Lesbitgay February 2015

Partners HIVOS

Latin American and Caribbean Magazine Sexual Diversity

February 2015

Identidad de GĂŠnero

Matrimonio igualitario

The Holocaust yesterday and today

Homosexuals were also part of the holocaust; no less than 300 thousand were exterminated in concentration camps.

The holocaust continues with the strangling of homosexuals in Iran, sexually diverse people that live in the sewers of Jamaica or the LGBTI of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, San Cristobal and Nieves,

Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, where homosexuality has a penalty of jail time..

Civil Unions in Chile and the City of Rome

Marriage in Alabama and South Dakota A federal judge of Mobile Alabama has revoked the prohibition that weighed against Diverse Marriage in the state, due to this the number of North American States that allow marriage increases to 37.

The decision was made after the complaint of Cari Searcy and Kimberly McKeand whom married in California and have been together for fifteen years. However, when Searcy tried to adopt the nine year son of her partner, the petition was rejected.

The Chilean congress approved, after four years of intense parliamentary debate, the civil union between couples of the same sex.

The law creates a new civil state that until now did not exist in Chile, similar to a union of fact.

The law regulates the situation of people that live together without being married and its dissolution, including custody of kids in common.

This is the first step towards the recognition of marriage between people of the same sex.

South Dakota The city of Love We have to remember that the South Dakota legislation promulgate in 1996 that prevented homosexual marriage. Ten years after state voters approved a constitutional amendment that restricts marriage and unions between men and women.

However, the federal judge, Karen Schreier dictated that the marriage prohibition of people of the same sex was unconstitutional.

The city council of Rome, established a legal registry for civil unions of sexually diverse couples.

The much awaited for measure was applauded by the mayor Ignazio Marin, since this places the Italian Capital in the same line as the rest of the European Countries.

The registry automatically includes couples of the same sex that married in a foreign country.

México

Kiss against homophobia

The LGBT collective from Rosario, organized a manifestation in front of a local supermarket where a gay couple denounced that they were discriminated because of their sexual orientation.

The motto is to kiss against homophobia.

“It’s to reflect the society which we want to live in.

If people aren’t disturbed due to the violence that there is in the courts or in the streets, they shouldn’t be scandalized by manifestations of kisses in support of two people in love” indicated the president of the Argentinean Federation of Lesbians, Gays and Transsexuals, Esteban Paulón.

Argentinean Airlines accept trans Flight Attendants

Financing for breast implants for trans women A LGTB collective in the province of Misiones, is promoting a project that hopes to finance with state funds transsexuals that wish to have a silicone breast implants and also to provide adequate attention to people that submitted themselves to treatment with toxic substances.

According to Laura Broncino, president of the LGBT association of the Argentinean province: “Not feeling comfortable with what one sees in the mirror is one of the main dramas of the trans collective”.

To solve this there is sex reassignment surgery, but its costs are so high that due to frustration they recur to desperate measures with harmful substances to increase the size of their breasts by putting their lives at risk.

GPSGAY, a web and mobile platform oriented to offer products and services to the LGBT community is now available for free for Android and Apple cell phones and soon also for Windows Mobile.

Lorena González, the trans flight attendant that was rejected by the Turkish Airlines company, started her practice with the Argentinean Airlines.

The 45 year old Spanish woman of Colombian origin has gone through sexual reassignment surgery and an extensive legal process, studied at the Superior School of Aeronautics and needs to finish the practice to graduate. And finally she is making it.

arrives to Argentina

Caribe Priest of Barbados defends Homosexual Love In an interview with Barbados HOY, the Anglican priest Davidson Bowen said that while the church was using biblical scriptures to support its conviction against those that had relations with members of the same sex, “homosexuality goes deeper than the sexual act, it even reaches love”.

“I tell the church that our work is not to judge, rather to love. It’s not love only for some, it’s for all”.

I urge rulers to decriminalize homosexuality since they are the children of god and deserve to have rights”.

Saint Vincent punishes homosexuality double In the face of the petition of the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization so that Saint Vinent and the Grenadines decriminalize homosexuality, as an effective manner to lower indexes of infection of AIDS, the First Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, manifested that: “I do not accept the thesis that to have more advances for HIV and AIDS, that we have to decriminalize the activity…”

The First Minister is misinformed but misinformation and fear are the perfect allies so that in their territory the indexes of infection grow rapidly among the LGBTI community.

The British embassy of the Dominican Republic celebrated in its headquarters and for the first time in the Caribbean, a marriage between two people of the same sex.

