Argentina: Life for Trans Women
- Amnesty International
- 17 minutes ago
- 5 min read
By Erika Noely Moreno, trans activist from Argentina
9 August 2025
Content Warning: This story includes examples of discrimination and abuse towards trans women. We are publishing these details to bear witness to Erika’s experience and evoke positive change for trans women in Argentina.
Erika Noely Moreno is a trans woman and human rights activist from Argentina. She has lived in Ushuaia, in the south of the country, for 30 years and was one of the first trans women to change her gender on her ID card. She is also part of Las Históricas, a movement of older trans women demanding reparations for the discrimination and violence they suffered for much of their lives. She says that authoritarian governments are putting all of their wins at risk, but that today they are more active and determined than ever. This is her story.
I am a survivor. I have been surviving since I was five years old. Just by existing as a trans child, I was already a human rights activist. I was born in 1974, just before the military dictatorship began in Argentina (1976-1983). Those were very difficult times. My family and I moved out of the capital of Córdoba because life there became very hard. When I was 12, we moved to Villa Maria, another city, but that’s where the real hell began because it was a place where there was a lot of discrimination. It was then that I was forced into the closet, but it didn’t last long. I always say that I began my transition at the age of five and finished it at 18. I went to Buenos Aires for a while and then I moved back to Córdoba to live alone.
‘I was trapped’
In the city, I was a sex worker. I was locked in a private apartment 24 hours a day, where sex was exchanged for money. I had no contact with society because I knew that if I went out on the street, I would end up in prison or dead, so I stayed inside, always having to be available for clients. If someone arrived at 3 a.m., I had to wake up and serve them.
I feel I was trapped in that system, which is imposed on us because of the lack of opportunities, for two years. Then I went out to work on the streets for a few months, and it was very difficult because the police treated us very badly. That’s when I met someone who was looking for people to work in bars in Río Gallegos, in Patagonia. I didn’t think twice and I went with him. Two years later I came to Ushuaia to do the same thing. There was a lot of work because many men came to the ports in the city.
Life in Ushuaia
Things were a little different in Ushuaia. People accepted me because I commanded respect. Soon after, I met a hairdresser who offered me a job, and I stayed with them for eight years. People fell in love with me, and that changed my life.
I came to Ushuaia for 15 days and stayed for 30 years. Now I’m married, I have my husband and the whole city is my family. But this is not the same as what happens to other trans women, particularly the older ones many of whom are still trying to survive by working on street corners.
In 2012, when the gender identity law was passed, the government of Tierra del Fuego wanted to give the first ID card to someone from the community. I told them that there was another trans woman, Laura Aixa Xuxú Aguilar Millacahuin, who had transitioned in her place of birth, which is very difficult. So, they gave us both our new IDs together (Laura was murdered by her ex-partner in 2013).
For us, the only option has always been to fight. We are survivors. Nothing can stop us.
Las Históricas
In Argentina, much progress has been made in terms of trans rights, but there is still a long way to go and now everything is in jeopardy.
Trans women have very difficult stories and now, those of us who have survived discrimination, violence, police beatings and murders are still demanding justice and reparations.
Las Históricas is a collective that was formed many years ago by these survivors. One day they were walking together and said, “We are still alive, we are the historic ones.”
My comrades adopted me, they opened their doors to me. They are my sisters, my aunts, my mothers, and we work for justice on behalf of ourselves and our dead. We fight in the streets, we occupy public spaces, and we work to change the laws.
The reality of life as a trans person in Argentina
We fought and won laws such as gender identity, for the non-binary ID cards, equal marriage and the quota for trans workers in the public sector, but there are many of our sisters who still cannot find work. We work all our lives and we are an active part of society, but we continue to be the outcasts of a society that continues to punish us for who we are, for our identities.
We have been expelled from the education system, from the justice system. We have been killed, we have been expelled from the private sector, we have been discriminated everywhere – it is for all this and more that we demand reparations.
Older trans people wake up in the morning and ask themselves, “What am I going to do to eat today?” Many continue to have to exchange sex for money. We are still in the same situation.
‘We have seen it all’
I am 51 years old, but sometimes I feel like I am 300, with everything I have been through. Imagine those who are 60 and 70. We have been through everything, physically and psychologically. We have seen it all.
But now we are seeing a change in society. People are understanding us more because everyone in Argentina is losing their rights. This was clearly seen with the global anti-fascist march. When we heard Milei’s speech in Davos we said “no!” and that was a tipping point.
We are activists all the time. As soon as I leave the house, I educate everyone I talk to about our struggle and all the struggles of others like us.
‘Not just banners’
Trans women have nothing to lose because we have already lost everything. Without the strength we have, we would not have survived. We are indomitable and they will never silence us.
To the younger generations, I say that much progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go. You have to participate, occupy political spaces, raise your voices in the streets.
And to trans youth, I say that we are here to take care of you, to protect you and encourage you to fight, to fight for your rights and to occupy political spaces to achieve real public policies, not just banners.
This story was originally published in ElDiarioAr.
© 2025 Amnesty International
