In Uruguay, a pathbreaking trans activist is now a government Minister

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4 Mart 2025 61 kez okundu Okuma süresi: 3dk, 25sn

In the Banda Oriental, on the pampas of the gauchos, nestled between the shores of the Southern Atlantic and the Rio Plata… One woman would not be silent.

Collette Spinetti Nuñez would not sit down. She would not stay put.

From Roche to Artigas. From the city to the beaches and the rolling countryside, where farmers harvest the grains and the meat for the nation…

Colette traveled it all.

She stood up. She spoke out. And helped others to find their voice.

A voice that usually comes in a whisper, if at all. A voice belonging to the most vulnerable. A voice in the highest danger of being silenced forever at far too young an age.

See, Colette is trans. The average trans man and woman in the region lives to just 35 years of age. They are often humiliated and ridiculed. Rejected and shunned. Forced from school at far too young an age. Forced into prostitution and other dangerous jobs.

But Colette has been fighting to change that.

She’s a teacher and an activist. A leader in the LGBTQ movement. She helped to battle for the first trans law in Latin America. Uruguay passed it in 2018. It guarantees gender-affirming operations and requires 1% of government jobs for transgender people.

This week marks another milestone: Collette Spinetti Nuñez is the first trans woman, ever, to hold a position in the Uruguayan government.

The new leftist Frente Amplio government took office on March 1. Colette is the country’s new director of human rights.

She’s promised to fight for the vulnerable. And she says her appointment is bigger than Uruguay. “My identity is sending a message to the world,” she says. And in particular, the United States. The land of freedom. The land of the American Dream, where anyone can be anything they want… just as long as they aren’t foreigners, or immigrants, or undocumented, or Black, or trans, or anything in between.

The land where the president says there are boys and girls, and everyone else needs to get with the program.

The land of the free. But where, today, only some freedoms are approved. Others… are not.

Collette, even in far away Uruguay, is standing up. She’s speaking out. And as the new secretary of human rights, she plans to help others to find their voice. A voice that usually comes in a whisper, if at all. A voice belonging to the most vulnerable. A voice that powerful people in powerful places are trying to silence.

And Collette Spinetti Nuñez is not having any of it.

She says she’s going to shout it from the rooftops, keep a finger pointed at Uncle Sam.

And even as freedoms and rights of the LGBTQ community are gutted in the supposed land of the free and the home of the brave, Colette, and so many others, are standing up. Demanding rights. Demanding their voices be heard. And sending their message to the world.

From this tiny corner of South America, in the land of the gauchos, nestled between the shores of the Southern Atlantic and the Rio Plata…

This is the seventh episode of Stories of Resistance.

Stories of Resistance is a new project, co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review.

Last week, we hit our target with the Kickstarter campaign. Thank you so much to everyone who supported. If you like what you hear, you can continue to support at www.patreon.com/mfox.

Written and produced by Michael Fox.

Here is some more of Michael’s reporting about the Frente Amplio’s return to power in Uruguay.