Six-year-old trans girl allowed female identification card in landmark case
A trans girl in Argentina has been allowed a female identification card, and for her gender to be officially recognised in a landmark decision.
Luana, previously known as Manuel, is six years old, and identified as female since she was able to speak. She never identified with the name Manuel, her parents said.
Preferring to be known as Lulu, she was granted the right to identify as her gender under a law passed in Argentina last year. She received her amended birth certificate and ID card on Wednesday.
Gabriel, Lulu’s mother, thanked the authorities in Buenos Aires because they “trusted the identity of my daughter”, and because they “respected her rights”.
Having become the first country in South America to allow gay couples to marry, Argentina last May passed a bill giving transgender citizens the right to have their gender recognised in law.
Hormone therapy and reassignment surgery have also become available by law for transgender citizens who are now able to change their officially recorded gender without prior medical or judicial approval.
The Gender Identity law was approved by the senate 55-0, with over a dozen absent senators and one abstention,
Lulu’s first application to officially change her gender on her ID was initially refused because of her age, but the Children, Yoth and Family Secretary overturned the decision, saying that she should be allowed to choose because of international human rights.
It is believe that the child is the youngest in the world to be granted official permission to determine his or her own gender identity.
