Race and Equality publishes the dossier “What is the color of the invisible? The human rights situation of the Afro-LGBTI population in Brazil” in English

Race and Equality publishes the dossier “What is the color of the invisible? The human rights situation of the Afro-LGBTI population in Brazil” in English

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) is pleased to announce that the English version of the dossier “What is the color of the invisible? The human rights situation of the Afro-LGBTI population in Brazil” is now available on the organization’s website. Originally launched in Brazil in November 2020, the report documents human rights violations against the Brazilian Afro-LGBTI population, highlights a lack of official data on this crucial subject, and calls on Brazilian society to recognize the communities’ particular struggles and demands. The dossier features a preface written by the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orietation and Gender Identity (IE-SOGI), Victor Madrigal-Borloz.

About the dossier:

In response to constant reports of human rights violations against Afro-LGBTI Brazilians and to a lack of data about their situation, Race and Equality conducted a thorough investigation, meeting with civil society organizations and focus groups to discuss the systematic injustices plaguing this community. The dossier includes chapters on the murders of LGBTI people, access to justice, police violence, access to health, access to education, and access to work. The dossier demonstrates that structural racism in Brazil leads to public discussions of LGBTI rights that neglect the issues of race and racism, rendering the Afro-LGBTI population invisible. As a result, systematic racism continues to produce inequalities and harm Afro-LGBTI Brazilians’ chances for a decent and dignified life.

Isaac Porto, author of the report, highlights the urgent need to incorporate race into Brazil’s dialogue on LGBTI rights. In Brazil, the national myth of “racial democracy,” which presents white Brazilians’ perspectives and values as universal, has resulted in Afro-Brazilians being silenced and marginalized in all spheres, including the LGBTI community. Porto points out that the disparities between white and Afro-Brazilian LGBTI people’s experiences become even more stark when examining the experiences of trans Brazilians. According to Porto,

“It is clear that Afro-LGBTI people are the population most impacted by murder in Brazil, are the hardest-hit by police violence, and face the greatest difficulties in accessing justice, health, education, and work. It is essential to strengthen Brazilian organizations and activists so that they can raise awareness about the human rights situation of LGBTI Brazilians and about their own work to combat the myriad and perverse violations of their rights.”

Based on the findings of Race and Equality’s research, including extensive feedback from LGBTI civil society organization, the dossier concludes with a series of recommendations for the Brazilian State, international human rights organizations, civil society, and government agencies. Among them are highlighted:

1 – Ratification of the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance and ratification of the Inter-American Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance.

2 – The creation of a concrete plan to combat LGBTI-phobic violence in Brazil, including an intersectional approach that will combat the racist and LGBTI-phobic violence against Afro-Brazilians.

3 – Initiatives from the Ministry of Labor to combat discrimination against Afro-LGBTI workers in hiring, promotion, pay, and working conditions.

4 – Commitments from all relevant stakeholders to support civil society organizations as they work to document the murders of LGBTI people, assurances that these organizations will not face unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles, and respect for their work from the government.

Download the dossier in English: Link

View a recording of the dossier’s launch, featuring speakers from Brazilian civil society: http://bit.ly/350lGF5

 

Human Rights Day: Continuing on the path towards human rights for all

Washington, D.C.; December 10, 2020.- 72 years after the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the world has not yet achieved the full guarantee and enjoyment of each person’s inherent rights. In Latin America and the Caribbean, structures that contribute to human rights violations, particularly violations against historically marginalized populations, remain persistent and in some cases are worsening.

This December 10th, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) joins the international celebration of Human Rights Day by reviewing the human rights situation across the region, particularly the countries where we partner with civil society: Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Panama, and Peru.

The killing of George Floyd

Race and Equality added our voice to the global outrage sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a Black U.S. citizen, at the hands four white police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25th. Video of the tragedy on social media sparked indignation and a re-examination of the realities of racism and police brutality in the U.S.

We were heartened by the rapid and forceful response of the international human rights protection system to this travesty, including the June 17th Urgent Debate of the United Nations Human Rights Council on “the current racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and the violence against peaceful protest” and the adoption of Human Rights Council Resolution 43/1. We are concerned, however, at the lack of follow-up effort to strengthen the various international human rights mechanisms’ ability to monitor States’ compliance with their obligations in this regard.

