{"id":12582,"date":"2019-10-15T16:33:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T16:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/race01.wp\/resources\/la-odisea-de-ser-mujer-afrodescendiente-y-trans-en-colombia\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T11:25:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T11:25:19","slug":"la-odisea-de-ser-mujer-afrodescendiente-y-trans-en-colombia","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/resources\/la-odisea-de-ser-mujer-afrodescendiente-y-trans-en-colombia\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLa odisea de ser mujer afrodescendiente y trans en Colombia\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Trans Support and Action\nGroup Foundation (GAAT, for its initials in Spanish), in partnership with\nICASO, carried out the event \u201cTranscending Barriers: Rights and full\ncitizenship for people with experience of trans life\u201d from the 16th<\/sup>\nto the 19th<\/sup> of September 2019. This event was attended by trans\nactivists from eleven different regions of Colombia that met in Bogot\u00e1 to\ndiscuss how their human rights are being guaranteed, what are the barriers they\nstruggle with to access services, and how to create some strategies to overcome\nthese challenges. <\/p>\n\n

The event was also attended by\nfive Afro-descendant activists with diverse sexual orientations and gender\nidentities -four trans women and a non-binary person- from the departments of\nTolima, Valle del Cauca, Atl\u00e1ntico, Choc\u00f3 and the municipality of Montes de\nMar\u00eda; who addressed their reflections from the experiences that frame their\nreality as Afro-trans people living in Colombia.<\/p>\n\n

Among the comments highlighted by the activists was the latent discrimination they live with in their territories, generated by barriers to access to different rights such as health, education, and work.<\/p>\n\n

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\u201c\u2026 the Constitutional Court ruled that trans people who wanted legal recognition of their gender identity in their EPS could do it, and this issue is still a complication in the territory\u2026\u201d Afro-trans Choc\u00f3 activist. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

\u201c\u2026 In hospitals as elsewhere, there is not yet a focus on differential care for trans men and trans women. So, that makes (going to) the doctor a complete torture, […] the treatments that one can already follow, but then they give you a lot of obstacles and paperwork, and in such a way that finally you get tired and don\u2019t go to receive your hormones, or go to the doctor at all… \u201d Afro trans non-binary activist from Valle del Cauca. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

The activists also denounced teachers\nand classmates who use strong dynamics of discrimination in educational spaces;\nin addition, they stated that there are policies that deny the gender identity\nof diverse people, because authorities refuse to issue official documents with\nthe identifying names of those people.<\/p>\n\n

Regarding the guarantees of\naccess to work, the leaders expressed that there are no labor inclusion\npolicies for trans people, therefore, they are not even interviewed for the\npositions they aspire to have, or there are more requirements imposed on them –\nsuch as the completion of multiple courses – to delay their applications.<\/p>\n\n

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\u201c\u2026 Work for transgender people in my municipality is very scarce. It is something sad, because there we talk about labor inclusion [but] a trans girl […] just for having her male name on her ID, is called by her masculine name, not by her identifying name […] When [whoever is in charge of the job interview] enters, [says] ‘what a shame, the interview cannot be done because you appear under another name’.\u201d Afro trans activist from Montes de Mar\u00eda. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

\u201cOur race is also a cause of\nviolence and a factor that generates new dynamics of discrimination and\nmarginality,\u201d said one of the Afro-trans activists, referring to the\ndifferentiated violence that Afro-descendant women face in comparison to the\nrest of the population classified as \u201cmestizo white.\u201d Accordingly, the leaders\nreferred to a social and state discourse that denies the existence of racism\nand systems of structural discrimination by pointing out that racism has\ndiminished or does not exist. This creates an invisibility of their identities\nin official statistics.<\/p>\n\n

\u201c\u2026 In the prosecutor\u2019s office or in any other entity, they do not take the time to ask one how one identifies oneself [\u2026] I realized this through a process that I took to the prosecutor\u2019s office [\u2026] I had the right to say that I am an Afro-descendant trans person. I went to the official, I approached and told him. [He replied:] \u2018But you have to understand that everyone is recognized as white or mestizo. There is no Afro.\u2019\u201d Afro trans activist from Montes de Mar\u00eda <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

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    Structural\nracism is also illustrated by the stratification of the territories, where Afro\npeople inhabit the poorest areas, and those who have a better standard of\nliving do so through a lot of work or association with mestizo white people.\nBecause of this situation, there is a lack of the guarantee of rights in places\npredominantly inhabited by Afro people. In turn, this barrier is accentuated\nwhen Afro people also have diverse sexual orientations or gender identities\nbecause their violence becomes more complex.<\/p>\n\n

