Travestism and transsexuality in the Argentinean journals of medicine (1971-1982)

FARJI NEER, ANAHÍ

Berlin

Congreso; Qeering Memory - ALMS Conference Berlin 2019 Program; 2019

Archives, Libraries, Museums and Special Collections Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft (Society)

This paper analyzes a set of articles published in Argentinean journalsof medicine in the period 1971-1982.The correspondent fieldwork was developedat the Central Library and Archive of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universityof Buenos Aires. The paper explores the ways in which the Argentinean medicalfield addressed bodily transformation desires of transvestites and transsexualsbefore the approval of national and international norms that recognized thegender identity as a human right. In Argentina, from 1932 to the decade of1990, "Police Edicts" penalized homosexuality, travestism andprostitution. Also, until 2012 Health Practitioner Regulation National Law No17.132 prohibited genital surgeries. These regulations did not impede the productionof senses oriented to the regulation and control of transvestites and transsexualsbodily desires. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of thearticulation of moral, technical and professional senses towards healthpractices that defied sexual and generic norms. It also aspires to understandand remember the ways in which the medical field persecuted transgender livesand desires, as well as to value the means of resistance that the uses ofbodily transformation biotechnologies represented in that period.