COVID-19: a multiplier of inequality

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clearer than ever that economic inequality and inequality in access to health and education have deadly consequences across the region. It has also made clear that when States fail to design public policies with an intersectional approach, indigenous, Afro-descendant, and LGBTI populations who have suffered historical marginalization and discrimination are the hardest-hit.

In Brazil, for example, the Afro-Brazilian population has seen its most fundamental right to life threatened by the denialism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. Afro-Brazilians have been the population most negatively impacted by the current government’s refusal to implement proper public health measures. During the most critical months of the pandemic, Brazilian women were murdered at a rate of one every nine hours. Of these victims, 73% were Afro-descendant women.

Discrimination for reasons of sexual orientation and gender identity has also manifested itself in the context of COVID-19. In Colombia, a trans woman and sex worker named Alejandra Monocuco died in late May after medical personnel refused to give her emergency care. The personnel, who had been called by Alejandra’s companions when she suddenly became unable to breathe, refused to approach her when they learned that she was HIV-positive and told her companions that she must have been suffering an “overdose.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has coincided with the 2020 Census in Mexico, a situation that Afro-Mexican activists fear has affected census-takers’ ability to collect trustworthy data on the Afro-descendant population. Particularly in parts of Mexico not normally thought of as Afro-Mexican population centers, low rates of self-identification among Afro-descendants can lead to undercounting.

Anti-LGBTI violence and hatred

Latin America continues to be the region with the most murders of trans people. In Brazil, where the current government continues to tolerate and encourage LGBTI-phobia, 151 trans people have been murdered this year. In Colombia, Race and Equality has worked with our grassroots partners to record 65 incidents of discrimination, harassment, assault, and murder against people with diverse sexual orientations and/or gender identities.

The refusal to recognize LGBTI people’s rights and respond to their demands for justice is concerning across the region. In Peru, for example, the Constitutional Court rejected Óscar Ugarteche’s effort to have his marriage to his husband Fidel Aroche, celebrated in Mexico in 2010, inscribed in the National Civil Registry. Peru also failed to account for the rights of trans and non-binary people when it implemented its quarantine policy known as pico y género,[1] leading to acts of discrimination against this population.

In Panama, civil society continues to demand that the government introduce a law legalizing marriage equality for legislative debate, while LGBTI organizations in the Dominican Republic are leading a campaign for a Law on Equality and Non-Discrimination to protect the rights of Afro-descendant and LGBTI people.

Human rights defenders continue to be murdered

Four years after the historic Final Peace Accords ended more than 50 years of armed conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels, the country is suffering one of the worst periods of violence in recent memory. The rise in violence is attributable to attacks against social leaders, human rights defenders, and ex-combatants participating in the peace program and to violent murders of civilians, such as the August 11th murder of five Young Afro-Colombian men in the Llano Verde neighborhood of Cali.

According to the Ideas for Peace Foundation (Indepaz), 287 murders of rights defenders have taken place this year as of December 7th. Indepaz reports that 688 such murders have taken place during the current administration of President Ivan Duque and a total of 1,086 have occurred since the signing of the Peace Accords. Colombian civil society continues to call for an urgent response on the part of the State, but President Duque’s government persists in prioritizing its own policy of “Peace with Legality” above the implementation of the Accords. This policy neglects vital elements of building sustainable peace, particularly women’s rights and the rights of ethnic minorities, which had been enshrined in the Accords’ groundbreaking “Ethnic Chapter.”

Repression of civil society

In Cuba, repression of activists, journalists, artists, and human rights defenders has increased as the government uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext for restricting the activities of independent civil society. Short-term detentions, raids and searches, confiscations of property, summary trials, and arbitrary criminal charges such as “contempt” or “public disorder” are all wielded against civil society leaders.

In Nicaragua, where the human rights crisis of April 2018 has not yet abated, authorities continue to persecute those who dissent from the current government. In the context of a public health and economic crisis sparked by COVID-19, this repression severely harms Nicaraguans’ fundamental rights. Currently, 109 people remain behind bars as political prisoners stemming from protests. Two recent laws (the Law on Foreign Agents and the Special La won Cybercrime) and the recent effort to punish “hate crimes” with life imprisonment pose acute threats to the freedoms of association, assembly, and expression.

