Trans teenage, without asking permission |ChiapasParalelo

In Mexico, the number of adolescents who do not feel identified with the gender assigned to birth oscillates between 81 thousand and 183 thousand, according to the Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute.This is the story of three of them: Luis, a 17 -year -old boy who as a child played to be Peter Pan;Yahel, 13, who wants to study archeology or mechatronics, and Sara, a 16, vegan and passion for cinema

Text and photographs: Quetzalli Nicte Ha González

Luis

"A pleasure.I am Luis Tirado.What pronouns would you like to refer to you? ".I listen to the question and stop me dry.I had never questioned if I could identify myself with a different pronoun to "She".No one had not offered that possibility.That's how I met him.

His hair is slightly long and curly, sometimes he leaves him free, loose and sponge.Other days he holds it a little with comb cream and the curls are defined more.The frank smile combines with its fluid conversation and carefully painted nails.

Luis, 17, identifies as a trans boy.He tells me that he grew up in a family worried about not marking any gender stereotype.In his early birthday he disguised himself as Peter Pan to command the lost children and ran at impressive speeds covered in a Dash outfit.He had full childhood, although he was always different from the sex-gender norm.

- grandfather, I'm going to tell you something that can scare you: I like a girl.

-What is the problem?I also like women.

His family is close to the world of arts and is accustomed to living with people from the LGBTIQ+ collective.At 12 he told them that he was a lesbian without feeling fear or concern.His parents took him to a bookstore and bought this book is gay.Luis held that little rainbow among his little hands, read Avid Chapter by chapter and reached an unexpected section: Trans people.

He tells me that his inner voice shouted: "This is, this I am".It was powerful to read, see himself in a story and identified with that kind explanation about trans identity.It was not the sordid image of the manager in the morgue in a CSI program.It was not the movie scene where someone felt nausea knowing that he had kissed a trans person.There he found how to name himself, how to know.

At that time a window of tranquility opened and at the same time a sea of worries, I was not so sure that his family was going to behave so comprehensively this time.He overwhelmed him how to explain it.A year passed without being able to say it.His thoughts gathered and was irritable all the time.

His father, David lying, recalls: "I worried something, I was going well in school, in sport, but when I took him to sleep something told me that it was not right".

The day that Tania Morales, her mother, called her to her room came and warned her that she would not let him get out of there until he explained what was happening, where all that anger came from.Luis did not choose the moment, did not prepare the speech.He simply released it.

- I'm trans, I'm a man.

THE ROAD OF LUIS

Tania is Luis's mother.She is a young lawyer, feminist, with a mastery in art history and works in a museum.I was there without knowing exactly what to say.Emotions unleashed.Those images that circulate in the collective imaginary directly fell to Tania's mind and flooded her fear.It would no longer be a biologist, writer or scientist.He had a great fear that his son was lost, broke.

Says there were discussions.Many.

The first feeling that Tania experienced was the reproach with itself.He tells me that he felt that may not have been a good example of what a woman can become.He wondered if he had not worked enough to send the message that women could go as far as they wanted.I was afraid that because it was trans will become more difficult for your child.He leaned on his current partner, Salvador, who knew anything about the subject, but began sending videos, texts, interviews.He spoke with his parents, Luis's grandparents, who didn't understand the beginning either.

"If he tells you that he feels like that and what is it, we go there," said his grandmother.

Luis Ríe said that he decided when to leave the closet and be visible but that his family did not leave him option, he uploaded them to the ship almost without warning.However, everyone let themselves be guided by him and in their respective spaces and social circles were assumed as a trans family.

Have to defend yourself

On August 28, in Mexico City the decree on trans adolescences, which allows adolescents, from 12 years and with authorization of their parents, modify the birth certificate with their identity and name with their identity and namechosen.But it was not always like that, there were pioneer families that promoted this right in the courts and on the streets.

