Transvestism, transsexual and transgender
Lohana Berkins
When the issue of transvestism, transsexuality and transgendered is quoted in the media, television and even academics refer to prostitution as their main feature, establishing a correlation from each other. For the ¨ great ¨ public, they are just a form of marginalization, of abjection, of inviolability, which can not be categorized, for now, as criminal acts, conceived to exist only as far as possible from the area in which develop the lives of people who fit into the heteronormative.
We must not forget that they are “honorable” people, he ones that move, hide their sons and daughters who challenge heteronormativity or they are placed in institutions because they carry shameful stigma, but they are also normal persons. The leaving today to elderly the fate of the children to get abuse, poverty and violence, who disappeared 30,000 peers in the civilian-military dictatorship in Argentina, which did not say a thing about the thousands of transvestites, transsexuals and transgender people killed or dead with preventable causes. Those who kidnap, disappear Marita Veron, women for exploitation and trafficking. For the merchants of AIDS who do not hesitate for a second, naming us with the violent acronym MSM (men who have sex with men) in violation of building our identity, ignoring it as the modularity of our struggles. To say nothing of those who claim and execute wars, concentration camps, or those who torture and rape ... or those who steal huge budget items from countries in bankruptcy. Let's say there are seats in order to establish what are the advantages of normalcy to the alleged security that comes from living together with their carriers, we would be hard pressed to find solid arguments.
The difference is first suspected, defines social homogenization to those who wield power. An undifferentiated mass and submissive is easily manageable. A Curious thing is, that at the time of the most exacerbated individualism, those claim to have an urgent need, and subjectively perceived to be part of the world that persecutes them, forming ghettos, or being invisible as subjects of law or conducted to prostitution to survive.
Pain, exclusion, repression: these words echo in us as the symbols of a time passing, through us and it will continue to happen.
To try a complete definition on the subject of transvestism, transsexuality and transgendered is very difficult, because we would see a serious conflict at the time to find a correct definition. It is as intelligible as a definition, which only we could define situations or unique, infinite experiences, but from my place of business, I try to give an account of the collective experiences of identity construction about transvestite transsexual, forms that were taking the resistance: all mechanisms that oppose us daily, trying to reduce us to the binary man - woman, one way of sexual acceptable and practice to be lived as heterosexuality.
Seeing us as a subject, constantly denying our agency as minorized political subjects. Now, what are the consequences in terms of essential heteronormativity?, Which is not playing, ignoring the pleasure, what things are in the stage, to hold a single practice as possible, than that of state control, on behalf of society that supports and organizes it?
In our opinion, we considered, big questions as signifiers and meanings, intangibility, between desire and corporeality, between abjection and stock. Among those watching and those who want to be looked at, how to read, who reads the body and the other's existence.
How to come against this myopia of the transvestite body? For some, it is a mode of desire, for others a way to destabilize the standardization and discipline of the embodiment; for others we emerge as a mere reinforcement of binary male - female in hiperfemeninity or cosmetic esthetics in the patterns of mercantilism. The rest do not admit that it is a desire of marketing.
What is the transvestite, transsexual, transgender body? The existence of a contour, standardized forms a silhouette, or we face even without trying to reformulate the boundaries of physicality, who and what determines the perimeter of the body? is it the genitals?, Is it the biology?, is it the reproduction?, is it the desire?, pharmacology?, technobiology?, about hormones?, kinesiology?, medical protocols? Is it the theory or practice?
But the peculiar type of racism, classism by which our society is under attack today, is the rejection of those who choose a gender identity that does not include the binary table imposed by the patriarchal social conventions. That no-recognition of transvestism, transsexualism and the transgenic immediately leads to social exclusion.
This ¨ no ¨-recognition of a social group, is a widespread instrument for the removal of the broad exercise of citizenship and makes all kinds of discrimination in the field of health, education or work. The state once again, instead of being protective of the rights of transvestites, transsexuals and transgender, obstructs their development policies, in this case, travestophobic ones.
Those who can not freely exercise nor trained professions or apply for jobs because society rejects their gender identity are pushed into prostitution as the only viable solution to live, to survive. From different legal systems relating to prostitution prohibitionist, abolitionist and reglamentarists systems.
The prohibitionist system is that both prostitution and the excercise of it. Both punishes and penalizes those who make profit from the sexual exploitation of others.
Reglamentarists system is the installation of legalizing brothels, establishing the places where you can engage in prostitution, and prostitutes to undergo medical and management controls.We consider that that prostitution is a necessary evil and that it is better tolerated by regulating and taxing. This system believes that prostitution brings with it great moral evils and it is a threat to the maintenance of good manners. The regulation, the state transforms it into an acceptable institution.
As abolitionist system, which adhere argues that forced prostitution is a violation of human rights of people in prostitution. It should be pursued to the bands of pimps and traffickers and pimps, as well as all forms of profiting from the prostitution of others. It should not be punished those who are engaged to prostitution.