Nicaraguan authorities continue to wield repression against those who demand accountability and respect for human rights. Along with their families, these rights defenders are threatened, monitored, and at times prevented from moving freely by the police. Meanwhile, an average of 40 violations of freedom of the press, including both physical attacks and persecution in the courts, are recorded each month.

On International Human Rights Day, Race and Equality reaffirms our commitment to building the capacities of in-country organizations to document human rights violations, defend their rights before the Inter-American and United Nations human rights systems, and advocate for reforms that will lead to the full enjoyment of human rights for all, without discrimination. We call upon all States to comply with their obligations to protect and promote human rights, obligations that are more pressing during the COVID-19 pandemic than ever.

We commit to continue our work advancing human rights for all people in the countries where we work, regardless of their race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or political beliefs. We salute the efforts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN treaty bodies, and the special procedures of the UN human rights system, and express our hope that they will remain steadfast in their work.

 

[1] Pico y género, which was also implemented in other parts of the region, called for women and men to leave the house on alternating days

World AIDS Day: Race and Equality calls for Brazil and Colombia to guarantee equality in HIV treatment

This December 1, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) honors and stands in solidarity with all people living with HIV on World AIDS Day. Established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October 1987, with support from the United Nations (UN), the date aims to raise awareness and promote dialogue on sexual rights in an inclusive and responsive way for HIV prevention. In addition, this date aims to break stigmas about the reality of people living with the virus, being a day of visibility and solidarity.

Brazil: Structural racism and LGBTIphobia as barriers in the treatment of AIDS

In Brazil, throughout the month of December, the “Red December” awareness campaign is celebrated, symbolized by a red ribbon that, globally, represents solidarity and commitment in the fight against AIDS. However, the country, that was once a world reference for the treatment of AIDS, currently faces a dismantling of the Unified Health System (SUS) accompanied by setbacks in public policies such as governmental decrees that have demoted departments dealing with the monitoring and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, under which HIV is considered.

In its chapter on the right to health, the report “What is the color of the Invisible? The human rights situation of the Afro-LGBTI population in Brazil”, published by Race and Equality, provides data that explains the worrisome advancement of HIV / AIDS in the country [1]. As the document points out, structural racism and LGBTIphobia combined with the advancement of religious conservatism, constitute obstacles to the equal treatment of HIV for the entire population. The State’s lack of responsibility in the face of a moralistic discourse, incites society to prejudiced and LGBTIphobic practices when facing the fallacy that HIV is a virus that only infects homosexual people. As a result, any discussion on sex education was eliminated from schools.

According to the report, between 2007 and 2017, there was a 700% increase in HIV infection rates among people ages 15 to 24. This data is from the previous government, but it is known that due to the advancement of religious conservatism, currently, there are explosions of HIV cases among young people and adolescents who have not had access to the necessary public health information. Additionally, the report shows the impact of racism on healthcare and treatment, evidenced by the large discrepancy in relation to race and sex in the increase in cases of HIV infection and the development of AIDS, between 2008 and 2018.

Epidemiological data, explained by the report, shows that for both men and women, while the number of deaths from AIDS has decreased among white people, it has increased considerably among Black people. In 2018, there were 2,885 (40.3%) deaths of white men and 4,219 (59%) deaths of Black men. For women, the same differences occur. In 2008, there were 1,804 (47.4%) deaths of white women and 1,981 (52.1%) deaths of Black women. In 2018, there were 1,309 (37.7%) deaths of white women and 2,136 (61.5%) deaths of Black women.

The document criticizes the invisibility of lesbian women, transgender women, travestis and trans men in the data provided in the epidemiological bulletin. Placed within patterns of universal cis-heteronormativity, consequently, these groups no longer have public health policies that understand their real needs and, once again, are erased from the discussion and left more vulnerable.

