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My name is Geovanny Jaronlli.
My name is Dayan.
My name is Matias.
My name is Maria José Guevara
My name is Gustavo. I am tr@ns.
Do you see anything feminine about me? I don't think there is.
As far back as I can recall, my gender has been masculine.
I don't know any part of me that doesn't look feminine.
Because the masculinity I project every day is what identifies me.
I am proud to display it all the time
and I want it to be respected in all circumstances.
At the bank, at the hospital, at school,
in public and private institutions and on the bus,
we express femininity 24 hours a day.
Having a legal identity opens the door to all other rights.
When doing something as simple, for other citizens, as opening a bank account,
I usually face all kinds of obstacles,
such as having to explain everything from the day I was born until the present.
Without identity, we are denied access to healthcare,
education, employment, housing.
From an early age you experience so much discrimination in school
that you end up dropping out. And that prevents people from entering secondary school,
let alone university.
We handed our IDs and when the police agent realized that one of the IDs
indicated "feminine", he started asking whose it was.
And I just kept my head down, staring at the floor.
To be entitled to those social protections I have been deprived of for 29 years of my life.
You can have the best resume but if the person interviewing you doesn't understand your gender
your chances will be very limited.
I find it so humiliating that my personal identification shows a letter "F" instead of "M".
I am just one letter away from my rights.
We are proposing to amend the Civil Registry Statute
so that it recognizes our identities.
I am Elizabeth Vásquez and with the political support of Proyecto Transgénero,
the Ecuadorian Confederation of Trans and Intersex Communities
Silueta X and Building Equality
I have proposed an amendment to the Civil Registry Statute that replaces "SEX" with "GENDER"
on personal identification.
See, the photograph shows my face, not my private parts!
The imposition of a legal masculinity on a feminine body like mine
is an institutional violation of my rights.
At present, gender identity is considered one of the most important dimensions
of a person's identity;
their masculinity, their femininity walks hand in hand with the person's free determination
of who they have chosen to become.
Because as women, men and trans people
we all display our gender - our femininity, our masculinity - and not our sex.
And just like our Constitution recognizes that aspect called GENDER IDENTITY,
so must our Civil Registry Statute align with the Constitution and recognize
gender too.
Four years trying to change this letter on this ID card.
If it's MY ID card, it has to show MY gender.
As much as I can't deny my sex, I think the State and society
can't deny my gender.
But in social life, in daily life, where what we do is present ourselves,
what we present is gender.
Therefore the ID card, which is the document that we carry around
all the time in order to exercise rights, must reflect our gender and not our sex
The State has no right to interfere with my privacy.
The State is compelled to respect my identity.
I ask the State to take their sex off this ID card
and put my gender on it.
If the Ecuadorian State takes this step forward,we will stand as one of the most avant-garde legislations
with regards to identity and the only one to recognize gender instead of sex.
Civil anachronism will be overcome and the Constitution will rule
Because we are just one letter away from exercising citizenship.
My gender on my ID card.