The now husbands are a Dominican and a Brit, according to the photo that was published by the embassy on their twitter account. Before announcing, the embassy thanked the Dominican Chancellor for confirming the acceptance of the matrimonial ceremony of the same sex in the British Consulate.

British embassy holds the first gay wedding of the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic

CIDH worried by police aggression The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (CIDH) informed that in Chile, between January 1st 2013 and March 31st 2014, 10 hate crimes were registered and 18 cases of physical violence against sexual diverse people in the regions of Metropolitana y Valparaíso.

According to the report in some of the cases violence was executed by the police and it is evidenced by the high level of cruelty based on sexual orientation, identity or gender expression. The concern is that in cases if “police abuse” there is a “low level of complaint”.

Evangelists attack activists of Movilh

Symbolic ceremonies to explain civil unions The Civil Registry and the Movement for Integration and Homosexual Liberation (Movilh), announced that the following February 14th they would hold symbolic Pacts for Civil Unions (PUC) to inform and explain couples of the same and different sexes about the new law.

The president of the National Association of Civil Registry Officials, Nelly Diaz, and the leader of Movilh, Rolando Jiménez, stated that the ceremonies would me February 14th in the Balmaceda Park, where they would also hold the third picnic for Diverse Love.

The movement for Integration and Homosexual Liberation (Movilh) placed a complaint that some of their activists of their organization were chased a few blocks by fundamentalist evangelicals that yelled offenses, closed off their path and made an embarrassing scene, luckily a few passerby came to their defense.

In the framework of filing for a Civil Union Pact, “these subjects threw offenses in the morning and at lunch time, in the afternoon and at night, the target of their criticism was our activist Óscar Rementería, and especially Rolando Jiménez”.

In “all occasions that we left congress these subjects chase us through the center of Santiago, yelled offenses, placed a bible on our faces, closed off our path, filmed and placed cameras on our faces and denigrated us”, said Movilh.

Court Studies Adoptions The Constitutional Court of Colombia is studying the possibility of extending the right of adoption to same sex couples and due to that attends 10 demands against articles from the Infant and Adolescence Code.

The Ministry of Health, the General Prosecutor of the Nation, the Peoples Defender, the Colombian Commission of Lawyers, Diverse Colombia, Diknos and others have manifested in favor of adoption. As it was to be expected the traditionalist Catholic Church is opposed.

In the past the court has allowed a woman to adopt the biological children of her partner and now they will have to pronounce a decision with a wider reach.

Murder in the Colombian Caribbean The Affirmative Caribbean Corporation denounced the murder of a trans woman that occurred in San Marcos (Sucre) and two gay men in Barranquilla and Valledupar. This last one was José Joaquín Herrera, Coordinator of the LGBTI Brigade, a space that promotes cultural events for trans women in this local.

The Colombian police also investigates the death of a member of the LGBTI community in Bolívar City (District of Bogotá) and do not rule out that the motive of the crime was due to sexual orientation, since the man was stoned.

Colombia chose the 2015 Queen In a pageant that lasted 3 days, more than 450 spectators, leaned toward Miss San Andres, Maria Cristina Richard, from 17 other competitors.

The new Miss Colombia Gay 2015 was crowned in the 16th edition of the pageant that unites the homosexual and transsexual community of the country and this year it was held in Medellin.

The Lawyers Association recognized Union of Fact The feminist and activists of the Front for Equal Rights (FDI), Margarita Salas and Larissa Arroyo were the first couple that welcomed the recognition that the Association of Lawyers of Costa Rica made, so that couples that live in union of fact can enjoy all the benefits that the institution has for associates.

Congratulations to the Diversity Commission of the Association for taking this happy initiative to the board.

24 couples of the same sex have insurance Twenty four couples of the same sex count with family health insurance that is given by the Costa Rican Social Security as of this past December due to the modification in its regulation.

According to the statistics of Social Security, between November 2014 and January 2015, 26 couples of the same sex have requested to obtain this medical insurance. Of this total, two have been rejected because they did not comply with all the requirements that the institution requests

Consulates request to hold diverse weddings in Costa Rica The consulates of the United Kingdom, Spain and France in Costa Rica are waiting for the government to pronounce on their consultation to officiate marriages between people of the same sex in their offices.

In the Minister of Exterior Relations we were informed that the case is in the hands of the Attorney General of the Republic and a resolution is expected soon.

