Uruguay One Step Closer To Protecting Trans Rights, Senate Commission Approves Bill

The social movement Trans Union of Uruguay arrived at the Senate steps on Wednesday to deliver the 60,000 signatures in support of the Comprehensive Law for Trans People, which was passed by the legislative Commission on Population Development and Inclusion the same day.

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The Senate will vote next week on the measure that, if passed by the full Senate and later the lower house, would provide some possibility for minors to have gender reassignment hormone therapy without parental or guardian permission, which is currently required. As is, the bill would also protect the transgenders’ rights to their “free development of personality according to their chosen gender identity, irrespective of their biological, genetic, anatomical, morphological (or) hormonal” aspects.

Specifically, the measure would ensure that transgendered receive a certain percentage of public and private educational scholarships and access to the National Integrated Health System.

The law also allows trans people to define and express their gender that may fall outside male-female binary classification, no matter their age or "their evolutionary psycho-sexual development," according to local media.

Marcos Otheguy of the Frente Amplio (FA) or Wide Front said his party has played "a very active role” in promoting the bill and similar gender and human rights policies.

Social organizations handed in more than 60,000 signatures to the Senate. The Wide Front bloc of senators says that (the bill) will be approved next Tuesday.

"The FA, since assuming the government in 2005, has promoted a set of laws that we refer to as extensions of citizens’ collective rights. (Transgender people) are probably the most stigmatized and violated group in terms of rights in the country," said the legislator.

Otheguy said of the bill: “It is an important project that goes in the direction of guaranteeing rights to sectors of the population that historically have been violated.”

He added in a statement, “Trans people are the most stigmatized group and most violated in their rights. This project establishes a set of affirmative actions that go in the direction of guaranteeing their access to the health, (and) education and to have employment opportunities.

Opposition senator Veronica Alonso countered the measure saying: “I am a supporter of equal rights, I do not believe that this law will repair violated rights.” She added, “I am extremely concerned that the bill still allows minors can have hormone (therapy) without the approval of parents, going against parental authority.”

The bill will be voted on Tuesday by the full Senate and, if approved, will move to the House of Representatives.

The draft law lets those who have gender reassigned to keep all of their prior numbers of identification, be it a passport or social security.