The Bolivian Congress approved a law that will grant transgender people the right to change their name, their gender, and their photo in their government documentation in order to reflect the gender they identify with. 

Alex Bernabe, an LGBT activist from the city of Santa Cruz, welcomed the news as a step forward for human rights. 

"This progress is important because we have fought for many years so that our rights to identity would be recognized," Bernabe told ANF.

David Aruquipa, another LGBT activist who witnessed the debate in the Senate, told AFP that "justice had been done for a population who had been historically excluded."

Meanwhile, the Trans Network of Bolivia issued a statement that thanked lawmakers for "having put the guarantee of our human rights above efforts to deny them."

The head of the Chamber of Deputies, Gabriela Montaño, dedicated the new law to the transgender people of Bolivia who suffered violence as a result of their identity, specifically Dayana Lazarte, Carla Suarez, Luisa Duran and Virgina Wanca Aliaga, who were killed.