While in principle the abolitionist position is acceptable and correct, so far the abolitionists did not want to refer to prostitution as an institution, or analyze the bases of the same misogynistic.
In Argentina, the international conventions are in force by the law of the Nation. So the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic of People and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, adopted by General Assembly of the United Nations in 1949, by which the signatories agree to punish any person who exploits the prostitution of others or remains more a house of prostitution or intervenes in human trafficking. It also undertake to repeal any regulation of prostitution and to take preventive measures.
All our legislation enshrines the abolitionist system. However, the prostitution allegedly pursued by moral standards misdemeanors, fault code, code of coexistence or police edicts.
In fact in most states and patriarchal capitalist bourgeois whatever the system adopted, in general, in practice, alternately apply any of the three as appropriate to the political interests of the moment. Exercise is tolerated, police institutions charging the toll levied with the consent and participation of judges and politicians, they occasionally make raids to keep under its control and subject to the people involved, being considered undesirable by society , difficult to get support from human rights institutions.
We note that with the changes of several Latin American governments to the left that occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean we would be a problem when having to point to some progress.
Entrepreneurship pimp and trafficking for sexual exploitation is the fourth place among the most profitable clandestine international activities. This is the only right and valid support for keeping an expensive pursuit and inexplicable if it were not also an admission that solves and supports corrupt institutions like the police or to provide political careers would not get financial support elsewhere. The exploitation of prostitution, illegal gambling and drug distribution feeds the illegal boxes of politicians, officials and police.
As for the attitudes of religious institutions as such, condemned in public opinion across sexual orientation than heterosexuality, the grounds are once again natural laws. These controversial laws can vary the text ad libitum, according to the inquisitor in power, they know very well what code are made, unless you are referring to physical or chemical laws or some other similar scientific discipline. We say this because we believe that everybody in the government should govern society with cultural recreation of the human community itself, which is adopted through discussions and consensus on practices and customs in force in those companies. In the case of transvestism, they used this form of discrimination by stating outside of natural laws as sufficient pretext to demonize from the religion site and making medical pathology from the catalogs.
Therefore, the brotherly love of each other, is a sermon that justified ¨ the Christians” in fact, in terms of cross-dressing is concerned and as appropriate prosecution and punishment is thus legitimate.
Human rights organizations, except for some individuals, concentrated their activity in the defense of persons persecuted for political reasons but in regard to social and economic issues they have been relegated as main objectives. Sexual minorities are not getting strong support from these agencies because they may and even unwittingly share the widespread prejudice. While over recent years they have shown sensitivity to the exclusion or derogation from the right to transvestite identity, as opposed by public opinion.It was never defended by themselves rather than concerned. The violence represented by the increasing poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment are issues liable to a benevolent eye for even the most reactionary speeches, but when these scourges cross transvestite community are seen as a condition of its own and deserved volunteers insignificant, but from opinion makers whether political discourse, journalism or institutional they try to defend the dignity of transvestites as people.
From the point of view of the expenditure of public funds, it is difficult to understand the amount of money you waste intended to repression and persecution of transvestites and implementation of standards misdemeanors, police edicts or fault codes. This money would better target the application of abolitionism in implementing the inclusion of those in prostitution to education and training for work in the massive anti-discrimination campaigns aimed at acquiring knowledge of the different social realities, or promote practices. Opening the lists of political parties to realize that we all have the right to elect and be elected, and finally to recommend access to government and private jobs. It would also be desirable to be induced from the state advertising not to use the media on the stereotypical image of those considered "different”.
Today however we face a threat of even higher loss compared to our situation, we talk about red-zone, the legalization of prostitution in some provinces, at the request of neighborhood groups with strong enforcement. In the Province of Santa Fe, socialist Binner governed under the euphemism of attempts to violate the abolitionism and the project og Puerto Madryn ghetto cruelly christened as place for free Sex already talk of bidding to build dens, brothels, saunas, and other nefarious business of this type. They would be violating several international conventions to which the country has acceded and in particular the aforementioned 1949 and immediately threaten those same tax with severe penalties against state officials that circumvent express statutory provisions to consummate the only fabulous materials business. People who are held in these “Reservations” attend a further deterioration in their quality of life, because when they want to share daily life with his family, to receive adequate medical care, inserted in education systems in order to be part of society.It will first be discouraged, and then prosecuted and punished even with death, because otherwise it would lose workers for the circuit. And anyone who believes that this is an exaggeration, they have more to check out on the news reports and academic research on the number of people killed and missing in prostitution whose death is investigated by nobody, not concerned with any decent judge of the nation even when children are involved.
No society can go on without the full and free personal contribution of all its members and even fewer can maintain social groups in non-recognition, because it suggests the legitimacy of the entire system.
