Interview: Chile's first transgender congressional candidate
Tuesday, 22 January 2013 19:53
Written by Elizabeth Trovall
The center-right primary candidate explains her ambitions for the trans community and Chile's 19th District.
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/opinion/special-reports/25636-interview-chiles-first-transgender-congressional-candidateTides are slowly turning for Chile's LGBT community. Last July, the country passed its first anti-discrimination legislation in response to an anti-gay murder in Santiago. Later in the year, Chile elected its first openly gay politician, a municipal councilman. And after announcing her candidacy for Congress, transgender activist Valentina Verbal hopes to break another glass ceiling. If she wins the election she'll be South America's first transgender legislator.
"In Chile if you're male, you have to be masculine. If you're female you have to be feminine. If you're not it's weird," says Verbal. "I want to end the cultural and institutional discrimination against transgender people."
As a person who has made a radical transition from masculine to feminine, Verbal understands the constraints of these strict gender rules all too well. As a young boy Verbal would dream about waking up as a little girl, but felt too afraid to say or do anything about it.
Now an out and transgender adult, Valentina has committed herself to opening up strict beliefs about gender and improving the lives of the trans community.
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First transgender congressional candidate in Chile
Valentina Verbal wants to represent center-right party RN in congress
23 January 2013 | By Anna Leach
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/first-transgender-congressional-candidate-chile230113South America could have its first transgender legislator if Valentina Verbal wins a seat in congress in next November's election.
Verbal announced her candidacy last week and said in an interview with Santiago Times that she intends to lobby for a change in the laws that affect transgender people in Chile.
'We have to change the law that recognizes the sexual identity of transgender people without the state obligating them to have an actual sex change,' she said.
