Argentina's Transexuals: Unique ID Document
While Britain is working slowly through a gay marriage strategy, Argentina has already embraced marriage equality for same-sex couples. And, going one step further to inclusiveness, Argentina has launched a ground breaking new gender-identity law for transexuals.
To great cheer the Argentine President Cristina Fernandez signed the decree and then personally delivered the first new National Identity Cards to a handful of transsexual persons featuring their new pictures, names, and perhaps most importantly, the gender with which they identify. Speaking in Spanish, she said.
"I want to say something about all of you. Today you are going to have the same rights that I and millions of Argentines have had from the day we were born. This is the society that we want. A society of reparation for everything you've had to go through to reach this point
Interestingly Argentina enjoys a reputation as being one of the plastic surgery surgery capitals in the world. Although under the law, applicants do not have to meet any medical nor psychiatric criteria in order to change their gender on official documents. The president also used the ceremony to sign a decree that allows children of same-sex married couples to have the last names of both their parents on their identification documents.
Written and Presented by Ann Salter