Mauro Cabral

Mauro Cabral is an Argentinian intersex and trans activist, who serves as the Co-Director of GATE Global Action for Trans* Equality.

Early life and perspectives

Mauro Cabral was assigned female at birth, but now lives as male. He has described how his body was discovered to be different or "incomplete" in his teens; after two surgeries he had to undergone several years of invasive procedures.^[1]

Cabral describes how homophobia is a driving force in the normalization of intersex children, and how surgeries send a message to children that their bodies have to be changed to be acceptable. Cabral defines the social challenge of intersex histories as a need to be open to the experience of body diversity without the need to medicalise that experience, and daring to question what we have come to accept as an authoritatively two-gendered version of humanity.^[2]

Activism

Mauro Cabral has been involved in activism on trans and intersex issues since at least 2005. From 2005 to 2007 he was in charge of coordinating the Trans and Intersex Area at the IGLHRC Latin American Office. He then worked for three years at MULABI, Latin American Space for Sexualities and Rights, becoming Executive Director in 2009. Cabral became a co-director of Global Action for Trans Equality in January 2010 ^[3][4] and also co-chairs the International Trans* Reference Group at the Global Forum on MSM and HIV/AIDS. Cabral is a member of the Latin American Consortium on Intersex Issues, and of the International Advisory Board at the Human Rights Watch LGTB Program.

In 2006 he participated in the production of the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of Human Rights Legislation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.^[5]

Cabral participated in actions that led to the approval of a ground-breaking law on gender identity by the Argentinian Senate in April 2012. The law makes it possible to change sex designation without undergoing surgical or clinical treatment, or judicial approval.^[6][7]

During the same period, Cabral has co-ordinated work on reform of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases, in particular a critique and alternative proposals in relation to "Gender Incongruence of Childhood".^[8]

Cabral helped organise the third International Intersex Forum in Malta, 2013.^[9]

Academic career

Cabral has a Degree in History by the National University of Cordoba ^[10]

Works

Selected publications include:

• A brief primer document, "Intersexuality Is A Human Rights Issue", for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in 2007.^[11]

• Editing the book Interdicciones – Escrituras de la Intersexualidad en Castellano (2009), a collection of essays and conversations on the experience of intersex people in Latin America and Spain.^[2]

• Critique and Alternative Proposal to the “Gender Incongruence of Childhood” Category in ICD-11.^[8]

• A contribution to Inter: Erfahrungen intergeschlechtlicher Menschen in der Welt der zwei Geschlechter, edited by Elisa Barth, in 2013. Other notable contributors include Sally Gross, Phoebe Hart, and Del LaGrace Volcano.^[12]

Interviews include an analysis of trans and intersex depathologization in the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases for Página/12 newspaper.^[13][14]

Selected speeches include:

• On 30 June 2011, Mauro Cabral, gave a speech at the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights for the trans and intersex rights.^[15]

• In March 2013, Mauro Cabral, together with Natasha Jiménez of MULABI, Paula Sandrine Marchado and Pidgeon Pagonis testified to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Situation of Human Rights of Intersex Persons in the Americas. The first hearing on intersex human rights before the Commission, each shared their personal experiences and presented broader issues, such as "normalization" surgery on the genitals of intersex infants.^[16][17]

• The "first United Nations Human Rights Council side event on intersex issues" in March 2014, alongside representatives of Intersex UK, Organisation Intersex International Australia, and Zwischengeschlecht,^[18]

References

External links

• Global Action for Trans* Equality (GATE) website