The Tenerife Island Council and the University of La Laguna, through its LGBTIQ+ Diversity Cultural Center, commemorated Trans Visibility Day with the intergenerational event "Past, Present, and Future: Trans Lives Matter." The event took place yesterday, Monday, March 31, in the Lecture Hall of the César Manrique General Lecture Hall on the Guajara Campus and was attended by the Vice-Rector for Culture and University Extension, Isabel León; the Island Director of Equality and Diversity, Patricia León; and the Director of the LGBTIQ+ Diversity Cultural Center and Professor of Constitutional Law, Sergio Siverio. Participants included Adria Reyes Gutiérrez, Mónica Mora Cabrera, Nayara Martínez, Juana Estévez, and Daniasa Curbelo. Anastasia Leal and Marcela Kaufmann provided entertainment with their performances.
Sergio Siverio, director of the LGBTIQ+ Diversity Cultural Center and professor of Constitutional Law, stated that “the University of La Laguna is above all a safe space for trans people, as demonstrated by the existence of regulations on this matter since 2021 and the organization of activities such as the one carried out on this occasion with the Cabildo on the occasion of Trans Visibility Day, as a demonstration of the shared commitment with the institutions in the achievement of rights for this vulnerable group.”.
Furthermore, Siverio added that many challenges remain to achieve real and effective equality for trans people in society, "given the proliferation of hate speech from some sectors that question the existence of trans people and argue that their rights conflict with those of women, an issue that is untenable from any point of view and that we at the university, as the cradle of knowledge, have a duty to dismantle with scientific arguments and acts of visibility like this one.".
The island's Director of Equality and Diversity, Patricia León, points out that this meeting focused on trans women, who are the most affected by this double discrimination within the community. "We felt it was important to give them this space to voice their demands, but without forgetting the rest of the trans community.".
The intergenerational meeting 'Past, Present, and Future: Trans Lives Matter' stems from a proposal developed collaboratively with LGBTIQA+ associations that are part of the Tenerife Island Council's LGBTIQA+ Roundtable. The Island LGBTIQA+ Roundtable is an advisory and consultative body that serves as a tool for planning policies that promote the rights and freedoms of LGBTIQA+ people and for amplifying their demands, establishing the necessary actions for their fulfillment. Its objective is to foster and promote equal rights and freedoms and the social recognition of all members of the LGBTIQA+ community, and to prevent and eradicate LGBTIphobia.
(Press release and photographs provided by the Tenerife Island Council).
Spanish 
English 
French