Couples can donate organs The Ministry of Health of Costa Rica published the proposal to the regulation of the Law 9222 (Donation and transplant of organs and human tissue) and in their article 3, subsection g, contemplates that same sex couples can perform donations between themselves.

The regulation is an advance that permits mutual help in the case of terminal illness of either member of the couple.

Five LGBTI organizations merge Five Cuban organizations merge into the Cuban Alliance of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex “Manos”, with the objective of “joining the different organizations of civil society on the island to represent and make visible the different opinions and petitions, since to this date there is only one opinion in the country and that is the governments”.

Gender and Sexual Diversity Studies A scientific encounter held in Cienfuegos concluded that in Cuba it is urgent to perform an investigation on homophobic and discriminatory practices motivated by gender and sexual orientation that include hate crimes, homo-parental families, uneasiness of lesbians and bisexuals, trans people and the different forms of violence expressed towards sexual diversity.

The organizations that are now under the umbrella of this new alliance are: Rainbow Free of Cuba, The Cuban League against Aids, The LGBTI project Shui Tuix, the Association of Divine Hope and the Cuban Foundation for LGBTI Human Rights.

On this date, the scientists agreed to work equally on the visualization of intersexual people, their discomforts and rights, and to deepen on the different visions of sexual diversity starting with religion, pedagogy, health services, activism and other aspects of society.

Hope to marry in Miami

Facing the obstacles that exist on the island for the approval of equal Marriage, Francisco Rodríguez in his blog “Paquito from Cuba” with irony assures that “lesbians and gays of Cuba can get married, even if it is in Miami” The Gay activist considers that the “intense and fluid contact” between the population of the island and the Cuban emigration to the United States “could lead to reciprocal learning of respect and free sexual orientation”.

Salvadorian politicians oppose gay marriage like a war horse As a desperate measure for reelection, the representative Alejandrina Castro presented to the Legislative Assembly a motion to take up the discussion to ratify a constitutional reform that assures that marriage be performed only between “a man and a woman, born that way”.

For the association Between Friends: ”The orchestrated demand to reform articles of the constitution that prohibit marriage between people of the same sex and adoption by homosexual couples, is a flag of the right wing political sector to win votes during elections when their popularity has fallen, denying in this manner the rights that belong to us as citizens that we are”.

Trans will vote with no difficulties An agreement signed between the Supreme Elections Tribunal and LGBTI organizations of El Salvador will allow that trans men and women exercise their right to vote with no fear.

According to the organism, the elections for mayors and municipal council members were convened for October 31st 2015.

Education for deprived of liberty

The Salvadorian LGBTI community rejects that the topic be approached during an electoral moment, because this is a dirty campaign to gain votes from the conservative sector.

The constitution of El Salvador in article 3 establishes that “All people are equal before the law. To enjoy Civil rights restrictions cannot be established that are based on differences of nationality, race, sex or religion”.

The organization Comcavis Trans returned to its education program for trans people that are deprived of liberty on the topics of sexual education, prevention, conflict resolution and social promotion.

One Thousand Educators against HIV PASMO Honduras trained 1044 teachers from 46 educational centers on the Methodological Guides on Sexual Reproductive Health “Taking care of my health and my Life” so that the prevention of HIV start form school and to produce a significant reduction in teen pregnancies.

With the timely management of the guides they will reach more that 24 thousand kids, adolescents and young people with messages of sexual and reproductive health with emphasis on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections including HIV and with an approach to gender.

Sex Work increased 70%

El .

Difficulties for Honduran Trans to get worthy work has increased, in the last 5 years by 70% of the number of girls, young people and adolescents that engage in sex work.

The Honduran LGBTI organizations have informed that in addition to being discriminated and stigmatized, trans people are required to survive through their sexual work, affecting not only their health, but also their physical integrity.

They argument that it is outrageous that the Honduran society not offer job opportunities to the trans girls that each night must go out in search of their livelihood.

Failed Kidnapping The quick action of activists for Human Rights avoided that the kidnapping of an activist against HIV and AIDS, Karen Dunaway, be prolonged, had it not been so her life would have been in grave danger since her captors demanded half a million lempira for her ransom.

Initially the activist and her mother Rosa Gonzáles director of the Foundation Weeping, Valor and Effort (Llaves) were held at gunpoint by individuals that followed them when they were traveling in a van. However, they later abandoned Gonzáles and took Keren, but when they realized that the foundation has no funds, they also abandoned her in a solitary sector of Lomas del Carmen in San Pedro Sula.

