A Radical New Identity Law in Argentina

Silvana Sosa, born male, with her partner and family. Photo by Diego Levy for The New York Times.

My article in today's New York Times tells the story of Argentina's transgender community. It's a community that lives in the shadows, dropping out of school early, avoiding hospitals and reverting to prostitution because of a lack of opportunity. A third of the estimated 22,000 trans Argentines has HIV/AIDs, contributing to an average life span of a mere 35 years. Argentina recently passed the first law in the world that doesn't pathologize being transgender. While a great deal of case law has emerged globally allowing transgender people to change their names and even gender on official documents, only Argentina says a person doesn't have to be diagnosed by a psychiatrist as suffering from gender dysphoria or undergo surgery. I heard a lot of really moving stories that testify to the profundity of this law.