telesurtv.net – Published 31 March 2015
Argentina has been a pioneer in the region, and the world, in defending the rights of the LGBTI community. The ruling left-wing coalition presented the first transsexual senatorial candidate in the central province of Mendoza. Cristina Campos, 47, was an activist in a textile cooperative before she was appointed to the list led by Guillermo Carmona, candidate for the governorship of the province. Campos changed her name and gender on her identity documents years ago, daily La Nacion reported.
In May 2012, the Argentine Congress approved the only law in the world that recognizes identity based on gender rather than sex, allowing transsexuals, transgenders and transvestites to be registered as the gender they prefer on their identity documents. Campos became the president of the association Winds of Change, a cooperative employing 16 transsexual women and working with sewing machines provided by the government. “I believe that being a transsexual and an activist has trained me to go to the senate,” said Campos.