Before the decree, transouncias and trans adolescences only had the option of the trial.Luis and his family were the first to face the law that only recognized adults the right to a sexogenerian change in the Civil Registry by amparo.Two years lasted the process.Come and go, enter and go out with papers, requirements, explanations here, corrections there, copies for Montones.Resources, energies, illusions were left.

"All the time you have to apologize or ask permission to be," Luis's voice hardens.“Not even the State, which is supposed to be the one that has to protect you, not even he recognizes you.How do you ask others to do it?A "no" for me, was a "no" for my whole family.Each UNE lived its process of despair and hopelessness ".

On July 23, 2019, Luis changed clothes eight times.Tania and he were the first to arrive.They waited in a concrete bank while a white pitbull play.Soon Salvador (couple of Tania), Damián (his psychologist) and the lawyers arrived..After crossing the esplanade, Luis entered the glass cubicle that indicated by leaving everyone behind.They offered an informed consent sheet and the draft of his birth certificate.Before signing he noticed how they took photos while they smiled.He took the pen and did it.Tania raised her arms of happiness and then hurried to send photos to Luis's father and grandparents who were traveling eager to know what happened.Luis danced.He sorry to dance in front of that sparkling source and he simply did it.

"It was amazing!", His voice rises and shows that transparent emotion that only springs when you are 17 years old.“It was to tell me that I am the only person who can define and name me.That feels in your whole body.Your bones tremble ".

Goodbye to tennis

Luis is committed and disciplined from childhood, at four years he already practiced tennis with his father.Tournaments, competitions.His level made him be in national children.He liked the sound of the ball when touching the racket and his favorite blow is the right.María Sharapova and Roger Federer were their idols.

When he assumed his male identity, and then obtained his birth certificate, he left tennis in serious way.I couldn't compete more.Not in the right branch."He had to choose his battles.I said: ‘My love, we can see what to do’, but there were other urgent things to face: school, change the minutes, talk to its other circles, so we respect your decision, ”says David Tirado, his father.

"Luis is not the guy who gets angry.If something bothers him, he usually gets sad and does not want to speak.From him I have learned that it is good to feel bad sometimes, that in the moments of anxiety we can accompany ourselves, ”says Daniela, one of her best friends.

The affection does not spare it, he wants Borbotones but expresses it with Mable.Luis wants silently.It does not use social networks too much and it takes long to answer WhatsApp messages.When a message from nothing comes to his friends, maybe wishing them well in an exam, they know that Luis is striving.

Don´t You know you´re queen

Yet, Even Flowers Bloom At My Feet.

Don´t You know you´re queen

Cracked, Peeling.

In the video you can see Michael Alden Hadreas, singer of perfume genius, in the seat of the companion of a convertible.The camera revolves and is the woman's dressed who now handle while sings.

No family is safe

WHEN I SASHAY

Gleaning, Wrapped in Golden Leaves.

We see him again, now he is in a public bath, he looks in the mirror and his androgynous body is reflected a woman's dress.Go and come.A long table where executives meet at a business board.All in elegant costumes.He/she gets on the table and slides between plates, crawls, takes possession of space.It is the video of the song Queen, which Luis usually listens, again and again, while in the chair of the room in front of the wide window.

World of men

The process of finding its masculinity was complicated.When it started I had no idea.I was lost.It seemed that the only way people would see him as a man was if he exercised that stereotypical masculinity.

- Give rudeness!

- No, I have never told them.

- It doesn't matter, men do.He jokes about women! Run as a man, don't jump so much! ”, Open your legs more when sitting up!

Luis received all kinds of tips.Some well -intentioned and others that did not make any logic.When his transition process began, around the age of 13, his parents went to demand that his school recognized his new genre and his name chosen.Institutionally they did, but the process inside was not simple.

"I have high anxiety.Since I exist.I already came with me (laughs).I remember that when I passed from Kinder and Kinderg.The way I found that I can handle it is to identify my emotions and be honest about them with the people I want.I am very sorry.Upon entering the masculine world I had to block that, in a changer you cannot exhibit fear or sadness.Is not acceptable.Puts you in danger.Then I decided that I was not going to feel things, ”says Luis.