Panama: Friendly Clinics tour The Association for New Horizons Bocas del Toro started in 2015 a tour of the Friendly Clinic for the correction of Las Tablas, Changuinola. The Empalme, Almirante and Bocas del Toro (Island).

The objective of the Friendly Clinic is to give an effective promotion of health through training the population of the region, holding HIV prevention campaigns and doing free tests in a friendly and trustworthy space for the LGBTI community. .

Guatemala: Prevention in Escuintla The Association We Are Diverse in Action held a tour in the Escuintla Department with the objective of training key people and to facilitate access to basic health services.

In the encounters with the population rapid HIV tests were executed, pre and post counseling was given, information on correct condom use, when it is necessary they refer to the centers of assistance and they are given ample information on Human Rights and Sexual Diversity.

Offerings Express The fundamental sects of Guatemala keep becoming more creative. With the objective of not losing a single cent of offerings from their faithful flock, they now have an offering collector that will go to your home.

This way the pastors can become millionaires thanks to their congregation whom believe that their contributions will buy them eternal glory.

But there are Pastors that make their August at the cost of the poor and the invalid because over them sooner or later, divine justice will fall.

Trans Migrants are assaulted and attacked They left their country because of the violence and discrimination. They crossed the border and reached Mexico; personnel identified as National Migration beat, raped and robbed them. It is a group of trans women that tried to reach the United States in search of a better future.

Since 2014, the Federal Government of president Enrique Peña Nieto announced the program “Southern Borders”, civilian organizations and activists have denounced that violence has intensified and aggression against migrants is a form of stopping the flow of migrants.

HIV is no longer a reason of discharge from the Army The Union congress eliminated from the internal laws of the Mexican Air Force HIV and Aids as a cause for retirement.

The entire senate endorsed all of the terms in the following memorandum: “The reforms eliminate the zero positive virus of human immunodeficiency as a cause of retirement, to guarantee equal rights and no discrimination of military personnel that are carriers of said sickness, this way complying with the recommendation of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, to make the Institutional Law of Social Security for the Air Force with the American Convention on Rights compatible

Sexual Orientation Causes Discrimination A study made by the National Congress to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred) determined that in Mexico the main causes of discrimination are presented for disabilities, physical appearance, sexual orientation and health status.

For the agency, the complaints that are presented before this organization signify the undeniable necessity to continue working in favor of equality and non discrimination in the country, from the daily tasks of the administration of the Federal Government, civil society organizations and the population in general, since these still continue stigmas and stereotypes cultural, and impede full respect for human rights specifically from groups in vulnerable situations.

Police does not process complaints The Sexual Diversity Special Attorney, Samira Montiel, reported that there is police resistance to process complaints related to the crime of discrimination towards people of diverse sexual orientation or if they have HIV/AIDS. She highlighted from November to this date there have been a few cases of physical aggression, lesions and even murder due to discrimination, but the Police does not comply with the corresponding procedures.

Montiel also mentioned that even though articles 427 and 428 of the Penal Code establish a penalty for discrimination, there is a lack of processing to these cases.

LGBTI community made visible El

Prize for Approach to Diversity The network for Sustainable Development granted student Patricia Zuniga, Uriel Urvina, Miguel Mondoy and Gema MejĂ­a, the three first places of the contest “Communication and Human Rights for the LGBTI communityâ€?, directed towards communications students and young communicators.

The contests purpose was to promote new generations of communicators to approach news with respect, no stigmas and Human Rights when the protagonist is part of the LGBTI community.

It is common to observe on the roads of Nicaragua this extraordinary campaign to make the trans and gay population visible along with their rights.

This is a magnificent initiative and we hope that it serves to create awareness against chauvinism and phobias that are present in society.

Senate rejects Project against discrimination The Paraguayan senate rejects a bill against discrimination that supported human rights organizations and was rejected by the Catholic Church.

During the debate, the lawmaker Carlos Filizzola, whom opposes to Solidary Country, remembered that Paraguay is the only country in the region that does not have a law against discrimination and stressed that the project does not support abortion or equal marriage.

The night before the vote, the Episcopal Conference of Paraguay called the senate to reject the project because it “puts at risk the enshrined rights in the Constitution”.

More acceptance of LGBTI in education and health personnel

A poll executed by SOMOSGAY among health and education personnel in Paraguay demonstrated surprising results due to the level of acceptance that these professionals have towards sexually diverse people.

Among these results it is highlighted that 79% of the interviewed accepted that an LGBT person were their children’s teacher. When asked “If your son or daughter were LGBT, would you accept them? 511 people or 92% of the interviewed responded that they would.

