Lulu, Six-Year-Old Transgender Girl From Argentina, Legally Changes Her Identity Under Nationwide Law

A 6-year-old transgender child in Argentina has changed identities under the country’s Gender Identity Law. Luana, aka Lulu, was born as a boy named Manuel, but the child identified as a girl as soon as she started talking, according to the Telegraph.

“By accepting that my son was not the son I gave birth to, but a girl, I accepted her identity and put myself at her side,” her mother Gabriela said.

Lulu submitted an application to have her name changed from Manuel on her DNI, the acronym for the Argentine identity card in Spanish, as well as on her birth certificate. The request was approved by Daniel Scioli, governor of the province of Buenos Aires. “The government of the province of Buenos Aires has decided to provide a solution to this particular case raised by the family,” said Alberto Perez, chief of staff to the governor, according to the Telegraph.

Under the Gender Identity Law, adopted last year, individuals have the right “to the recognition of their gender identity.” Individuals are also legally entitled to “the free development of their person according to their gender identity” and “to be treated according to their gender identity and, particularly, to be identified in that way in the documents proving their identity in terms of the first name/s, image and sex recorded there.”

According to the law: “Gender identity is understood as the internal and individual way in which gender is perceived by persons, that can correspond or not to the gender assigned at birth, including the personal experience of the body. This can involve modifying bodily appearance or functions through pharmacological, surgical or other means, provided it is freely chosen. It also includes other expressions of gender such as dress, ways of speaking and gestures.”

The Telegraph said Lulu first submitted a request to change her identity last December, when it was denied because of her age.

Whenever a person identifies as a gender different from the one he or she appeared to have been assigned at birth, it is called gender dysphoria, as the Mail Online pointed out. Many countries require a psychological diagnosis of gender dysphoria before a legal change of gender classification is approved.

According to the American Psychological Association, transgender “is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression, or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.”