Another genre.Other rules.On that path he found all kinds of reaction to his transition.Once, the school made an exit.The camp area was divided by gender.“It's very hot in the tent, we were four and all began to remove clothes.I slept with pajamas and they told me: ‘Take off my clothes!’.I don't know if it was morbidity or just make it clear that it was not the same, ”he says.

It tells me that in the stereotyped world of men there is a requirement to show strength of all kinds."You have to denigrate people and be denigrated.That's how it works.I remember to be in the bathroom of teachers who have a door.I changed in the dark because there is no light there and only listened to everything they said outside.They went and touched the door with force and once they left me locked inside, they broke the sheet.It was hard, then I chose to try to be invisible to survive.I didn't want to be part of those games, so I didn't want to be seen.Not that they are bad people, they learned that and (now) they should unlearn it. ”.

Not everything was like that, he also obtained acceptance and openness by others.His friend Pablo was key.High, Fornido, a mole.It was his column to understand and approach that world from a more accompanied place.Luis describes him as a giant cisgender (a person whose genre assigned to birth coincides with his perceived gender), self -insurance, who uses masks without shame.

Paul presented it with his circles of friends and settled any comments that could be out of place while he was present.He never questioned.He said on one occasion: "You are Luis and I will be".

The more security he had in himself and more trans people met - and listening to how they and they built their own gender version - Luis knew that it was not necessary to live that dominant masculinity.“I had to be brave, not stereotypically to endure, but to cry again, get back up again, feel outrageous.Stop accepting that I had to go through all this ".

Luis went to high school and, although he could move from school and start again, he decided to stay.I wasn't going to give up.Just another person entered his school.Everything seems that it has been better now.Both are the headlines of the LGBTIQ+ conversation of the school and have a project with several more friends where they teach arts to trans children.

My name, my home

Luis and his mother laugh, go in the car.Luis throws a male name and she begins a story and count of men in her life that are named after that name.Discarded.Choose other options.At age 13, make the decision and ask his family to be called by the name of his maternal grandfather.

The first times they called him by his chosen name was as powerful as.It is what I wanted, I had requested it, they had fulfilled it, but something did not sound so good.Luis shouted and took a few seconds to react.

-Yes of course.They refer to me.That is me (laugh while remembering that stage).

If Luis wants to make up, he does it.If you want to cross your leg while you feel, you do it.All these possibilities of expression have to do with the fact that he is a man.

- Ah!It is not necessary to repeat this machismo.Now I can think what kind of man I want to be and I also feel calm to stop suppressing my femininity.

He is interested.

His grandfather, Luis Morales, is an elegant man, his beard is finely trimmed and speaks with great property.However, something childish and mischievous is drawn on his face when I ask him what he meant that his grandson chose his name.

- If Luis decided at this time to change his name, it would be I who would follow him.

Yahel

- Ow mom.They said that he re -is.

- Yahel, they refer to the penis.

- And why don't you call it that?

- Because they teach them that way, you should not talk about it.

Yahel is 13 years old and does not identify as a man or as a woman in its entirety.He is a high person for his age, perhaps already reaches 1.65m and his body is extreme thin and with long legs.His hair falls as a crossed fringe on his face.He has two dimples that surround his cheeks when smiling and knows that his myopia and astigmatism will be an obstacle to being an astronaut;However, he clings to his other options: archeology and mechatronics.The toys to assemble and science are their weakness, his voice is loaded with emotion when he tells the time he went with his mother to the National Polytechnic Institute to an encounter with Beakman (the scientific eccentric of educational television).He loves animals, he has five dogs and one whose call cui cui.