95% indicated that they would accept a person with HIV as a friend or co-worker. When asked: Is homosexuality a disease? 78% answered no.

These results present a positive perception from society where it is important to point out that 75% (417 people) of the interviewed are your adults between the ages of 18 and 19.

Trans story presented in Ecuador The Association Silueta X, presented in Guayaquil the story “Benedict feels like a girl” written by the trans activist Diane Rodríguez and destined for boys and girls that might be trans.

The story was illustrated by Andrea Bravo and it tells with story with endorsement of the Ecuadorian Association of Psychologists. The material can be seen for free at the following link: http://cuentostilgb.com/2015/01/26/benedicto-se-siente-nina/

Microenterprises for transexuals in Bolivia The dream of Yara Téllez to create consciousness in Bolivia on Transexuality and to generate just work, motivated her to create the microenterprise Yara Productions and start to cultivate success.

With this new initiative the Trans Community has found a market niche that allows them more recognition of their sexual identity and it allows them to count on an alternate source of subsistence other than sex work which is sometimes the only alternative.

The microenterprise is located in the Santa Cruz department.

Trans Councilor chosen in Peru Luisa Revilla has become the first trans woman in Peru to hold a position as Councilor in representation of La Esperanza district in the province of Trujillo and it opens the doors for more respect and freedom for the LGBTI collective.

The day of the oath, Revilla of 43 years, assured that the ceremony “was a night of tolerance” because the rest of the regional and provincial authorities welcomed her “with much respect and consideration”. This shows that the city or Trujillo, one of the most conservative and chauvinist of Peru, has emerged from this large precedent for our LGBT community.

GPSDAY will compete at a world level GPSGAY is the most popular online platform of the Latin American LGBTI community and winners of AppCircus Montevideo, will compete at a world level in the Mobile Premier Awards that will be held in Barcelona in 2015.

The application created by graphic designer Magdalena Rodríguez and her partner engineer Rosario Monteverde, works as a social network similar to facebook, that makes it easy to interact with other users, share pictures, videos and messages. Also, it allows seeing on a map the location of other users and the main events and places that are “gay friendly” in a city.

Big success for this innovative Uruguayan couple.

A change in the Penal Code is requested The Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Homoparental Families of Paraguay demand changes to the Penal Code to combat phobias with more means than just jail.

“We need to give the Judicial power more tools so that the code can be applied effectively and so it contemplates alternative penalties such as community work or processes without jail to face these acts of moral or physical violence due to sexual orientation”.

In the ministry of Interior, the association recalled having solicited that the secretary of state Eduardo Bonomi whom helped make visible cases of domestic violence and in the Ministry of Public Health, it was requested to the Minister Susana Muniz to declare the institution as “Free oh Homophobia”

The “Gay Friendliest” country in Latin America Uruguay is the Latin American country that is friendliest with homosexual rights and has the 9th place among 138 countries, according to the most traditional gay tourist guide, "Spartacus International Gay Guide".

Uruguay climbed ten spots in a year, passing from the 19th spot to ninth compared to the last edition, the root of this is the approval of Equal Marriage and state policies dedicated to making the country a “gay friendly” destination.

“Peoples Defender” gives his back to Equal Marriage The just named “Peoples Defender” of Venezuela, Tareck Willian Saab, initially requests Parliament to debate the project of equal marriage, but weeks later declared that the initiative is unconstitutional.

His point of view contradicts a tribunal resolution of the Supreme Justice of 2008, whose sentencing states textually, that the Magna Carta “does not prohibit or condemn unions of fact between people of the same sex, that they find constitutional coverage in the fundamental right of free development of personality”.

With defenders like that, why do you need enemies?

Claiming the right to love At the end of January, the LGBTI movement of Venezuela demonstrated outside of the Supreme Court of Justice to claim human and constitutional rights to contract marriage independently of the sex and gender of the spouses.

Giovanni Piermattei, president of the Venezuela Association for Equality, expressed that the actions look to repeal Article 44 of the Civil Code, that clashes with the fundamental principles of the Carta Magna.

It is forbidden to discriminate people with HIV/AIDS and their families The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, promulgated a law for the promotion and protection of rights to equality of people with HIV-AIDS and their families, to stop them from being victims of abuse aggression and other violations of human rights.

The challenge now is to deepen the diffusion of content of the law, and make people with HIV be more empowered and take a sense of ownership before any instance to assert their rights and to have Public State Institutions comply.