender community.

Finally, he recalled that “unfortunately the life expectancy of the trans population is an average of 35 years in the region. We come to say that these problems that we are enunciating and many more are not only your problems”.

Nicolás Morales, an activist from the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (MOVILH), pointed out that when the government gives signals to make trans rights visible, “the message to the entire country is clear: trans people exist and deserve equal rights.” .

Chile approved in November 2018 a gender identity law that allows changing the name and sex in the document with a simple bureaucratic procedure after a long process in which the then right-wing ruling party tried, without success, to prevent its enactment by going to the Constitutional Court.