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In an unprecedented event, the Chilean Army this year added the first trans soldier to its ranks: young Benjamin Ernesto Barrera Silva (26), who is now about to graduate from the NCO School.
“As soon as I managed to enter the NCO School, I told the senior commanders everything: my topic of transition and surgeries. So far I have not had any type of discrimination, ”acknowledged Benjamin, grateful to each of the people who helped him since he was a child, starting with his family, teachers, doctors and colleagues.
His current challenge is “to finish my career normally and to help the mentality continue to change and there are other people like me who can access the Armed Forces without any kind of discrimination and differences. Clearly endorsed by institutions like Movilh ”, he revealed in an interview with the Movilh website.
A few days after Benjamín graduated as a combat military nurse, the Head of the Institution’s Communications Department, Colonel Roberto Ovalle Viñuela, stated that “the Army is part of the society it serves and is due and, therefore, therefore, it belongs to all Chileans, without distinction “
“Its inclusive character considers all those people who wish to serve the country, under the conditions established in the different admission processes; the state of health, which must be compatible with the service and the commitment to assume the rules that the Army has, contained in its Disciplinary Regulations, in the Ordinance and the Code of Military Justice, “added the officer.
Barrera was born in Buin on July 27, 1993 and attended elementary school at the San Sebastián de Quilicura School, while during high school, at the Gabriela Mistral High School in La Serena he actively joined the establishment’s war band.
Between 2013 and 2016 she studied Nursing Technician at AIEP in La Serena. Although his family always supported his identity, Benjamin remembers that “at first it was a bit difficult to be able to carry out my professional practice with my identity. At that time I had not rectified my birth certificate and I had to wear a female uniform ”.
mobileh Change of name and legal sex
Weeks later, in “my second practice, everything changed. With the help of the AIEP area coordinator, I got them to start calling me by my social name and before finishing my degree, I changed my name and legal gender, thanks to the legal support of the Coquimbo Diversity Office, “he recalls.
“As soon as I entered the NCO School, I told the senior officers everything. I wanted to enter with the truth to the shot. 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, ”adds Benjamin.
His case, he acknowledges, “was addressed by the entire course. They pointed out to me that I deserved the same respect as all people, they supported me and I have been treated equally… My title as a military combat nurse corporal will be a great achievement for me, especially since I am a trans person ”, he acknowledges.
Benjamin emphasizes that he made his reality public “for the simple fact that it was a struggle and that it had good results after going through various psychological and physical medical processes. I want it to be known that I am not the only trans person who likes the Army and I want to give a boost to the fight that Movilh is giving for our rights “.”
After the press conference where the case was announced, the Army issued a public statement where it states: “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 ”, he said.
“In this sense, it is important to point out that the Army is part of society, which it serves and owes, and therefore belongs to all Chileans without distinction,” added the institution.
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