    \u201cWe could say that you have to take sides, or defend yourself as an afro person, or defend yourself as a diverse person, but not both, impossible, that would be death\u00bb. Afro trans activist from the Caribbean. <\/p> <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n

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    Systematic forms of psychological violence and discrimination in the territories are other situations that, according to the stories told by the leaders, violate the integrity and rights of Afro-trans people. \u201cGenerally, the first thing that is affected is self-esteem, because to understand that they begin to look at you first, to judge you without even knowing you, sometimes simply because of your skin color, that is brutal. And the other thing is that [\u2026] you have your hair and you have your afro, and they come to want to touch your hair without asking, that is already violent because they are invading your space and they don’t even ask<\/em>,\u201d details non-binary Afro trans leader from Valle del Cauca. <\/p>\n\n

    Finally,\nwithin their own family, or even in spaces shared with LGBTI people, their\nideas are not validated by their peers in the same way as the ideas of their\nwhite mestizo companions and counterparts.<\/p>\n\n

    \u201cIf you are black, it is a proposal, but if you are white, the proposal is validated.\u201d GAAT Executive Director. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

    Given\nthe various structural problems that undermine and deepen the circles of\npoverty, racism, discrimination, and marginalization of Afro people with\ndiverse sexual identities and orientations, activists pointed out the\nimportance of creating spaces in the territories that reinforce the ideas of\nfamily building, outside the \u201ctraditional-conventional\u201d biological form that\nreduces the construction of the family bond to the consanguinity traits of\nfamily members. In addition, they proposed the creation of policies for access\nto health, work and education for trans people.<\/p>\n\n

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    At the same time, they pointed out that the State institutions require pedagogies and trainings regarding the Afro-trans issues with a territorial focus. \u201cThese activities must be directed by people who are empathic with the issue in order to create much deeper discussions and lessons,\u201d<\/em> stressed the activists. They also said that it is important that there is greater empowerment of new Afro-trans leaderships, and pointed out relevant ways that social organizations should strive to create greater spaces of inclusion for Afro people who understand first-hand the specific complexity of their daily lives in the territories.<\/p>\n\n

    The\nInstitute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) was invited by\nGAAT to hold a short workshop during the afternoon of September 16th. This\ninvitation was motivated by the need found by the executive direction of the\norganization to incorporate the relationship and intersection of gender\nidentity with ethnic-racial belonging into the agendas, activisms, and work\nwith communities. The workshop was composed of a brief reference to the\nexistence and activities carried out by the Afro-LGBTI Network of Latin America\nand the Caribbean, as well as a series of findings from documentary reviews\nmade by the member organizations of the Network. Thus, we deepened the need for\nthe incorporation of intersectional approaches in trans activism, referring to\nsituations in which structural racism, together with the dynamics of prejudice\nagainst LGBTI people, increase the vulnerability of people who find themselves\nmostly in contexts of poverty and without protection from the State.<\/p>\n\n

    At\nRace and Equality, we celebrate the completion of these types of conferences in\nwhich our counterparts can establish working relationships, as well as expand\ntheir relationships, with activisms that work tirelessly for the defense of\ntransgender rights.\u00a0 . We also highlight\nthe growing interest and commitment in the visibility and social and political\nimpact of the rights situation for Afro-LGBTI people. We believe that this type\nof interaction is essential for new human rights activists and organizations present\nin the different regions of Colombia to start creating intersectional analysis\nefforts from their own agendas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Trans Support and Action Group Foundation (GAAT, for its initials in Spanish), in partnership with ICASO, carried out the event \u201cTranscending Barriers: Rights and full citizenship for people with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9816,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[1130,1165,1122,1172,1183],"resources_country":[1191],"resources_language":[],"resources_audience":[],"resources_format":[],"resources_topic":[1091,1104,1109],"resources_year":[],"class_list":["post-12582","resources","type-resources","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-blog-es","category-colombia","category-lgbti","category-lgbti-blog","resources_country-colombia-es","resources_topic-afrodescendientes","resources_topic-lgbti-es","resources_topic-raza-e-igualdad"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources\/12582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/resources"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12582"},{"taxonomy":"resources_country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources_country?post=12582"},{"taxonomy":"resources_language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources_language?post=12582"},{"taxonomy":"resources_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources_audience?post=12582"},{"taxonomy":"resources_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources_format?post=12582"},{"taxonomy":"resources_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources_topic?post=12582"},{"taxonomy":"resources_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raceandequality.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resources_year?post=12582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}