Source: Amnesty International –
Content Warning: This story includes examples of discrimination and abuse towards trans women. We are publishing these details to bear witness to Erika’s experience and evoke positive change for trans women in Argentina.
Erika Noely Moreno is a trans woman and human rights activist from Argentina. She has lived in Ushuaia, in the south of the country, for 30 years and was one of the first trans women to change her gender on her ID card. She is also part of Las Históricas, a movement of older trans women demanding reparations for the discrimination and violence they suffered for much of their lives. She says that authoritarian governments are putting all of their wins at risk, but that today they are more active and determined than ever. This is her story.
I am a survivor. I have been surviving since I was five years old. Just by existing as a trans child, I was already a human rights activist. I was born in 1974, just before the military dictatorship began in Argentina (1976-1983). Those were very difficult times. My family and I moved out of the capital of Córdoba because life there became very hard. When I was 12, we moved to Villa Maria, another city, but that’s where the real hell began because it was a place where there was a lot of discrimination. It was then that I was forced into the closet, but it didn’t last long. I always say that I began my transition at the age of five and finished it at 18. I went to Buenos Aires for a while and then I moved back to Córdoba to live alone.