MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gender Identity Law in Argentina already 10 years old

The number of gender rectifications requested in the first quarter of 2022 almost equals the historical average of the last 8 years, it was reported

Argentina authorities have confirmed over 12,000 people changed their ID cards after the Gender Identity Law was passed ten years ago, which allows for people to have their documents in accordance with their self-perceived gender

Most of those who opted for a new identity were young adults residing in urban centers. However, a report by the National Registry of Persons (Renaper) showed that the average life expectancy for transgender people was 40 years, while 75% of those who changed their ID cards had died before turning 53.

“Before the law was enacted, a person could not live freely their self-perceived gender identity as it was mandatory to go through a judicial process that exposed you to the gaze of others - judges, doctors, and lawyers - who decided whether you could live according to your identity or not. It was an expensive and long process,” recalls Renaper National Director of Travel Documents Maia Goldin.

Under the new law, the procedure only requires that the interested person appears before the authorities and state what his or her name and gender are and the State makes the change free of charge. “It is a process that no longer has to go through the gaze of the other,” Goldin celebrates.

According to the report, some 12,655 people underwent sex rectification in their document, with 62% of changes being from male to female and 35% from female to male, while 354 people opted for the non-binary X determination, included as from decree 476/21, in July 2021. Among them is Tani Fernández, President Alberto Fernández's first child.

According to Renaper data, most people changing their IDs are young adults, with an average age of 33. One out of four people who rectified their DNI is under 24 years old. Among the youngest, 525 people under 17 years of age made the DNI change.

The report also showed that people who changed their gender to either male or X were comparatively younger than those who switched to female.

As in most other aspects of life, the COVID-19 pandemic also meant a slowdown in gender-reassignment applications. But the number of rectifications requested in the first quarter of 2022 almost equals the historical average of the last 8 years.

Goldin also explained that joint work was underway together with Mexico and Uruguay to ask the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which regulates international aviation standards, to eliminate the gender field from the mandatory travel documentation. According to Goldin, the options male, female, or even X still fail to allow people to choose from multiple gender identities, as some members of the LGBT community have complained.

“In the formal presentation to the ICAO, we would ask as a regional bloc that the sex field be eliminated. The State does not have to care what sex or gender a person identifies with, nor does he/she have to show it in order to travel,” Goldin stressed.