"We've been condemned to continue without rights to the most vulnerable in the LGBT community."
- Congress will not accept the Trans Act because the bill, once the PSOE has abstained, will not reach enough votes. The Pamplona activist Edurne LH has told us that they are going to keep fighting, but she has acknowledged that it has been hard: “We have had to endure all societies judging us and deciding whether we deserve the rights that others already have.”
What valuation do you make of what is happening in Congress today?
The PSOE has joined the ultraderecha and ultracatolers and has blocked a comprehensive Trans Law that recognizes rights that have been denied to us for decades. The party has a progressive tone, it has a favourable tone for LGBT rights, but the reality is that it has taken the same position as the extreme right.
Do you have the feeling that you've been fooled?
Personally, I was not surprised by the direction the PSOE has been taking for a long time. But they have completely put aside the struggle of LGBT groups, condemning those of us who are most vulnerable within that collective to continue without rights. Transgender people want us to be included in a more general LGBT law, but it is not going to deepen our rights. After all, the PSOE has self-treated itself: the transphobia they have internalised has become apparent.
"The PSOE was self-reported: the transphobia they have internalized has been evidenced"
Are you tired? Do you think they have been playing with your rights for years?
It is true that it is a struggle that extends over time, that always tell us “now is not the time, later…”, and yes, that wears, but we will not give up and we will continue to defend our rights. The controversy raised by the law itself has been harsh for any transsexual person, we have had to endure the whole of society judging us and deciding whether we deserve the rights that others already have.
Now what?
We will continue to fight for this or other means until we are accepted by the red lines we have put: depathologization (which the World Health Organization already collects would be reflected in the law), authorization of gender self-determination, eliminating existing documentary barriers, protection of transgender minors and recognition of non-binary people. We will not be left without doing anything, for sure.
* We also interviewed Edurne LH on the hunger strike by several activists for the approval of the Trans Act: "The conflict represented, the feminist movement against the transsexual collective, is not real."
