A Thousand Signatures for Matías: Organizations Urge Government to Work to Protect LGBTIQ+ Children’s Lives

Since Tuesday, May 28, social organizations, collectives and allies of the community Trans and LGBIQ+ have shared a letter addressed to President Sebastián Piñera to pronounce and work with the Ministry of Education, after the young trans, Matías Guevara, committed suicide due to school harassment in Copiapó.

In this document they lament the “indolence and negligence” of the institutions for not protecting and guaranteeing the rights of trans children and adolescents in the school context.  “This only shows the failure of the educational system to safeguard and guarantee the life and mental health of our children, thus transgressing their higher good and various norms of international law,” they said.

The recently enacted Gender Identity Act does not consider a procedure for changing the name and sex of a child under 14 years of age; in addition, there is insufficient applicability of Circular 0768 of the Superintendency of Education for trans students. “Schools, especially private and/or denominational educational establishments, are not familiar with it and do not have general training to comply with it,” they indicate.

Finally, the organizations request an urgent meeting with the President to advance reforms, plans and projects that protect the lives of Trans and LGBIQ+ students. “We need an education to build ways of relating free of violence and a society where all are parties, and where the trans reality of Matías is possible and never punishable.”

On Thursday, May 30, the organizations will deliver the letter at the Palacio de la Moneda and call a press point in Morandé street with the Alameda at 09.00 hrs. If you need more information write to [email protected].

Translated by: Camila Mella