Yuvet, her mother, remembers that when she got to bathe, she used to hear noise in her room.When leaving and burning, he realized that Yahel had used his shoes.He realized that Yahel hid that he liked accessories or activities that the stereotype assigns girls.He explains that Yahel's father was very religious, strict and violent and that he lived constantly worried because his son was severely tried.One day things exploded and she made the decision to leave that house full of bibles, prayers and reproaches.He took Yahel and left.Does not receive alimony or help for maintenance and parenting.Yahel says he does not live or want to see his biological father again.

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— Terraria4Smash! Thu Jul 22 16:57:13 +0000 2021

Yuvet is a young woman, with shaved hair in the back and straight to the front, her lips usually shine in purple shades.He wanted to know more about sexogenic diversities, long before knowing that Yahel would identify himself as a non -binary person.One day he went to pride in Mexico City and knew how to “transcend, transcend”, a group in Condesa Clinic that accompanied trans people and their relatives.He soon appeared at the clinic and asked permission to be in the talks, dedicated time and listening, he learned a lot.

When he turned eight, Yahel told him:

- Mom, I want you to make me up.

- Day of the dead?Of Halloween?

- No, no, I want you to make me up as a woman.

- Okay later.

The memories of the “transcend, transcend” sessions came to their head.He came back and this time she was the one who took the floor.He tells me that he began to cry in front of the whole group and that he was scared;that she took out everything she felt, the uncertainty and the fears that had dominated her.They suggested that he simply let Yahel express himself as he would like, without questioning whether that meant something or not, because in reality one thing is the tastes (the dresses, for example), another is the gender identity (the genre with which aperson self -identifies) and another is sexual orientation (the people for whom they feel attraction).Not necessarily a parameter is related to the other.

- Let's see, come.I'm going to make up as you want.

- Can you take me a picture?

- Yes that's fine.Put out there on the wall.

- No wait.Something is missing.

Yahel ran to his mother's room, immersed himself in his closet and returned to pose.Short hair, shadows and purple lipstick;Darth Vader shirt, blue pants and slightly open black shoes.On his face, a spicy smile.

Yuvet and Iktan walk

Iktán and Yuvet met in "Transcending, Transcender".Iktán is a trans man.They have been together for three years and Iktán has sheltered the fluidity between Yahel's genres, his partner's son, because he knows perfectly what it is to feel different since childhood.Iktán loved football when, as a teenager, his father took him hidden against his wife's will because she believed it was a sport not appropriate for women.However, for them it was their moment of complicity, fun and coexistence."There he hit you!" It was the first thing Iktán listened to his father's mouth after telling him he was a trans man."It was my fault!There those tricks were hit, ”he continued.

In that discussion, hearing that from his father, Iktán had a flashback: when he was 15 years old, his father suddenly moved away.He did not give explanations and Iktán questioned a lot if he had done something to bother him.He felt contrary and abandoned."I understood it.He felt guilty, believed that I am like that for having lived with me so closely, with my uncles and cousins. ”.

It tells me that being trans is not something that is decided, that happens by influence, much less to excel or by mere whim.It is and already.“I would have given anything because I was common, I didn't want to be different.Most of my life I thought that, but I got out of the mold, I got out of everywhere, ”explains Iktán.

Yahel's family has had to move twice in the last year due to the search for work, stability and a favorable environment for their development.Today they live in a colony that is located on the periphery of the mayor Álvaro Obregón, in Mexico City.

Iktán began his transition at age 31, already as an adult.Living with Yahel has become constant reflecting on his own way.“On the one hand I thank that it was an adult transition, because if not I had been a macho man, because he was a macho lesbian, that is the reality.I would not have learned so much, nor would I have questioned many things.On the other hand, I feel that Yahel will have opportunities that I did not have ".

Yuvet -iktan duo feeds together, it seems that the embmon gear and help question their gender prejudices to feel freer."I don't know what makes me a woman.I cannot say that it makes me a vulva or a vagina because it would be against trans women, or that it makes me a woman to be able to reproduce, because there are women who are infertile and, if they cannot have children, are they not women?Or if I have small breasts, aren't I so woman?If we go to the same with the penis: to those who have to cut them, do they stop being men, or what?For me transf nude you of all those impositions that you must meet to be a man and woman, ”says Yuvet.

