Opportunities & challenges for LGBTQ+ people in Latin America elections
May 30, 2024Activists across the region agree that the upcoming elections present a crucial opportunity to promote the inclusion and protection of their community’s rights in the face of far-right advancements.
Venezuela’s presidential election will be held on July 28, while Brazil’s municipal elections are scheduled for October 6. Regional and municipal elections will take place in Chile on October 27, and Uruguay’s congressional elections are also set for that day.
María José Cumplido, executive director of Fundación Iguales in Chile, emphasised the importance of having LGBTQ+ representation in politics.
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“It is fundamental because LGBTQ+ people tend to support laws or public policies aimed at protecting the community,” Cumplido told the Washington Blade. “In that sense, it is important that the voices of these people are heard because, obviously, they know the reality more closely and many times they have lived it.”
Cumplido noted, “LGBTQ+ representation has grown notoriously in recent years, so much so that today there is an LGBTQ+ caucus in Congress.”
“That is good news,” said Cumplido.
According to ‘Washington Blade’, Ignacia Oyarzún, president of Organizado Trans Diversidades (Organizing Trans Diversities or OTD), also from Chile, highlighted the observation and registration efforts by the Trans Voting Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean. Oyarzún mentioned the promotion of transgender candidates as a way to combat misinformation and promote respect for the community’s political rights.
“We monitor the situation of the political rights of our communities in the region and establish guidelines through which we encourage respect for the right to elect representatives and to be elected,” said Oyarzún. “We also maintain initiatives that have to do with the dissemination of trans candidacies and news that go against the disinformation established through false news that have begun to circulate through the various social and political media.”
Collette Spinetti, president of the Colectivo Trans del Uruguay, pointed out the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people in politics, especially trans individuals.
“The biggest challenge is to achieve trustworthiness especially towards gender-dissident people in their ability to be able to hold public office,” said Spinetti. “In Uruguay politics is still quite macho, especially in the so-called traditional and right-wing parties where there is no political representation of members of the LGBTIQ+ community,” Spinetti further explained. “On the left, although there is, thanks to internal work, female representation, there is still a lack of work.”
“In this sense the scarce LGBTIQ+ representation is present through gay men,” added Spinetti. “There is still no representation of publicly lesbian people and only one representation in the interior of the country of a trans woman.”
In Brazil, Keila Simpson, president of Associaçao Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais (National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals or ANTRA), highlighted the diversity of LGBTQ+ representation in the country’s politics. Simpson acknowledged the importance of mandates that go beyond identity and address a wide range of issues benefiting the entire community.
“The challenges for LGBTQIA people when it comes to applying for positions in Brazil are many,” she said. “The first one is the way Brazilian society sees this stigmatized and completely stereotyped population. If we think about the trans population, this violence is even greater, since in addition to being smaller in number, the discrimination is even greater because this population is commonly associated with eroticism and hypersexualization of their bodies, and these are the main problems these people face. they are associated when they run for prominent positions or leaders, even in the partisan political arena.”
In Venezuela, Richelle Briceño, a trans woman and former congressional candidate, lamented the lack of presidential candidates explicitly defending LGBTQ+ rights. She noted the country still faces fundamental challenges that prevent a serious debate on these issues.
“There are candidates who have expressed themselves against non-discrimination, but that’s as far as it goes,” Briceño recounted. “There are no specific candidates that I can tell you who even handle what the definition of the word queer is and how it is understood, let’s say, within LGBTQ+ activism.”
Briceño pointed out that María Corina Machado, an opposition leader barred from running for office by President Nicolás Maduro’s government, has “come out in favor of issues such as equal civil marriage and the issue of recognition of trans identities.” Briceño noted that Edmundo González Urrutia, her surrogate candidate, did not meet with LGBTQ activists until last week.
“These activists exposed their points of view; however, the current candidate leading the polls has not made a public statement regarding his position or what his position will be on the issues of LGBT rights in Venezuela,” said Briceño.
Briceño further emphasised that Venezuela “is still in a cave.”
“Here the country is in the basics, the country is in not losing electricity, in having water and in seeing how people eat daily,” she said. “The political and economic crisis that we have lived through for two decades, and with more depth in the last decade, has not allowed for a serious debate on the issues of the 21st century, including the rights of sexual diversity populations or the LGBT population and women.”
José Rodríguez, a Venezuelan psychologist who, like many of his compatriots, had to leave his country, said, “As a young Venezuelan exiled in Chile for eight years, today I feel the tranquility of living in a society where a governmental interest in the welfare of my community is appreciated, expressed by a legal framework that although it could be better; compared to the overwhelming setbacks that have occurred in recent weeks in neighboring countries and the constant lethargy of Venezuela in terms of advancing the LGBTQIA+ agenda, is deeply painful and worrying.”
Read related myGwork articles here:
Venezuelan Olympic diver comes out as gay
Brazil High Court Rules Homophobia Punishable by Prison
Rejection Of Proposed Chilean Constitution Seen As A Victory For LGBTQ+ Rights
Uruguay’s LGBTQ+ Activists Continue Fight for Equality
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