Lohana Berkins
Lohana Berkins was an Argentine travesti activist.
Biography
Berkins was born on 15 June 1965 in Pocitos, Salta. Her father, a soldier, kicked her out at the age of 13.As Berkins got older, she fought against the brutal Argentine police force in promotion of trans rights and spent approximately 7 years in prison. This type of conflict with the police is largely left out of the collective Argentine memory of their anti-LGBTQ+ history and rather archives often focus on the military dictatorship oppression.
In 1994, Berkins founded the Asociación de Lucha por la Identidad Travesti y Transexual, which she presided over until her death. She was the driving force behind Law 3062 on respect for identity adopted by travestis and transsexuals and approved by the Buenos Aires Legislature in 2009.
In 2002, Berkins starred in a fundamental demand for the visibility of travestis and trans people by enrolling in Normal School No. 3 to become a teacher. Faced with the impossibility of doing so with her name, she lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman of the City of Buenos Aires, which ordered the school authorities to respect her gender identity.
She was a legislative adviser at the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires for the Communist Party, thus becoming the first travesti person with a public job. She also worked as a legislative advisor for the Buenos Aires deputy Diana Maffía, on issues such as human rights guarantees, women, children and adolescents.
She was a candidate for national deputy in the year 2001, accepted in the electoral lists officialized by the Electoral Justice on the occasion of the renewal of positions of the Argentine Congress.
In 2008, she led the creation of the Nadia Echazú Textile Cooperative, the first Cooperative School for travestis and transsexuals. It was named after Nadia Echazú, as a tribute to the trans activist. The labor enterprise managed and administrated by travesti people was inaugurated in mid 2008, in a place donated by the National Institute of Associations and Social Economy.
In 2010, the National Front for the Gender Identity Law was created. It was an alliance of more than fifteen organizations that promoted the sanction at a national level of a law guaranteeing the adaptation of all personal documents to the gender identity perceived and the name chosen by each person and the access to medical treatments for those who request interventions on their body. The bill was finally presented and accepted. It was the only project that contemplated full access to health care.
The Gender Identity Law was approved by the Argentine parliament on 9 May 2012 and promulgated by the President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner a few days later, becoming the most advanced in the world in this matter so far. It was the first law to recognize the gender identity of people in terms of self-perception and guarantee full access to health, depathologizing trans identities.
In 2013, she was appointed head of the Office of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation, which operates under the auspices of the Gender Observatory in the Justice departement of the City of Buenos Aires.
Berkins died in the Hospital Italiano in Buenos Aires on 5 February 2016.
Books
- 2005. Berkins, Lohana; Fernández, Josefina. La gesta del nombre propio: informe sobre la situación de la comunidad travesti en la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Madres de Plaza de Mayo.
- 2007. Korol, Claudia; Berkins, Lohana,. . Buenos Aires: Feminaria..
- 2007. Berkins, Lohana. Cumbia, copeteo y lágrimas. Buenos Aires: ALITT..
- 2008. Berkins, Lohana. Escrituras, polimorfías e identidades. Buenos Aires: Libros del Rojas..
Book chapters
- 2003. "Un itinerario político del travestismo". In Maffía, Diana. . Buenos Aires: Feminaria..
- 2004. "Eternamente atrapadas por el sexo". Fernández, Josefina; D'Uva, Mónica; Viturro, Paula. Cuerpos ineludibles: un diálogo a partir de las sexualidades en América Latina. Buenos Aires: Ají de Pollo..
- 2008. "Travestis: una identidad política". Grande, Alfredo. La sexualidad represora. Buenos Aires: Topía..
- 2010. "Travestismo, transsexualidad y transgeneridad". In Raíces Montero, Jorge Horacio. Un cuerpo, mil sexos: intersexualidades. Topía..
Distinctions and recognitions
On 20 July 2011, the government of the Province of Buenos Aires awarded her a distinction – as the owner of the Nadia Echazú Textile Cooperative – called "The Inclusion Tree". On 11 October of that same year she was declared Outstanding Personality of Human Rights by the Buenos Aires Legislature.In 2012, she received the nomination for the Democracy Awards presented by the Caras y Caretas Cultural Center, in the Human Rights category.