The law that an Oscar helped to write
Chile's law for trans people was stuck for five years. Then a film with a trans lead actress won the Oscar.
On 12 September 2018, a decision was taken in Valparaíso that trans people in Chile had been waiting five years for. The Chamber of Deputies passed the Gender Identity Law by ninety-five votes to forty-six. The Senate had approved it a few days earlier.
It allows trans people to change their name and gender marker without having to change their appearance. Adults go to the civil registry office to do so. Young people aged fourteen and over need their parents' consent and a family court. Younger children remained excluded.
For a long time it did not look as if it would happen. Since 2013, conservatives had been delaying the bill and warning of a supposed "gender ideology". Then came the Oscar. In March 2018, "Una mujer fantástica" ("A Fantastic Woman") won the award for best foreign language film. The lead role was played by Daniela Vega, herself a trans woman. She used the attention to explain that she was representing her country on the world stage with a man's name in her passport. The outgoing President Michelle Bachelet declared the bill urgent in her last days in office.
Suddenly the matter was a question of national pride. During the election campaign, Sebastián Piñera had still mocked that one does not change one's sex like a shirt. Now the incoming President proudly congratulated the film team, and his government backed the law. Of all people, it was the new Justice Minister who was to get it through. Two of his sons had produced the film.
A study by the universities of Cambridge and Michigan State later concluded that the Oscar did not create the law, but it decisively eased its passage in this form. For trans activists a bitter aftertaste remained. They had fought for years, and in the end the whole country celebrated itself.