Gender without Sex or Rights: The Gender Identity Law in Bolivia

Abstract

In May 2016, the Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia enacted the Gender Identity Law. Thereafter, people were able to correct their sex data and get a name in the civil registry through a simple, quick administrative procedure based on a declaratory application. Just a year later, in November 2017, a ruling by the Constitutional Court annulled Article 11, which granted transidentity people the rights of the rectified sex. By presenting the conditions for the adoption of the law, and its partial revocation, this article seeks to show that this about-face is linked to a particular interpretation of the categories “sex” and “gender” that goes beyond the framework of Bolivian legislation.