Escuela Amaranta Gómez Regalado

Escuela Amaranta Gómez Regalado or Amaranta School is a private school in Santiago, Chile for transgender students from 6 to 17 years old. It is named for Amaranta Gómez Regalado, a transgender Mexican politician, and is the first primarily transgender school in Latin America,[1] possibly the world.[2]

First proposed in December 2017,[3] the school was opened in April 2018 by Ximena Matura, the school coordinator, and Evelyn Silva, its head, who is the president of the Selenna Foundation, a trans rights organization.[1] Housed in space in a community center donated by the community of Ñuñoa,[4][5] as of May 2019 enrollment is 38, 22 or 23 trans-identifying and the remainder mostly friends and relatives.[2] The students report having been bullied,[5][6] and most had previously dropped out of school.[2] Chile bans the teaching or discussion of "gender ideology" in state-funded schools, but the country passed a gender identity law allowing those 14 or older to change the gender on their identity documents, with parental permission required for those under 18.[1]

The school has two classrooms, for students under 12 and for those aged 12 to 17.[2] As of May 2019 teachers were working without pay,[4] and Maturano and Silva paid all other costs for the first year,[1] but monthly fees were proposed to begin in March.[3][5] A summer program started in 2019 had 20 participants,[3] 8 not previously enrolled, and the school hopes to win a competition grant of $20,000 from an international trans fund in order to expand.[1][3] Students must take tests provided by the Ministry of Education to certify that they have passed a grade level.[7]

The school is named for Amaranta Gómez Regalado, a Zapotec Mexican trans activist and politician who identifies as a muxe.[8] It is nicknamed les niñes, the Spanish gender-neutral form of "the children".[7]