A story of the testimony of Trans women and political representatives to understand the situation of violation of rights
Karla Avelar y Bianka Rodriguez, Salvadoran trans defenders, narrate the fight for their rights in El Salvador, which has even led them to exile. The film discusses the situation of this group in Spain, through other Trans women and different political representatives.
Elena Vecino, Project Director of the Foundation for Justice, declares that from the foundation we support this project because we believe that it is important to make visible the struggles and resistance of women defenders of LGTBIQ+ rights around the world and particularly in El Salvador. Karla and Bianka are renowned defenders of sexual rights and defenders of the transsexual and transgender population in El Salvador.
The documentary is produced by Foundation For Justice and directed by Alberto Pla. In addition to being subsidized by the Generalitat Valenciana and premiered within the framework of the XIII Humans Fest, the International Human Rights Festival of Valencia.
Activist testimony
Bianka Rodríguez, Salvadoran defender of LGTBIQ+ rights and executive director of the COMCAVIS Trans Association El Salvador emphasizes that, on the one hand, we find the theoretical term of Trans person. The one that would be defined as that person who does not assume his or her sex assigned at birth, and has to transcend that assumed identity.
Although Bianka emphasizes what it means to be trans woman in the reality of Central America, “in particular It is synonymous with death. The life expectancy of Trans women is 33 years, few women exceed this age.”
In this sense, he points out that we live in exclusion, "we suffer physical attacks and exclusion from our homes at an early age because the main aggressors are our family."
Similarly, Karla Avelar, a Salvadoran transgender rights activist, relates in her testimony, “I never felt like a different person, I am normal. The small difference is that it collapses the patterns of heteropatriarchy where they make us believe that only men and women exist.”
The activist, currently exiled in Europe, emphasizes that the main problem is society that does not have enough information about what it means to be a transgender person and that is also not interested in being informed.
For its part, the testimony of Daniela Requena, Trans woman, influencer, journalist, secretary of the LGBTIQ+ area of the PSPV, asks for respect from anyone, it is not necessary to learn all the acronyms, the important thing is to respect.
The approval of the Trans Law
During the documentary the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, and points out the need to protect the rights of the LGTBIQ+ group and especially trans people, who are perhaps the most invisible and those who suffer the most violations of rights around the world.
"Trans people should have guaranteed rights, which is why the approval of the Trans Law, which includes the most important one, which is the free determination of gender identity and also others such as the prohibition of conversion therapies and combating discrimination in all areas,” the Minister acknowledges.
The Law for the real and effective Equality of trans people and for the guarantee of LGTBI rights, Better known as Trans Law, it is a Spanish law that was finally approved on February 16, 2023 and where gender self-determination is recognized from the age of 14.