Michelle Suarez became Uruguay’s first transgender senator earlier this month, and she already has big plans for improving health care and employment opportunities for the trans community.
Suarez—who represents the Communist party—has pointed out that most transgender people in the country barely make it past their 30th birthday.
“In Uruguay, a citizen has a life expectancy of more than 70 years, but trans women have a life expectancy of 35,” she told the Thomas Reuters Foundation.
Suarez explained that the prejudice faced by trans people means that finishing school, finding a job or accessing medical care is incredibly difficult. Sex work is often the only way to survive.
“Trans women sex workers are exposed to many situations of violence ... they face an enormous amount of aggression,” she said.
“All this means to be a woman, to be transgender - together with being poor and a sex worker - affects health and, in general, cuts life expectancy for trans women practically by half.”
The newly appointed senator has put her full support behind a law that is currently under debate by the Uruguay government that would improve transgender rights.
The law would pay reparations for historic transphobia for people born before 1975 and allow trans people to change their name and gender on official documents without approval from a judge. It would also provide scholarships for trans people and set up guaranteed employment opportunities.
“It’s a series of measures focused on a vulnerable group of people, in this case trans people, and historically the obstacles that have prevented the protection of their fundamental equal rights,” Suarez said.
