Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
candidate
TUESDAY, 22 JANUARY 2013 19:53
WRITTEN BY ELIZABETH TROVALL
Tides are slowly turning for Chile’s LGBT community. Last July, the
country passed its first anti-discrimination legislation in response to an
anti-gay murder in Santiago. Later in the year, Chile elected its first
openly gay politician, a municipal councilman. And after announcing
her candidacy for Congress, transgender activist Valentina Verbal
hopes to break another glass ceiling. If she wins the election she’ll be
South America’s first transgender legislator.
“When a trans person has a card or national identity card that doesn’t
reflect their social sex in practice it means they are undocumented,”
says Verbal. “Since they appear to be one sex and their card says
another, it can be difficult to find employers who don’t see it as a
problem. They can’t get a job and they don’t have access to work,
which is a basic human right.”
Verbal has already advocated for this change in the past two years as
the Coordinator of the Trans Commission at the LGBT rights
organization, Fundación Iguales. Crossing over to the political arena,
she says, is a natural progression.
Verbal’s history with the RN reaches back into her youth. As a young
person she served as the President of the RN Youth League in the
southern Chilean city of Concepción. Unsure if she would be accepted,
she temporarily left the party during her coming out process as a
transgendered person, but now says she feels that Chile and the RN
have become more open to LGBT issues.
“I’m taking a risk and I don’t know if it’s going to work out,” she says.
“I’m going to try anyway.”