Once She Was Held At Gunpoint. Now This Trans Activist Is A Member Of Parliament

On Sunday, Diane Rodríguez became the first transgender person voted into Ecuador’s National Assembly.

“I was elected by popular vote,” the 34-year-old told the Washington Blade. “I feel proud.”

Her victory is doubly noteworthy: Thanks to her efforts, trans Ecuadorians were able to vote for the first time this year using identity cards that correspond with their gender identity.



In some ways breaking new ground comes naturally to Rodríguez: Her husband, Fernando Machado, is a trans man and last June, he gave birth to their son, Sununu. They are believed to be the first trans couple in South America to conceive a child together biologically.

Rodríguez is a member of the left-leaning Movimiento Alianza PAIS party and one of only a handful of openly trans politicians elected to national office, including Anna Grodzka, who joined the Polish Parliament in 2011. Rodríguez previously ran for the Assembly in 2013—the first trans person to do so in Ecuador—but lost.

Back in 2009 she set legal precedent by suing the Civil Registry for the right to change her name. (That time, she won.)

But danger is a normal part of Rodríguez’s life, too: After news of their baby’s birth broke, bigots made threats against Machado and Rodríguez and vowed to kill Sununu.

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She’s been kidnapped several times: In 2012, she got into a cab only to realize it was a setup. “Two men jumped in from another car and made me cover my eyes and stay silent, or they said they’d kill me, ” Rodríguez told the Advocate in April 2016. “They said they knew who I was and what I do. They took everything from my purse and one of the men sexually assaulted me and tried to rape me.”



Another time, just after her wedding, there was a standoff in Rodríguez’s offices between armed assailants and her accountant. “After this event, I stood down for a while,” she says demurely. (In reality, she suffered from PTSD for almost two months.) Another time, an attacker threatened to cut off her breasts.

Rodríguez has installed security cameras at Silueta X Association, the LGBT rights organization where she works, and almost always has guards with her. But threats to her personal safety seem to frustrate her less than hurdles to trans equality.

“In Ecuador, people confuse gay rights for trans and intersex rights,” she explained in the Advocate profile. “So when we ask to be legally recognized and supported, we’re accused of being greedy, because we already have ’gay marriage.'”

She wants her countrymen to understand sexuality and gender identity are different, though all deserve respect and equality. “I know I can’t enjoy equal rights as an LGBTI person,” she says, “but I work so future generations can.”