Chile transgender actress Daniela Vega speaks of need for change Published duration 7 March 2018 Related Topics The Oscars

image copyright Reuters image caption Daniela Vega appeared in A Fantastic Woman, which won best foreign film at the Oscars

Chilean actress Daniela Vega made history by becoming the first transgender presenter at the Oscars ceremony.

But, at a news conference after meeting Chile's President Michelle Bachelet this week, she spoke of the inequalities transgender people face in her home country.

Vega said that, in Chile, "I have a name on my identity card that is not my name".

"In the country where I was born I do not have the possibility of having my own name on my official documents," the A Fantastic Woman star said.

"The clock is running, time is passing, people are awaiting this change."

A gender identity bill - which would allow trans people to identify themselves with their preferred names rather than their assigned ones - is currently being considered by a congressional committee.

But its future is uncertain as Chile is about to have a new administration under conservative former President Sebastián Piñera, who takes over from Ms Bachelet on 11 March

'Great ambassador'

A Fantastic Woman, in which Vega plays an opera singer grieving over the death of her lover while being rejected by his family, won best foreign film at the Oscars - a first in this category for Chile.

The film's director Sebastián Lelio told the same news conference that they and Ms Bachelet had spoken about the "urgency" of putting in place a law on gender identity.

He described his lead actress, who was originally only hired as a consultant on the film, as "a great ambassador between the film and reality".

And he said: "Cinema has the power to be able to come out of the screen and enter social consciousness."

For her part, Daniela Vega said that the film "talk[s] about the limits of empathy and who places barriers in the way of trans people."