Allende's heels

Yahel is not shy on stage.On September 15 of his sixth year of Primary arrived ready to be Ignacio Allende, hero of the Independence of Mexico.His parliaments were said correctly, he was not wrong at all, but something happened between the audience that felt like a growing tsunami.The public was not pleased.

It all started the night before, everyone took care of the outfit.Foamy became his best ally.Yuvet made a sack of the soldiers of the time: blue king, with fists, chest and neck carefully contoured with a golden bar.Iktán, on the other hand, took care of the hat, while Yahel tested the two white pants options they had, deciding for the leggins.He also had a silver sword with a golden handle.I was almost ready!Yuvet thought about how to simulate high boots when Yahel was already coming with an espadgata heeled boots in his hands and said: "These!".

Yuvet let him decide.If I was sure and comfortable, it would be.He only told him that, if someone bothered him, he defended himself.And so, General Ignacio Allende arrived at school in women's boots.It is not that they were very high, the heel and the brooches were barely noticLet them get together with him ».The other parents did not know that Yuvet was between the crowd and listened to everything.In that, a child shouts him: "Oh, how beautiful".Yahel confidently replied: “What?do you like me?".He was immediately rebuked by the teacher.

Find a place

Yahel admires the Spanish group "Wizard of Oz".He is excited to have an album autograph by them.He likes metallic metal and music.He also enjoys when he thought it can be what he wants.Flow in your gender expression how it best pleases.

Many times he feels better among adults, among the trans friendships of their parents, or among adolescents and trans young people with whom they then do picnics.It is the most strange in time of pandemic.This year I should be studying first of high school, but they decided to leave it for later because Yahel did not understand anything with the televised classes.They recently had to move and Yuvet's work does not allow him to be all the time for tasks and other school demands.Next year will enter and it will be all new.

The ambivalence he feels for school is evident.He is excited to be in secondary school and that everything is different, reviews the last years of his primary and something overshadowed in his face.As Yahel grows, mixing without thinking about defining the feminine or masculine.Are there schools that understand that?

“Thus on my bench, at ease, but in recess the problems begin because I am one of the children who regularly move away and prefer to be invisible.So I wore with that type of children: chubby, who do not like to have so many friends and so, ”says Yahel.

Once, in the fourth year, a child rebuked Yahel: "I'm going to beat you up".While he tells, his voice, which usually sounds strong, seems to go out.In the break, Yahel went to hide with one of her only friends after some trees, there they ate.The stalker boy looked for him for all recess.He found it.

- Get ready because let's fight.

- I do not want to do it.

- What?Are you Marica?

"It was the trigger.I told Gaby to run to hide and tried to defend myself as I could.I tried to throw it so that at least it stunned and we could run ”.

Yahel strives so that his voice does not break.Can not."In the end, the hurt was me.They hit me among several in my stomach until I took my air and I stayed there the rest of the recess.Gaby returned for me and we were late for class.We lied (saying) that we were in the bathroom ".

He tells me that one of the children who participated sought it days later.He apologized.He told him that he didn't really want to do it but that if he didn't have passed him perhaps.

Cui cui, his pet, walks close.He takes it and caresses in his big hands.

A safety network

Yuvet, Yahel and Iktán are part of the Trans Children's Families Network, a civil association that brings together cases throughout the country.Before the pandemic they used to meet workshops, seminars and eat.This circle of families became the main drivers of the Law of Trans Children in Mexico City.There they were in 2019, outside the Legislative Assembly every time it was necessary, demanding that the law be defrosted and could go down to plenary for discussion.They did not succeed.

