Argentina has recognized the gender identity of its inhabitants for ten years, which means that
the legal data that matters most in the DNI is how we perceive ourselves
.
However, the preliminary results of the 2022 Census leave some doubts about the incorporation of this paradigm into registry systems, vital instruments for developing public policies.
The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) revealed to
Clarín
that they reported how many women, men, and “X” (non-binary) people there are in the country
based on the sex registered at birth, instead of self-perceived gender
.
Before continuing, some definitions:
the word sex refers to the physical and biological differences between men and women
, while gender is "a socially and culturally constructed category that is learned and, therefore, can evolve or change", defines
UNICEF
in its communication guides with a gender perspective.
In Argentina,
Law 26,743 on Gender Identity
, enacted in 2012, allowed at least 12,655 people to rectify their DNI with the gender identity “male”, “female” or “X” for people who do not include themselves in any of the two other categories.
This last option was incorporated by decree at the end of 2021.
It was decree 476/2021, which details in its article 4, that the "X" will be placed in the "sex" field -it continues to say sex, although it now speaks of gender- to "non-binary, indeterminate, non-binary" identities. specified, indefinite, not informed, self-perceived, not recorded;
or another meaning with which
the person who does not feel understood in the masculine/feminine binomial
could identify ”.
The 2022 Census is the first in Argentine history to
include non-binary people and gender identity
in its questionnaire.
Capture Census 2022 questionnaire.
There were two questions.
The first,
“what is the registered sex at birth?”
and, the second, "according to gender identity, do you consider yourself a woman, a trans woman/transvestite, a man, a trans man/trans masculinity, non-binary, another identity/none of the above, I prefer not to answer or ignored?" .
The preliminary results were known at the end of January.
"51.76% women live in private homes, 45.22% men and 0.02% are "X" or do not recognize themselves with any of the above options," they reported from the official Census portal.
In total,
there were 8,293 people registered with that "X"
.
The truth, as confirmed by sources from the same Institute to
Clarín
, is that these percentages were extracted from the question "what is the sex registered at birth?"
and
not according to the question that corresponds to gender
.
And they detailed that the "X" would correspond to those who "as babies were not assigned as either male or female, either on the DNI or birth certificate."
Clarín
consulted the Buenos Aires Civil Registry how many babies were registered in their birth certificates in this category.
The answer: none.
"There are no X birth certificates. It is F or M," they clarified from the Registry, referring to "female" and "male."
And they pointed out:
“You cannot put 'X' on a newborn.
Then when he grows up, he can change his sex if he wants to."
The case of Geronimo Carolina
Gerónimo Carolina González Devesa is one of the first people who managed, in 2018, to have a genderless birth certificate rectified in the country.
Today, he works as
a reference for the Mendoza Sexual and Reproductive Health Program.
She identifies with all the pronouns, so she explains that she is a doctor, doctor, or medic.
In the 2022 Census, it indicated that the "sex with which it was registered at birth" was "female" and that "in gender identity" it is considered "non-binary."
“The thing with the X only works for the DNI”
, she assures.
“We are all assigned as male or female at birth.
Not even intersex people, who are genetically or biologically outside what is considered male or female, as in the movie XXY, are inscribed with X at birth, because doctors cannot decide their identity for a person
.
They are assigned the gender that most closely matches them,” she detailed.
Regarding the 2022 Census questionnaire, González Devesa opined that
"the question is wrongly asked"
and recalled that many non-binary people decided not to participate for fear of the use they could give to these data or due to differences with the way in which they were formulated. the questions.
How was the census in practice?
Alejandra –she prefers not to give her real name- she was a census radio coordinator, so she did not go house to house asking questions, but rather she was in charge of training.
“The days before the census there were some problems with the system.
It was going to be all online, but afterwards they weren't sure if it was working or not.
So the training focused on the ABC's of how to take a census and the manual option in case the application didn't work that day, which in fact in the end didn't work in my area”, she says.
Regarding the way to approach the questionnaire, Alejandra indicated that “no special emphasis was placed on how to ask that question about the sex of people.
So it ended up
depending on the criteria of each census taker.
In other words, the question was the one that was on the form and that's it.
It is not that later the person was questioned about the DNI ”.
"The questionnaire is wrong"
For Blas Radi, professor of Social Epistemology and coordinator of the Free Chair of Trans Studies at the UBA,
"the census questionnaire is poorly done"
and pointed to another section of the questionnaire "only for women" around reproductive issues.
"If you admit that gender is an internal experience, as stipulated in the Gender Identity Law, and you take charge of that in the question about identity, it makes no sense for you to make that cut later to ask about the issue of pregnancies" , he founded.
The "Guide to answer the digital Census" established that for the question "what is the sex registered at birth?"
the definition of “sex” that should be considered “refers to the sex with which the person was registered at birth in the birth certificate or identity document.
If the person does not have documentation, refer to the sex assigned by the midwife, doctor, family member or society.
It can be female/female, male/male, or X/none of the above.
The X nomenclature is in force in Argentina as of Decree 476/2021”.
However, Radi explains,
Decree 476/2021 does not refer to the sex assigned at birth, but to gender identity
.
And he adds: "In Argentina, the people who modified their DNI to have an X, were assigned to the female or masculine sex at birth and, when they modified their DNI, in any case what is modified is their registration identity, which in
the DNI is loaded as “sex”, but not your assigned sex at birth
”.
What happens then with those 8,293 people registered with that “X” as “registered sex at birth?
Were they people who processed the non-binary DNI and marked this option in the Census?
“We cannot know this”, says Radi and explains that
“interpretation of the results is difficult because the instrument has conceptual errors”
.
"The number of people who perceive themselves as non-binary in Argentina will be known when the data on the question 'gender identity' is disseminated," they confirmed to
Clarín
from INDEC.
MY
look too
Xentennials: young people who choose the X in the gender of the DNI
Census 2022: the celebration of those who for the first time were able to answer beyond the male/female