“Amalia Granata has three advisors from the LGBT+ collective, she could not discriminate against anyone”

In recent days, the Santa Fe legislator and former media officer Amalia Granata has been on everyone's lips after several television appearances in which she stated that the trans collective “had privileges on the part of the State” and suggested that the historic deprivation of access to employment they suffer, rooted in the brutal discrimination and prejudice that still persist, it would be possible to “start studying”.

His sayings, the latest in a series of ultra-conservative positions of a policy that was on the PRO ballot in the past elections but which is also courted by Milei's libertarians for 2023, were widely repudiated by activists and militants across the political spectrum, including journalist Franco Torchia, who is currently one of the most visible and lucid faces in the fight for the extension of rights for the LGBT+ community.

On Friday, speaking on the program Every afternoon hosted by Maju Lozano and is broadcast on Channel 9, Torchia said that Granata with her expressions had violated the national Gender Identity Law as well as the Anti-Discrimination Law sanctioned by the Buenos Aires legislature in 2015.

“In my neighborhood and in my country, a person who violates the laws is a criminal. If you break the laws, you are functioning like a criminal. (...) [Granata] It is also violating pre-existing covenants in the national constitution and international covenants governing respect for human rights,” he denounced.

Granata, who had gotten out of the controversy over the weekend and dedicated herself to fighting with the Twitter account of the América channel's program Intrusos, announced on Monday that she had already initiated legal action against the journalist for the crime of slander and insult for his television sayings.

Infobae contacted Torchia and the spokesman for Granata (Álvaro Zicarelli, who explained that he would transmit the position of the Santa Fe legislator) to learn more details of the conflict and what steps they would take from now on.

“Argentines must be equal before the law. No discrimination, no privileges.”

For Granata/Zicarelli the matter is simple. Torchia slandered the legislator by treating her as a criminal and now she must prove her words to the Justice. They also reject any accusations of transphobia.

“If there is proof that Amalia is not transphobic or homophobic, it's me,” told Infobae Zicarelli, who has been out of the closet for many years, although in the past she has said - in addition to “Guanaca” to Cristina Kirchner - that you can't make sexuality a “kiosk”.

“So that there is no doubt about it, Congresswoman Granata does not discriminate against anyone other than for her actions. And by the way, in his team there are 3 people who are part of the LGBT+ collective and are responsible for central strategic tasks. Why? Because she only takes into account people's knowledge and what they can contribute to her legislative task, never something linked to gender or identity”, defends Zicarelli.

“At the same time, the deputy believes that all Argentine citizens should be equal before the law, and no one should enjoy any privilege. It will never accompany the indiscriminate increase in public spending in areas of gender and diversity that have little to do today and which do little to resolve the pressing reality in priority areas such as security and education,” he adds.

“It is an attempt to intimidate a journalist by a female legislator.”

For Torchia, who has been flooded with messages of support in recent hours from human rights organizations, journalists and LGBT+ activists, Granata's denunciation is of “undisputed institutional gravity.”

“It's about a legislator, a public servant, going against a journalist. It is an attempt to silence, to discipline, and even to censor. It is an encroachment,” says Torchia in a telephone conversation with Infobae and reiterates that Granata's “criminality” is beyond doubt.

“This is not something new, neither in the history of Argentina's public discourse, which has always been transsodiant, nor that of Granata herself, who has been ranting against trans children for years. I don't get involved with your stance on abortion because that's a moral dilemma. But here we are talking about an issue of basic human rights that are denied,” he says.

For Torchia, Granata's statements are also part of a local debate about the recent inclusion of trans women in the Historical Reparation Law passed in 2012 by the Santa Fe legislature for the abuses committed during the last dictatorship.

“Of course, there are few trans people who have received this pension, because most did not survive nor did they come big. But his sayings must also be understood as a discussion within the Santa Fe legislature. And it is that her job in politics is to install these discourses because those who finance it live on a commodity that is the return to what is called a traditional family and strict gender binarism,” she says.

Despite Granata's complaint, Torchia says that he will not be silent and that on the contrary, his voice will be multiplied. “I am waiting for the letter document to arrive. After that, we'll go en bloc. With independent bodies, independent activists, political figures... Fortunately, there are now forces to counter those who want to intimidate minorities. Do you want to end the rule of law? Well, let them say it clear and give that discussion.”

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