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This Tuesday, Homosexual Liberation Movement (Movilh) announced that for the first time the Army admitted a young trans man to its ranks.
At a press conference held this Friday afternoon outside the Museum of Military History -where the president of said organization, Rolando Jiménez, also participated- Benjamin, a native of La Serena, he told his story.
The young man – who was trained at the NCO School – said that this was a dream he had had since he was a child. “I do not think I am the first to want to belong to their ranks, but perhaps many do not do so for fear of being discriminated against.”
“Unfortunately we are in a country where we are still discriminated against (…)”He added, and commented that he hopes that with the integration of trans people into the different institutions of the country “This minority is overshadowed”.
Benjamin also said that he would like to see cases like his in the coming years “Stop being news.” In this sense, he argued that he believes that within the institutions it is necessary to transmit information about what it means to be trans. “We are capable of everything, we are people”.
Regarding his transition, Benjamín said that he has already undergone sex reassignment surgeries and that throughout this time he has had the support of his family and his partner. “I always had the support of my family, grandparents, parents, sisters, cousins, etc. They always made me feel like one more man of the family, especially when I told them that I would start my transition, “he said.
Always having the military career as a goal, Between 2013 and 2016 Benjamín studied Nursing Technician at the AIEP in La Serena, a city to which he moved with his family to attend his secondary education.
After working for two years at the Red Salud Clinic in that city, the young man advanced to the place where he always wanted to be and began his application for a military career. He was always clear that despite his initial fears, he would not hide that he was a trans person and that they would defend their right to be treated in a manner consistent with their gender identity.
“As soon as I entered the NCO School, I told the senior officers everything. I wanted to enter with the truth altiro. I discussed it with Captain Alex Toledo, my NCO León, and company corporals. Perhaps I had it with the intention of preventing some kind of discrimination from my comrades, but they reacted in a very respectful way ”.
In this sense, he says that with his consent, “he was approached with the full course. They pointed out that I deserved the same respect as everyone else, they supported me and I have been treated equally. Soon, he said, he will be titled as corporal military combat nurse, which will be a great achievement for me, especially since I am a trans person, “he says.
Meanwhile, the president of Movilh, Rolando Jiménez, commented that “Let’s hope that from this case there will be a quick inclusion so that LGBTIQ + people can enter the institutions of the Armed Forces without any barrier.”
Jiménez said that in the past they have denounced situations of discrimination and that from this case, they hope that the Ministry of Defense will apply the protocols so that trans people can fulfill their objectives. “We hope that the news Benjamin gives us today will be an incentive for the Air Force, the Navy, the Army and the Carabineros to create the pedagogical and training conditions so that anyone who wants to enter – whatever their sexual orientation or identity as a gender- I can do it without any excuse involved “.
Along these lines, he added that the constitutional process represents an opportunity for the LGBTIQ + population.
Consulted on the subject, the institution responded to Third what “The Chilean Army, like any State institution, guarantees equal Rights in accordance with the Political Constitution, and therefore, as an elementary principle, does not discriminate in any of its forms and is tolerant and respectful of everything that is based on the current legal system, which is explicit in the internal institutional regulations, and ratified in the General Ordinance of the Army ”.
“It is important to point out that the Army It is part of society, to which it serves and is owed, and therefore belongs to all Chileans without distinction.”, They pointed out.
Finally, they emphasized that the “inclusive character“Of the institution” cconsiders all those who wish to serve the country, under the conditions established in the different admission processesn; the state of health, which must be compatible with the service and the commitment to assume the rules of behavior that the Army has, contained in its Discipline Regulations, in the Ordinance and Code of Military Justice “
