LN – The story of Facha, the trans boy who inspired a new Buenos Aires law

“Mom, I'm going to poop the stork with sticks,” Mauro told Barbara Magarelli, his mom. They were at his house in La Boca and, at that time, Mauro was eight years old and had another name: one of a woman, the one he had been given when he was born. “What did the stork do to you?” Barbara asked. His son's answer came as a revelation:
“Can't you see? He was wrong: he brought me baby and I'm male.”

Mauro – whom everyone calls Facha – was born in 2004 and on October 29, 2014, in the Civil Registry No. 1 of the city of Buenos Aires, he rectified his birth certificate, changing his gender and his name. Less than 12 hours later,
He became the first trans man in the City to have his new ID, according to his identity.

By a recent Buenos Aires law (No. 6272), every October 29 and in honor of Facha will commemorate the “Day of the Promotion of the Rights of Trans Children and Adolescents.” The rule – which was disseminated in the official bulletin last week – indicates that the Executive Power must carry out every year, in that week of October,
dissemination and visibility activities and campaigns that promote full integration and full enjoyment of the rights of trans boys and girls.

In addition, it establishes that awareness campaigns should involve, among other activities,
training for people who work in the fields of education, health, sports, art and other areas. On the other hand, the Executive must publish annually
a report on state policies aimed at promoting the rights of trans infancy and adolescence.

”
I felt pride and happiness. Happiness because more boys and girls can feel recognized and find a place to talk, to have contention and help to live as they are, to be heard and accompanied by trained people“says Mauro, who is 15 years old today, is in high school and was working to deliver sandwiches at the family bakery.

Get around obstacles

Barbara still remembers the hug and silence that followed her son's sentence about the stork. Then came the bewilderment, accompanied by a single certainty:
I wasn't going to let go of his hand. On the Internet, he met the mother of a trans baby boy in Japan, with whom they quickly connected, raffling the 12-hour difference and the more than 18,000 kilometers away. Today they are still talking on Whatsapp.

He also remembers the afternoon when he found his son hugged at the bathroom sink. ”
I don't go out in the street disguised as a baby anymore, “he assured her. Without having the slightest idea of ​​what he was going to do, because there was no money to buy new clothes, the mother stood on the sidewalk, where she met her neighbor. After a while, the doorbell rang: there was the woman, in the clothes that her teenage son no longer wore. Barbara had to turn the trouser ring and Facha took to the street proud, pulling out her chest.

He does not forget the stones on the road either: from the first health professional he consulted to understand what was happening to his son and who blamed her for working all day (in addition, he sent her to buy dolls, to which Facha shook their heads and used them as soccer balls); even what it implied for the family to adopt the new name, the self-perceived. It was not easy. “When I came out with that, as I am a square and I thought that there were only men and women in the world, I said: 'Do not come with strange things, you were born that way and you will die like this'”, says Guillermo, his dad .
“It cost me, and the best thing I could have done was to change the chip in here,” he adds, pointing to his head.

When Facha made his transition, the first one who called him Mauro was Lucia, his maternal grandmother. “She was an Italian immigrant who barely knew how to read and write. She said: 'He who does not respect him, there is the door,'” says Barbara. “Imagine that about the law of equal marriage or about gender identity he only heard on television. But she cried and said that all she wanted was for her grandson to be happy, to be proud of him,” the mother continues. Lucia died some time later, at 86. Mauro, her mother and her sisters -Ailén, 24 years old and Laila, 26- had their name tattooed on their wrist.

Like Lucia, and the neighbor who donated the clothes, there were other key people, such as the team of professionals at the Pedro de Elizalde Children's Hospital, who accompanied Facha from the beginning and continues to do so until today. There was also Andrea, the principal of the school who gathered her classmates and told them:
“From now on, they have to call him Mauro.” The boys and girls looked at each other: “You didn't know it, we always knew it!” They replied.

Mom's pride

Barbara is proud of her son. “She is very brave. With eight years, kicking the board, the heteronorma and not caring about anything. I always tell her: 'With the unconsciousness of childhood you decided to kick the board,'” says the mother, who is now president of
Facha ONG, the organization he created with his family, and the
Latin American Network of Trans Children and Adolescents (NAT), an international group.

While he maintains that our country has advanced laws – such as gender identity, sanctioned in 2012 -, Barbara emphasizes that there is a long way to go to continue restoring rights to trans girls, boys and adolescents.
More training for teachers and professionals dealing with children in general, is indispensable for her. Therefore, he considers that the new Buenos Aires law is an important step. She said that she was promoted when she was coordinator of the Secretariat of Trans Children and Adolescents and their Families of the Argentine LGBT Federation, along with the legislator María Rachid and lawyer Flavia Massenzio.

For Lautaro Cruz, president of Trans Argentinxs, an organization that was born in 2017 with the focus on childhood and adolescence and is also part of the LGBT Argentine Federation, “it is very important to make transgender children visible because public policies in general they think of adults, as if one, in quotation marks, 'became trans' when they grow up. But we see it are families that have approached with their daughters since they were three years old, “he says. For him, what the new Buenos Aires law seeks is to “raise awareness and sensitize”, especially in schools.

Today, from Facha ONG and Trans Argentinxs accompany families from all over the country.
What is the first thing that fathers and mothers who consult for the first time will look for? “Peers. Feeling that they are not alone, that there are other people who go through the same thing. And then, when we begin to share experiences, stories, other things begin to be raised: education, doctors, what social and prepaid works have trained personnel. But the first thing is to find buddies. And boys and girls also find peers -Barbara assures- Later, families relax and continue with their lives. Some continue with activism and others do not, and it is perfect. “

That families can accept the identity of their sons and daughters and accompany them in their transition, is the fundamental step. Barbara tells the fathers and mothers that she understands them, that she also lived it. The revelation he had as a mother was key:
“Mauro was always there. It was never that baby we thought.”

More information