Yahel would not benefit so much with the approval of the law, he already has a neutral name and does not bother him.Before identifying as Trans they called him Jesus, but as soon as he could appoint he preferred to use his second name, which serves also for girls and boys.Yahel has another desire: the recognition of the non -binary or fluid genre.That is not yet in any discussion, reform or initiative, there is no law that considers accommodating this figure.Yuvet wonders what will happen later.You may not have problems because you already use one of their assigned names.

The Trans Families Network is a shelter.The day of the dead past he arrived as a witch and received many praise.No one recognized Yahel at the beginning under that purple wig and with that long wine color.He was happy, there were many photos and tranquility.

Sara

A hooded puppy with a small anarchist sign in the chest says: "When your zodiac sign, I tell me your position before the State".With political publications such as, Sara Artemisa interacts daily with her friends and followers from her social networks.Sara is a thin and tall girl who usually ran her hair behind her ear while she looks a little..He loves cinema, is Vegan, goes in the second semester of high school and identifies herself as a 16 -year -old trans girl who lives in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche.

Sara leaves little home where she lives with Marcela, her mother, and her four -year -old Alan little brother.Doña Lolita, an older woman, a native of Macuspana, who has been close to the family since Marcela was a child.Sara spends most of the time in her room: there she has a computer that she armed herself.He ordered each piece online: the three RAM memories, the two hard drives, the two fans, the graphics card last model, even the bright neon lights that are seen when the machine works.All with the intention of having 20 open windows, one or two films downloading and a video game running while listening to Argentine rap.

The new year of 2017, Sara had announced that she had something important to say during dinner.She had reviewed the words she would use and at 11 she was determined to explain in front of the family that, although her gender assigned at birth was masculine, she felt a girl.However, something happened.“I remember that Sara said, on December 31 I will give news.And I answered, ‘What is it?Tell me!'.She stopped because Alan (her little brother) was born with Down syndrome.It was a great impact for me and I was very depressed.Sara, he said: ‘Calm, they are beautiful, they are recariñosos, do not worry’, ”says Marcela.

That December Sara decided to wait, but did not contemplate that four months later someone else would help him tell him.An April afternoon, Marcela received a call from the school psychologist, who said: "I need to talk to you".He hastened to pick Sara, told him to wait in the car and enter school.Sara was restless because she sensed her secret, a short time she had sincerely sincere with the psychologist.

“Obviously I was shock because they were two super strong news in a short time.I didn't go crazy, I don't know how, it was something that struck me a lot because I didn't see him coming, ”he recalls.

- Daughter, I never realized that you had more tastes like a boy.

- Is not that.Girls also like carts, video games and all that.

Marcela says that his concern was not what the family or people would think: "If they love us, they will do it as we are".His fears came from the possible discrimination and harassment that his daughter could go through being a trans person.It took a year to understand what was happening.

“More than being scared, I made me realize the importance of the family so that trans people can have a full life.And that took my eye bandage, made me realize that I would love my daughter being trans, ”he recalls.

Today it loads two images on its cell phone: a yellow half heart, half blue, with three semiflecha in the center (symbol of the T21 association, Down Carmen families, a space that founded with other families) and a blue heart above, pink in thecenter and blue that seems to vibrate like a sound wave and that symbolizes the trans community.Both will tattoo them soon.

Like tears in the rain

Sara's room has a 75 -inch screen, her mother bought her as any opportunity had a chance.I knew it would be a great gift.Sara dreams of being a filmmaker, devours films, she is passionate about talking about them.Remember the names of the directors and directors with precision, see videos about their realization, their special effects, the reasons why some have marked the history of cinema.

“I discovered that it was trans as I discovered that I loved cinema.Blade Runner, the 1982, is one of the best films in history and has inspired many others.Talk about replicants and the persecution of them.Replicators are a kind of biological androids and some have ‘errors’ and rebel, especially Nexus 6 ”models.

