The panel Comprehensive care for trans people in health services. Background, progress and challenges, was held at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Calixto García Teaching Hospital, as part of the XV Cuban Conference against Homophobia and Transphobia, which takes place every year in May and includes actions of theoretical, practical and visibility.

With the presence of part of the faculty and students, the panel was made up of Gloria Careaga, Oyuki Ariadne Martínez, Rocío Suárez, from Mexico; Wilfred Labiosa, from Puerto Rico, and Mariela Castro, director of Cenesex, and addressed diverse experiences of care for the LGBTIQ+ community, and particularly trans people who face greater social and health vulnerabilities.

Professor Gloria Careaga, to whom Cenesex conferred its award this year, went back to the origins of discrimination related to sexuality and pleasure, when "the only recognised, viable and fruitful sexuality in the social sphere was legitimized, the made marriage”.

Photo: Raquel Sierra

The academic and activist Labiosa, from Puerto Rico, emphasized the importance of taking care of mental health. "We are always taking care of our physical health, but we do not take care of our mental health and leave it for when we have a problem, which is when we visit a psychologist."

On the other hand, he pointed out: "we have a duty to continue instilling that knowledge and learn more from them and them because they educate us on how to continue allying us to be able to bring them to a level of acceptance by society."

Oyuki Ariadne Martínez gave an overview of how attention to people has begun to change in Mexico City, based on the impulse of political activism and that requires the participation of civil society for its materialization.

The director of Cenesex made a tour of the attention of the LGBTIQ+ community in Cuba, the advances from the investigations and how these proposals for transformation in concepts and terms are updated in documents, protocols and programs as a strategy of social integration, which promote greater participation, based on rights provided in the Constitution.

The panel motivated several interventions from the auditorium. Yuleiski Moré, legal adviser at Cenesex, referred to the updating of the legal body in Cuba, including the Constitution, but stressed "we need people to also gain awareness, that laws are not enough, the Constitution of the Republic is not enough... to assert the rights of all people, specifically trans people, a population highly violated in their rights.

As of the 2019 Constitution, “it is not necessary to wait for a norm that regulates what the constitution is already establishing, if the constitution allows people to express their identity, it is up to us to respect that right.”

In his opinion, society is going to be transformed to the extent that we, Cuban men and women, become aware that it is time to look at each other as human beings with dignity, enough of segregation, enough of violations of rights and we have to make a increasingly inclusive society.

Fabián Pérez, from the Union of Young Communists at the University of Medical Sciences, defended the inclusion, respect and advice they need from Cenesex, in a similar position as representatives of the Faustino Pérez Hospital in Matanzas.

Medical students and vocational technical training students referred to the need for this knowledge to reach teachers and students, since there are still acts of harassment and ridicule when someone has a sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, and They argued that training in these issues will allow for more humane and inclusive professionals.

In this regard, Cenesex announced the inclusion of optional subjects in the different careers in the sector, as well as courses for professionals and the provision of providing advice for further preparation in these topics.