Institutional Memoir of the 2005 Institute for Trans and Intersex Activist Training
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INSTITUTIONAL MEMOIR OF THE 2005 INSTITUTE FOR TRANS AND INTERSEX ACTIVIST TRAINING International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission INSTITUTIONAL MEMOIR OF THE 2005 INSTITUTE FOR TRANS AND INTERSEX ACTIVIST TRAINING How to avoid, while at the same time undermining, the generic determination that language places not just upon the subjects and their possibilities to find themselves in language but also on the way we conceive and name the world? One strategy that might be used is the one we have set at work while writing this Memoir, through using the asterisk (*). We have resorted to this “textual strategy” in three specific situations: (1) For plurals, when alluding to individuals of different gender identities; (2).for naming a subject whose gender identity we ignore and on whom we do not want to impose a pre-determined gender assignation, and (3) when referring to a subject who does not identify with any of the options afforded by the male- female binary. The asterisk was chosen for several reasons. The “at sign” (@) is usually read as “male and female”. The letter “x” could be mistaken as referring to ‘intersexed individuals’, as it has been used by some authors. We prefer the asterisk because of how it looks, almost suspended over the sentence, as a star in the horizon or a point through which it might be possible to fly away. Of course, the asterisk can not be pronounced, and we also like that because, when our tongue comes there, and staggers, it becomes quite an accurate expression of the status enjoyed by those whose existence gender ignores. 2 INSTITUTIONAL MEMOIR OF THE 2005 INSTITUTE FOR TRANS AND INTERSEX ACTIVIST TRAINING INDEX 1. Presentation of the Institute and Participants 4 2. Dedication to the Participants 5 3. Introduction: A History of the Initiative 6 4. Structure of the Institute’s Teachings 9 5. Content, Methodology and Development of Activities 12 5.1. Trans and Intersex Theory and Policy 12 5.1.1. Map of Categories and Communities 12 5.1.2. Concepts, Theory and Policies 13 5.1.3. The Sharing of Experiences 14 5.2. Human Rights 18 5.2.1. The Concept of Human Rights TTTI Sexual and Reproductive Rights 18 5.2.2. The Inter-American Human Rights System 24 5.2.3. The International Human Rights System 30 5.2.3.1. Documentation of Human Rights Violations 32 5.2.4. Feminism 33 5.2.5. Intersectoriality, Discrimination and HIV AIDS 35 5.3. Organizational Development 39 5.3.1. Managing TTTI Activist Groups 39 5.3.2. TTTI Project Funding 43 5.3.3. Communications 44 5.3.4. Intersex Activism 46 5.3.5. Trans and Intersex Agenda 46 6. Institutions and Individual Collaborators 50 7. Evaluation 51 8. Conclusions 53 INSTITUTIONAL MEMOIR OF THE 2005 INSTITUTE FOR TRANS AND INTERSEX ACTIVIST TRAINING The Institute for Trans and Intersex Activist Alejandro Escobar, Paraguay Training, for activists from throughout the Jana Villayzán, Perú 1 region, took place in La Falda (Córdoba, Ruddyt Yhajaira Marcano Bravo, Venezuela Argentina), between October 19th and November 1st, 2005. Trainers Presentation of Lohana Berkins, Argentina the Institute and Participants Belissa Andía Perez, Perú Diana Sacayán, Argentina Marlene Wayar, Argentina Participants Joaquín Ibarburu, Argentina Gustavo Blázquez, Argentina Gary Cristian Cordero Rodríguez, Bolivia Joseph Thompson, Costa Rica Alexander Delgado Flores, Bolivia Arnoldo Rosenfeld, Argentina Daletty Di Polly, Brazil Alexandre Peixe Dos Santos, Brazil Visual Documentation Dalia Daniela Romero Parra, Colombia Argelia Bravo Melet, Venezuela Natasha Jiménez, Costa Rica Danielle Pulido Alamo, Cuba Coordinating Team Andrés Ignacio Rivera Duarte, Chile Mabel Montesdeoca, Ecuador Alejandra Sardá, Program Coordinator for Monica Amarantha Hernandez, El Salvador Latin America and the Caribbean Gabrie Mass, Honduras Marcelo Ferreyra, Adjunct Coordinator Claudia Spellmant, Honduras Rosa Posa Guinea, Institutes Coordinator Silvia Martínez, Nicaragua Mauro Cabral, Coordinator of Trans and Leslie Palmer, Paraguay Intersex Matters The Institute was made possible thanks to funding support from UNAIDS and UNIFEM, contributions from Alex Texeira and José Maldonado, the indispensable volunteer work of all the trainers, and the extraordinary hospitality of the Ollantay Hotel and the people of La Falda. 