It bears the name of campaigners Lohana Berkins and Diana Sacayan, who both passed away before its passage. Apart from suffering widespread discrimination and stigmatisation, members of the trans community has an average life expectancy of 36 years, according to academic studies. According to a separate survey in Buenos Aires City, only nine percent of trans people had a formal job and 70 percent were sex workers.
Senators voted overwhelmingly in favour of the law, which reserves one-percent of jobs in the public sector for members of the trans community. In doing so, she inherently criticised her own previous vote against Argentina's historic equal marriage law back in Senator Norma Durango, of the Frente de Todos ruling coalition, hailed the vote as a major breakthrough.
We are discussing whether trans and LBGTQ people are going to be afforded rights that they are guaranteed, as citizens: human rights. The new rules β which were initially introduced with emergency decree last year β apply to all three branches of the federal government, decentralised and autarchic organisations, non-state public entities and state-owned firms.
In a bid to encourage private businesses to follow suit, the law also offers tax incentives and soft loans for firms that recruit members of the trans community. To facilitate access to formal employment, the project indicates that "the requirement of educational completion [of a degree] cannot be an obstacle to entry and permanence in employment" and that "trans people are understood to be all those who perceive themselves with a gender identity that does not correspond to the sex assigned at birth.
Argentina is something of a pioneer for human rights, legislating in favour of sexual diversity with its gay marriage law of and a gender identity law a year later. Congress is pending another initiative that has been in the works for a long time: the Historical Reparation Law for trans people over 40 years old.