Immediately relates replicants to trans people.“During the movie you see how the antagonist is not really bad.All he wants is to live, be free and do not do anything wrong.He does not plan to harm them, but he is willing to fight for his freedom and that of his people.In the end we see how everyone is no longer and he is with Deckard, Blade Runner.There he realizes that his death could mark something.Then he dies in the rain while he says an emblematic phrase.It's great! ”Recrea.

To study cinema, Sara thinks you should leave Ciudad del Carmen.This oil city has no specialized schools.Nor does he feel safe when walking on the street as a trans teenager.

In Sara high school she was very depressed and a friend, in an attempt to comfort her, she said: “I know a trans girl who lives around my house, is super pretty and super incredible.I would be fabulous for one day to present it to you.It is hetero, by the way "."There are more like me," said Sara and immediately felt a little better.

A year later, the two friends talked when Sara suddenly reminded her of that possibility.He felt ready to meet her.

- When can we go see her?.

- They killed her machetes.I knew because my father came home by saying: "Did you see that they killed the joto on the corner?" A friend replied.

“There you wonder how you can live in such a world, it could have happened to me.That's when you grab real fear.You don't want to go out.When I go to Oxxo I look discreetly, to masculine, so as not to get the attention of absolutely no one.As Alien's slogan says, the eighth passenger: in space nobody can hear you shout.No one will hear us scream, nobody is going to see us, and when we are no longer there, nobody will notice what we shout, that someone died.But he didn't die, they killed her, ”says Sara.

A warm hug

On November 17, 2020, thirteen families from different parts of the country traveled to Jalisco, the first state to reform the Civil Registry Regulation to recognize the right to the identity of trans people without the need for the age of majority.and obtain a birth certificate with his chosen name and his self -perceived genre.Sara and Marcela were among them.Sara was 15 years old and, although she had been starting her transition for three years, she did not have any official document that endorsed her.

Something squeezed his heart barely set foot in El Salto, a municipality where the procedure can be carried out.The entire town was flooded with the colors of the trans flag.Blue and pastel pink everywhere: in the houses, the streets, the balconies.They did not give credit.Days ago had been the celebration of the Virgin Admirable Mother, Patroness of the People, and just that year they had chosen those colors to celebrate it.That little welcome detail, that subtle coincidence, was for each of these families a powerful sign that that day would end its pilgrimage.

“When we started hearing that unit.And hugs, emotion and congratulations.For Sara, for example, it was three years (of fighting).You saw the youngest go out and it was very exciting, ”Marcela narrates.

In addition to the new minutes, they were given trades to carry out in their states the process of protection of the previous act, which guarantees that no one can have access to that act, which becomes a classified document.Also, documents for the Ministry of Foreign Relations that allow the change of passport and for the Ministry of Public Education and schools.For any instance that will request it.

Sara wore pink pants, a blue blouse and on top.Its covers was a trans flag.All of it was a shout for its right to existence.I was happy, a lot, although I expressed little.Something in Sara was surrounded in the last years of bully.However, an unexpected event moved her visibly: who was his girlfriend at that time and precipitously hugged her.They are seen both in a photograph that was published in local media, intertwined to make it clear that that day, that hug was unique and memorable.

Trans feminism

Sara attended the great march of the 8M of 2020, just before the mandatory confinement by Pandemia by COVID-19.He saw some girls in front, shouting, and without further ado he came to ask: "Do they belong to a collective? Can I join?".One of them told him that they belonged to what they did not like but that the chat phone "8m Carmen" passed him.Sara wrote and told him that he only had to send a letter about why he considered herself a feminist and why wanted to be a participant.“I started saying‘ because I'm a woman ’.For a CIS person it is very obvious, but for a trans person it is different.I explained that many of the violence that patriarchy imposes and that I want to be part of that change.If I get the rights (legal as trans women) it is something incredible, but they will not serve me if society excludes me, it treats me badly, if I do not live beyond 35 years.Either for reasons of medical exclusion or for a hate crime.So I decided to start in feminism, get into action ".

