“I am a woman from Formosa living in the Chaco and now conquering Corrientes: I am a federalist and a transvestite militant.” This is how Julieta Gómez introduces herself, 30 years old, president of the Argentine Transfeminist Force association and host of the program It’s transvestite time on FM Mega 98.1, an independent radio station in Corrientes (Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.).
For the third time Julieta, a Renaper worker from Chaco, participates in the Plurinational Meeting of Women, Lesbians, Transvestites, Trans, Bisexuals, Intersex and Non-Binary People. After San Luis (2023) and Jujuy (2024), as co-founder of the Mesa del Norte Grande Disidente, she participated in the preparations, their tensions and challenges.
–How do you experience this Meeting?
–Corrientes is a conservative province. Being a host is an opportunity to unite the struggles of our colleagues, to stop the encroachments on our rights in this province. Today Corrientes is the epicenter of a Meeting that brings what is being experienced at the country level. The defunding of gender policies leaves us vulnerable and unprotected, but resisting and organizing more than ever. It is not just another meeting. It is a meeting in a neo-fascist government, in the year where dissidents and women have suffered the most with defunding, violence and setbacks in rights.
– ¿How was the link with the provincial government for the organization?
-Until three days before the Meeting we did not have enough schools for the workshops. They had to rearrange themselves and it was achieved because their companions did not let up. It happens in many meetings, governments speculate until the last minute, they play tug-of-war as to whether it is done or not.
–What is happening in Corrientes with gender and diversity policies?
–Gustavo Valdés is one of the governors who most aligns with Milei. It does not adhere to the transvestite transvestite labor quota law. The project fails to pass the half-sanction, they are not interested. The supposed areas of diversity are there in theory but we all ask ourselves, where does that money go? It does not reach the health of the companions. They are not getting jobs. The gender identity law is not respected. There is very little access to comprehensive health for the TTTNB (transvestite, trans, transgender and non-binary) community. There is a lack of protection for this community but also for lesbians and women.
-What has been the local temperature of the Meeting in these previous days?
-Corrientes is a separate country, with different practices even in the way of doing politics. I don’t think they expected such a large number of people. A couple of days before, all the hotels were already collapsed and many colleagues had to rent in Resistencia. We believe that these days are going to be spicy, with a lot of debate and political discussion, because there is a lot of fatigue.
–For you and your fellow transvestites, what has been the most challenging thing since the organization?
–Being able to build, making a place for ourselves. Corrientes has a fairly biological organizing committee. It happens in all meetings. I refer to the evidence: there are always few transvestites on the organizing committee. There is resistance to giving us the places that correspond to us. The meeting is plurinational and includes TTTNB identities for the companions who placed the body. It is up to us to be part of it. It was a struggle to sustain the name. And the workshops that emerged in Jujuy and continued as work groups: labor quota and historical reparation law, but we achieved it. When we were left without Patricia Ramírez, our reference, we were left helpless and it was difficult to reorganize ourselves.
Patricia Natividad Ramírez was a mischief-makerpromoter of Corrientes Pride and the trans quota. Famous for impersonating Eva Perón in the carnival troupes, she was run over and abandoned in the street in December 2022. At the close of this edition, Patricia’s face and the demand for justice for her unpunished death were scheduled to lead the Enough of Transvesticides march, along with the image of Diana Sacayan, ten years after her death.
Today Patricia’s name will be alongside Loan’s – and the request for his appearance alive – at the forefront of the march that will run through the streets of Corrientes.
“We want to unite a collective cry so that there is not another Loan or another Patricia. For them the meeting is held here. They are two names that continue to challenge us.” «
