Supporting Local Leaders in the Fight for Transgender Rights

In San Luis Potosí, Mexico, transgender women are not legally documented as women, and therefore unable to enroll in higher education or to vote. To address this issue, in May of 2019, Rise Up Leader Andrés Costilla Castro and Amigos Potosinos, a program organized and funded by Rise Up, successfully advocated for the rights of trans people to include their gender identity and change their name in official government documents across the state of San Luis Potosí. This change to the Civil Registry Law removed one of the main obstacles identified by trans people to accessing health, education, and economic opportunities and enables them to have official government documentation confirming their chosen name and gender identity. Furthermore, Amigos Potosinos’s efforts have helped to curb the daily stigma and aggression that occurs when there is a misalignment between a trans person’s lived identity and their assigned legal identification.