Lohana Berkins Argentina Travesti* Activist

Lohana is an Argentine activist and the founder of ALITT (Asociación Lucha por la Identidad Travesti y Transexual/Association Fighting for Travesti / Transexual Identity). In addition to having run for legislative seats for left wing parties in Argentina, Lohana has organized prisoners, prostitutes, travestis, feminists, gay men, lesbians and poor youth to combat abuses. After spending time in prison and experiencing various forms of police abuse, Lohana helped found the Argentine Travesti Association in 1995, and with ALITT has established a cooperative industry for travestis who want to leave prostitution. Lohana has worked with many movements and crosses boundaries of identity politics: “I am a travesti, a woman, Socialist, Indian, fat, of colour, poor, labourer. I am all these things and much more. And I fight to build a world where I will be accepted for everything that am.” (http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp310.pdf)

*Lohana has described a travesti as “a person identified as a man at birth, who later chooses to identify as a woman”.