Situated Voices 18

In recent years, the struggle for the depathologization of binary and non-binary trans* people and the attainment of their civil rights has questioned debates on feminisms. The publication of the draft bill for Real and Effective Equality for Trans People, which broadens gender self-determination, has set forth a public debate that once again draws attention to key issues that were a decades-long part of feminist theory; for instance, difference between sex and gender categories or the structural violence reproducing daily discrimination in legal, labour, medical, education, family, and sex-affective fields, among others.

What confusion and misconceptions appear in the media? What needs and difficulties do trans* people and their families encounter in daily life? How can they be resolved inside a legal framework? What common objective can be proposed in transfeminist movements? What social and cultural changes are sought?   

This conversation between people with first-person trans* experiences, their families and their environments seeks to situate the specific demands of the collectives involved, and to understand the key parts to this future law and the problems underlying the controversies it provokes.    

Aitzole Araneta is a sexologist and specialist in issues of equality and participation. Born in San Sebastián, she has worked in performing arts as an actress and in cultural management. She is part of the work group on the new Law of Real and Effective Equality for Trans People, and as an activist she has been involved in a number of social and collective movements, advocating the movement for trans* depathologization. Furthermore, for eight years she has been part of a work group that has advised the World Health Organisation on the process of revising the catalogue of diseases around the issue of the conditions of transsexuality.

Rubén Castro is a non-binary transmasculine person who is currently pregnant. He is also a children’s educator and leisure monitor and at the present time is studying for a qualification in Social Education. The path between his desire to gestate, accompanying him throughout his life, and the intersection of his identity has not been easy to transit. In his words: “Until you find references it’s difficult to know you can exist. That’s why I always embrace visibility, because that which is unnamed does not exist”.

Coco Guzmán is a queer, non-binary artist who investigates the liminal and latent accounts that emerge from political violence. Using drawing and installation, Coco’s work is a vessel of histories that remain hidden but live everyday life as corporeal memories or whispers. Through an interdisciplinary process in which critical theory, comics, queer strategies, archive research, observations and conversations with friends are melded, the work of Coco Guzmán evokes latent histories that invite spectators to wonder who they are and about the society in which they live.

Carolina León is a journalist, writer and bookseller. Since 2004, she has written articles and literary critique in different media, and currently collaborates, sporadically, with El Salto and CTXT. She also participates in the collective books CT o la cultura de la transición (Debolsillo, 2012) and Cuerpos marcados. Vidas que cuentan y políticas públicas (Ediciones Bellaterra, 2019), and is the author of Trincheras permanentes. Intersecciones entre política y cuidados (Pepitas de calabaza, 2017).

Lucas Platero holds a PhD in Sociology and Political Science from UNED (the National Distance Education University) and a degree in Psychology from the Complutense University of Madrid, and teaches Socio-community Involvement. Currently, he is a Psychology lecturer at Rey Juan Carlos University, which he combines with his work as editor of Ediciones Bellaterra. He was recently awarded the Emma Goldman prize from the Flax Foundation and is a member of the research teams AFIN and Fractalidades de la Investigación Crítica. Moreover, he investigates the psychosocial factors brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and those affecting LGTBQA+ people. His recent publications as editor include Cuerpos marcados. Vidas que cuentan y políticas públicas (Ediciones Bellaterra, 2019) and (h)amor 6 trans (Con tinta me tienes, 2021).

Sabrina Sánchez is a Mexican woman who defines herself as transfeminine and lesbian. After studying journalism, and as a survival strategy, she opted to migrate and become a sex worker. She is a spokesperson with the International Committee on the Rights of Female Sex Workers in Europe.