LN – Trans job quota. “It is a historic measure against inequality”

In the middle of the pandemic, a historic achievement came from the struggle of the LGTBIQ + collective. This morning, through decree 721/2020, the President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, established the job vacancy in the public sector that guarantees a minimum of 1% of all positions and contracts for transvestites, transsexuals and transgender people.

“It is a historic measure for our entire community because it seeks to repair structural inequality that we have experienced the trans population over the years and that it has excluded us from the workplace, “said Alba Rueda, undersecretary of Diversity Policies of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity of the Nation and activist for the rights of the collective LGTBIQ +.

Although in recent years there have been important advances (in terms of regulations, among others, the pioneering gender identity law, sanctioned in 2012), trans women continue to be one of the most violated groups and their rights violated. Although the referents agree that we are going towards the construction of a more inclusive society, they emphasize that there is still a long way to go and many prejudices to tear down. The decree published this morning, they maintain, is one more step.

“The life trajectories of transvestites, transsexuals and transgender people are crossed by the stigmatization, criminalization and systematic pathologization, both in society and in institutions. For us it is central to transform the structural pattern of inequality that perpetuates exclusion, “explained Rueda.

César Cigliutti, who was president of the Argentine Homosexual Community (CHA) and died earlier this week, had said in his last interview with LA NACION: “We are working from the CHA, which is part of the Pride and Struggle Front, for a national law of quota and inclusion for transvestite and trans people. Just as the law of equal marriage or gender identity came out, now we are looking for that of quota and labor inclusion transvestite-trans. “

Different reports shed light on daily violence and violations of the rights of trans women: their life expectancy ranges between 35 and 40 yearss; six out of 10 drop out of secondary school because of discrimination; 83% were victims of serious acts of violence and police discrimination; 46% live in substandard housing, and 34% have HIV and difficulties in accessing antiretroviral treatments.

Most of them, due to the barriers they encounter in finding a formal job, falls into prostitution as the only form of subsistenceAccording to a report by the Fundación Hupedes and the Association of Transvestites, Transsexuals and Transgenders of Argentina (Attta), six out of 10 exercise it, 87% started before turning 19 years old and 87% would leave it if they had another chance. Many are abolitionists: they consider that prostitution is not a job, but the result of poverty, marginalization and a “meat grinder”.

In this sense, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity of the Nation, warned that this decree, in addition to guaranteeing a minimum floor of jobs for the transvestite and trans population, particularly serves “the chain of exclusions“that runs through that group.

“In our society there is a systematic pattern of inequality that particularly subjects transvestites, transsexuals and transgender people to a chain of discrimination that often begins in childhood,” Gómez Alcorta said in a statement. And it is that, in many cases, families are the first place of an exclusion that is later replicated in different areas. “From the State we have the obligation to create the conditions to guarantee the full exercise of their rights and equal opportunities. The trans labor quota is an important step on that path,” added the minister.

To carry out the policy of the labor quota in the State, the creation of an Interministerial Coordination Unit was promoted that will be in charge of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity and that will be integrated by the Secretariat of Management and Public Employment of the Nation of the Chief of Cabinet; the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) and the Ministry of Education. The objective is to guarantee the effective fulfillment of income and permanence in the jobs of this sector of the population.

In addition, for the same purpose, the decree provides that a reservation of jobs will be made, in any of the contracting modalities, which may be reached by transvestite and trans people, Regardless of whether or not they made the registration rectification of the sex and the change of first name and image in their DNI.

On the other hand, mechanisms are established to ensure that applicants for jobs can complete their studies, in cases where they are incomplete, in order to comply with current regulations on public employment in matters of compulsory educational training. In parallel, the Ministry of Women, in conjunction with the National Institute of Public Administration, will train the authorities and personnel of the National Executive Power, so that the inclusion in public sector jobs is carried out under conditions of respect for people’s gender identity and expression.

“This measure allows us to guarantee real opportunities that are linked to access to employment and a comprehensive set of rights such as access to social work, retirement contributions, to be able to make our life and that of our family sustainable and to demonstrate that we effectively have a working capacity” Rueda said. And he concluded: “These rights are fundamental to think an Argentina of equality in the face of a historical discrimination that crossed the trans community.”