The letter liked a lot and Sara was invited to a meeting.They listened to her, it was something important to her.“I grew up in a world where the voice was just adults, hetero and cis men.For me it was crazy to think that I can be in a space with these adults who are fantastic and that could be elsewhere doing one billion things, but they are here and they take me seriously.It was so exciting, it was pretty and there I speak of the trans and listened to me ”.

Sara joined the dynamics of the collective for months, and in August he learned of a symbolic take -one that was being summoned in the human rights offices following the taking in Mexico City of a federal building of CNDH ( National Commission for Human Rights).“I immediately thought‘ I want to go ’.It was to denounce the cases of aggressions by police to women and the unresolved cases of femicide in the city ”.

He arrived at the Municipal Palace, which was the meeting point, and did not know anyone.For the most part, the girls who were belonged to Rad Fem Carmen, a collective of radical feminism.Sara felt fear because usually to the transphobic fraction of feminism is directly associated with the Rad fem.When Sara wondered what to do, one of her 8m-carmen companions arrived and breathed.He approached her and were together.

Outside the City Council were approximately 10 young people who sang slogans.Nothing more.Three armed patrols immediately made presence to instill fear, to monitor them and intimidate them.In response, they decided to sit in a circle on the floor to talk about their experiences.Sara's turn came.He took the floor and talked about how misogyny is a trans woman and also about the fact that if she gets cispassing (when a trans woman or trans man does not appear physically) it is not better.If they notice that she is a trans woman, they discriminate against her, and if it is not evident, they harass her.Listening to her surprised many.

They decided to go to the local human rights commission building, all together.At the end, they invited her to a WhatsApp group.When he entered, he learned that it was Rad fem Carmen's collective.“That is, I am already part of the collective?I love it! ”Laughs.Sara lived found feelings: emotion for being part of something new and fear about what could happen.The controversy came immediately.The first day in the chat came out the theme of a feminist collective known for its trans -excipatory speech and the opinions inside were divided.Sara was sad, but he said: “I have to stay there.I can't get out.Rad fem is not synonymous with transphobia, that there are some girls who are not a reason to discredit it ”.

The day Sara joined that chat, two girls left the collective.The debate remains on several levels and forms.Sara has found one of her best friends right there.A girl who describes as rough, pretty, of fluid speeches and firm positions that today is her ally.For Sara, cis women are the "historical actors of feminism", but not the only ones.For her, there must be a space for trans women, trans men and non -binary people.Rejects the idea that some feminists feel the power to question their existence.It is determined not to abandon their spaces for political participation, to be healthy and there are other friends who agree it.

Teen Titans

“They are my non -blood family, my sisters, trans brothers and brotherhoods, and they will be forever.When socially excluded in school (with bullying or bullying), when I took refuge on the internet, in technology, having the certainty that my mental and emotional health could not depend on the tangible world, entering "Teen Titans" washow to run from a room on fire and hug the person you love most, ”says Sara with the greatest possible enthusiasm.

They come from all over the country, large cities and small.Trans teenagers gather in three WhatsApp chats and are how they want.Think that being among people with similar questions, similar sensations, problems and similar desires is a valuable refuge.

"We create ties, you don't feel alone.It is a trans world of bandita.It is a safe space, what is said in Teen Titans, stays in Teen Titans.If I feel bad I can trust Elles without problem, I just have to say, ‘Chiques, today I don't feel good, I use to be with you, I need a hug’ and there are at three morning ”.

Sara relies and nourishes her surroundings and virtual networks to take strength, be visible and do activism."We don't want pity, we want respect".

*This work was prepared as part of the Press and Democracy Program (Burry) in the framework of the research project “Narratives, journalism and discursive regimes of the culture” of the Ibero -American University, during the spring of 2021 in which this scholarship movedto virtuality and approached queer narratives.Is published simultaneously in www.Perrochronic.com and footer.

Edition: Mariana Anzorena Lozoya and Sergio Rodríguez-Blanco.