María Belén Correa

María Belén Correa (born 25 June 1973) is a prominent Argentine trans rights activist. In 1993, together with Claudia Pía Baudracco and other activists, she co-founded the Asociación de Travestis Argentinas (ATA; English: "Association of Travestis of Argentina"), later renamed Asociación de Travestis, Transexuales y Transgénero de Argentina (ATTTA; English: "Association of Travestis, Transsexuals and Transgender People of Argentina"), of which she was president from 1995 to 2001. The emergence of ATTTA was pioneering, as it not only kick-started the organized struggle for trans rights in Argentina but also became a crucial platform through which some of the most influential trans activists of the 1990s emerged and helped shape the country's broader LGBTQ movement.

Due to increasing police persecution, in 2001 Correa had to go into exile in New York and in 2004 she was officially granted political asylum in the U.S. During her exile in New York, she advanced her activism as co-founder of the Red Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Personas Trans (RedLacTrans; English: "Latin American and Caribbean Network of Trans People"), which brings together organizations from the region; collaborated in establishing Santamaría Fundación in Colombia, of which she is a patroness; founded the TransEmpowerment NY project, a Manhattan-based harm reduction center for LGBTQ individuals with drug addictions; and created Mateando, New York City's first group for LGBTQ Argentines and Uruguayans, under the Latino Commission on AIDS and the SOMOS program. In 2008, Correa moved to Madrid, Spain, and a year later to Hanover, Germany, where she has settled permanently since then.

Despite her exile, Correa has consistently upheld her commitment to activism in Argentina, regularly visiting the country and synchronizing her schedule and professional endeavors with those of her home country. In 2012, she founded the Archivo de la Memoria Trans (AMT; English: "Trans Memory Archive") shortly after the death of Baudracco, with whom she had conceived the project. A pioneering endeavor, the community archive amis to act as a collective memory for Argentine trans identities, ensuring that their frequently silenced stories are preserved and made widely accessible to the community. The archive comprises over 25,000 items documenting the lives of trans individuals in Argentina, gaining national and international recognition for its role in disseminating materials through exhibitions and publications, as well as for its activist efforts. In addition to her work as director of the AMT, in 2019 Correa founded Cosmopolitrans, a project focused on helping trans migrants to Germany.