A 17-year-old
Argentine has undergone surgery to become a female only
months after winning a court battle in the first case of its
kind involving a minor in this country, a
representative for the teen said Tuesday.
A judge in 2004
had ruled that the teen had to wait until age 21 for the
operation, but the parents appealed successfully, swaying a
court panel to issue a decision in September
authorizing surgery.
The teenager was
operated on at a private clinic in La Plata, near the
Argentine capital. Courts have withheld the teen's name
because she is still a minor and local media have not
published her identity.
''Everything went
perfectly,'' said Alejandra Victoria Portatadino, who
represented the teenager in court and is also legal counsel
for the organization Argentine Homosexual Community.
''Now we just need to ask to get her legal
identification changed to reflect her name as a woman.''
The teenager has
a condition called gender dysphoria, doctors and experts
ruled, saying she was born with a male body but is
psychologically a female.
In order to
undergo surgery to acquire female genitalia, Portatadino
said an exemption was necessary from Argentine law
prohibiting ''mutilation.''
In the United
States, no court permission is necessary, but most doctors
are hesitant to operate on minors, said Denise Leclair,
executive director of the International Foundation for
Gender Education in Waltham, Mass. (AP)
