Michelle Suárez

Michelle Suárez Bértora (21 February 1983 – 22 April 2022) was a Uruguayan activist, lawyer, lecturer, politician, and writer. She was Uruguay's first openly transgender university graduate, first openly trans lawyer, and first openly transgender person elected to office.

Biography Michelle Suárez Bértora was born 21 February 1983 in Salinas, Canelones Department, Uruguay. She transitioned at the age of 15 with the support of her mother. Studious, she followed her dream and became an attorney. Suárez went to primary and secondary school in Salinas before entering university in 2004. After six years of study, and a legal transition to allow her to graduate with her proper gender, Suárez earned her doctorate. graduating in 2010 from the University of the Republic as the first openly transgender person to complete university studies in the country. In 2014, she also became the first openly transgender person elected to the Uruguayan legislature.

Suárez was a member of, and the legal adviser to, the organization "Ovejas Negras" (Black Sheep), an LGBT rights organization. She joined in 2010, shortly after the death of her mother. Working was cathartic for dealing with her grief and she immediately

Suárez was also a body-image activist. Constantly asked about her obesity, she recognized that women must follow a rigid aesthetic. She has said it is sometimes even more of a struggle for transgender individuals, as multiple minorities. The stereotype of young, "modelish," and eternally beautiful in Suárez's view is absurd and oppressive for all women.

In 2022 Suárez was hospitalised due to heart complications and later died from a heart attack on 23 April 2022, at the age of 39.

Selected works 2012, Hacia una Igualdad Sustantiva Mujer y Salud en Uruguay