Mauro Cabral Grinspan, also known as Mauro Cabral, is an Argentinian intersex and trans activist, who serves as the executive director of GATE. A signatory of the Yogyakarta Principles, his work focuses on the reform of medical protocols and law reform. In July 2015, Cabral received the inaugural Bob Hepple Equality Award.
Early life and perspectives
Mauro Cabral Grinspan was assigned female at birth, but now lives as male. He has described how his body was discovered to be different or "incomplete" in his teens; after two surgeries he had to undergo several years of invasive procedures. Cabral Grinspan describes how homophobia is a driving force in the normalization of intersex children, and how surgeries send a message to children that their bodies have to be changed to be acceptable. Cabral Grinspan defines the social challenge of intersex histories as a need to be open to the experience of body diversity without the need to medicalise that experience.
Activism
Mauro Cabral Grinspan has been involved in activism on trans and intersex issues since at least 2005. From 2005 to 2007 he was in charge of coordinating the Trans and Intersex Area at the IGLHRC Latin American Office. He then worked for three years at , becoming Executive Director in 2009. Cabral became a co-director of GATE in January 2010 and also co-chairs the International Trans* Reference Group at the Global Forum on MSM and HIV/AIDS. Cabral is a member of the Latin American Consortium on Intersex Issues, and of the International Advisory Board at the Human Rights Watch LGTB Program. Cabral Grinspan participated in actions that led to the approval of a ground-breaking law on gender identity by the Argentinian Senate in April 2012. The law makes it possible to change sex designation without undergoing surgical or clinical treatment, or judicial approval. Cabral Grinspan has co-ordinated work on reform of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases, in particular a critique and alternative proposals in relation to "Gender Incongruence of Childhood". He is a contributor to the World Health Organization report "Sexual health, human rights and the law". Cabral Grinspan helped organise the third International Intersex Forum in Malta, 2013. In 2015, Cabral became the senior advisor for a first philanthropic Intersex Human Rights Fund established by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. In 2006 Cabral participated in the production of the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of Human Rights Legislation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and was one of the initial 29 signatories. He is also a drafting committee member and signatory of the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10, on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.
In March 2013, Mauro Cabral, together with Natasha Jiménez of , Paula Sandrine Marchado and Pidgeon Pagonis testified to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Situation of Human Rights of Intersex Persons in the Americas. The first hearing on intersex human rights before the Commission, each shared their personal experiences and presented broader issues, such as "normalization" surgery on the genitals of intersex infants.
Cabral has contributed to numerous documents including the Yogyakarta Principles, the World Health Organization report "Sexual health, human rights and the law", and the Open Society Foundations report "Licence to Be Yourself".
Awards and recognition
In July 2015, Cabral was a co-recipient of the inaugural Bob Hepple Equality Award, alongside Pragna Patel of Southall Black Sisters. The award is named for Bob Hepple, the former lawyer of Nelson Mandela. The Oxford Human Rights Hub comments, "Cabral was crucial in the process leading to the enactment of Argentina's Gender Identity Law in 2012, a law which has been extensively cited in court decisions on gender identity cases, including the Indian Supreme Court, and which has inspired legislation reform in countries including Malta, the Netherlands and Sweden."