4 INSTITUTIONAL MEMOIR OF THE 2005 INSTITUTE FOR TRANS AND INTERSEX ACTIVIST TRAINING The idea of the Institute was a cherished, This Institute, which all of us dreamed long-awaited dream that stayed alive in about, is your Institute above all else, 2 our illusions, fantasies, conversations built step by step with each class, and hopes. It stayed alive in our plans, conversation, look, embrace and silent both those we considered possible and pause, with the shared laughter. Its work those we thought, at times, could never continues wherever each and every one Dedication become reality. It stayed alive, of course, of you are at this moment, making other to the in our work; the work of the individuals, worlds possible. of the team, the work we shared with Participants other groups and people. That idea guided our search for a meeting place, the program design, the choice of materials… …And then you arrived. Of course, we were waiting for each and every one of you. We knew you from the moment we received your applications; we got to know you better through the dialogue that followed. But never could we have dreamed the meeting would be so very wonderful in its intensity, its warmth, in the willingness to share that each and everyone brought along. 5 INSTITUTIONAL MEMOIR OF THE 2005 INSTITUTE FOR TRANS AND INTERSEX ACTIVIST TRAINING In November, 2004, IGLHRC’s Latin that we wanted to preserve. These America and Caribbean Program characteristics speak to a deeply 3 started a new phase in the work that it political form of learning and shaping had been carrying out since 1990. To oneself as an activist, a “how to go our regularly programmed activities about it” that cannot be separated from Introduction: (i.e., documenting and reporting the “what to do”. A History of the human rights violations based on sexual orientation, identity and gender The first and most important aspect is Initiative expression; forming partnerships with time. We wanted to forget the dizzying, other social movements and engaging quasi-industrial pace dictated by yield in participatory investigation) we added and productivity quotas, which covers a two areas of work: trans and intersex million subjects in ten minutes, in order issues and the Institutes, which during to recover Time the River, which rushes the first year of that new phase worked when it must and other times ebbs in tandem to produce the Institute that languidly. We wanted to take and give this institutional memoir documents. as much time as each one might need to think, to feel, to dare to ask. Why did we decide to found the Institutes? As with so many projects, The second aspect is that of sharing, this one sprang into existence partly the process of learning as we build a out of frustration and partly out of community, coexisting over a sufficient gratitude. Over the course of many period of time for that shared existence years we have organized training to groove us, to transform us. We were workshops in human rights and other certain that the learning process would subjects at the regional level or beyond, be ongoing, whether in the “classroom” and have participated as trainers or or the dorm, at the table or on shopping “students” in many of them. The best trips into town (exactly what happened). among these, no doubt, those that We knew that we would all be made an indelible mark on mind and “participants,” even if on occasion we spirit, shared certain characteristics might assume other roles. 6 INSTITUTIONAL MEMOIR OF THE 2005 INSTITUTE FOR TRANS AND INTERSEX ACTIVIST TRAINING The third aspect had to do with Why did we start out by dedicating the trans and intersex persons for their choosing “the other side” of the Institute to trans and intersex persons? solidarity and respect, which begins with hierarchy, meaning the Southern the fact that they reject the privilege This “dedication” is part of a political Hemisphere: it would be conceptualized implicit in having conventional identities choice made first by the Latin America and gender expressions. For us that and coordinated by people from the Program and now by the entire privilege carries with it an obligation: Southern Hemisphere and managed by organization. Trans and intersex persons, the obligation to share, to open doors so trainers from the Southern hemisphere, and their concerns, are a priority for that those who have no privileges can because we believe that this part of the IGLHRC. Why? world holds vast troves of knowledge, enter along with us; to place the fruits and no one is better qualified than we - Because they suffer the most brutal of that privilege (our college degrees, are to put them into circulation. We also human rights violations. They own the our money, the languages we speak, our believe that we have looked to the North murdered bodies whose killers no one captive audiences and our appearance, which does not scare people, et cetera) as our guide and model for too long, and takes the trouble to investigate. They are the ones police forces throughout the at the unconditional service of the that we continue to do so as if we were region detain, extort and visit violence Others. only capable of translating, adapting and upon day in day out, night after night. disguising ourselves like those wretched - Because we believe it is indispensable They, with few exceptions, experience Santa Clauses -- who don winter outfits to deconstruct the binary sex/gender the greatest difficulties in gaining access system that shapes the Western world here in the furthest reaches of the to schools, legitimate jobs and adequate so absolutely that in most cases it goes south where Christmas comes during housing.