The report reveals that, “A meta-analysis carried out based on data from 15 countries [2], estimated that 33.1% of trans women in Brazil lived with HIV, only behind Argentina (33.5%) and India (43.7% ), according to the data recorded up until 2011. That same survey pointed to the alarming estimate that trans women were 49 times more likely to contract HIV than other people.”

In this sense, the report brings to light the impact caused by structural racism and LGBTIphobia, condemning a large part of the Brazilian population to situations of extreme vulnerability in care and treatment for a dignified health condition. With this, the advancement of HIV / AIDS in Brazil again puts the country at risk of a pandemic, seeing as the dismantling of social programs essential for the maintenance of the population’s health serve as grounds for the proliferation not only of diseases, but also inequality and intolerance.

HIV/AIDS in Colombia: a success story without victories

 The annual global report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS), published in 2020 [3], reveals that Colombia is one of the few countries in Latin America where the rate of HIV infections has decreased in the last decade. Despite this, the general figures hide the lack of progress in serving the most vulnerable groups, seeing as high mortality rates still persist. However, there are other structural barriers that prevent these populations from accessing programs already proposed by the Government under this global strategy.

First, there is an important gap in access to health services due to the high rates of informal work and unemployment in the country which limit the possibilities of accessing services for the diagnosis of the disease, specifically for early diagnosis allowing for timely action and treatment. Today, the epidemic is concentrated in specific groups, two of which belong to the LGBTI population: “men who have sex with men”, MSM (this category includes bisexual men and men who do not declare themselves “gay”), and “trans women ”, MT (trans people who are born men and are now women). Within these groups, seropositivity levels are found to be highly elevated.

In Bogotá, the contagion rates in 2018 were around 17% (MSM) and 20% (MT). In contrast, the prevalence for the rest of the population in Bogotá is 0.5%, for those between the ages of 15 and 49 [4]. According to the Ministry of Health, at the national level, men who have sex with people of the same sex have a prevalence of HIV infection of 20.4% and transsexual women of 23.4% [5]. Despite these figures, there are no specific programs that allow these groups to access rapid tests or relevant information on them.

The second major barrier is the discrimination and prejudice that still exists around the subject. The stigma represented by HIV involves disrespectful and unnecessary inquiries about people’s sexual identity, their performance as a sex worker or about drug use. This is especially shocking if we take into account that in the main cities of Colombia, cases of contagion increased in trans women by more than 15% in 2019, among whom sex work continued to be one of the most common sources of income [6 ]. There is a negative burden associated with the disease that sends a message of death and / or undesirability to society about people living with HIV.

Just last year, the Colombian Constitutional Court eliminated the section of the penal code that criminalizes HIV transmission, noting that the law violated principles of equality and non-discrimination, considering that it discriminated against people living with the virus, stigmatizing it and limiting their rights [7]. As long as there are little to no specific programs for these populations on how to access healthcare and that work toward eliminating prejudices about the disease in general, it is clear that the fear of undergoing medical treatment and of society’s response will prevail over the search for a diagnosis.

Finally, returning to the idea that the Colombian government needs to strengthen its preventive response, it is important to understand that the phenomenon of HIV / AIDS presents itself as a serious global public health issue, in which we must not only discuss the natural context of the disease, but also a process that involves several dimensions, such as the social, economic and cultural ones.

The context of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these difficulties. Although UNAIDS recommended that all countries distribute antiretrovirals to patients for periods of three months rather than monthly, in order to prevent them from excess exposure to COVID-19 from frequent outings, Colombia did not accept this provision [8]. This decision, in addition to the difficult socioeconomic conditions that already affect the LGBTI population, currently limits the access to health services by LGBTI persons [9].

On this day, Race and Equality calls upon States throughout Latin America to guarantee racial and sexual equality in the treatment of HIV, in addition to reinforcing the urgent need for sex education campaigns, whether in school environments or in public spaces. It is necessary to break stigmas and strengthen HIV prevention so that the world is not hit by another pandemic that, as is known, can be controlled. With this, we urge States to adopt the following recommendations:

1- Carry out the recommendations of the IACHR contained in its report on Violence against LGBTI people (2015) and adopt comprehensive measures that effectively combat discrimination and violence faced by LGBTI people living in poverty and extreme poverty; [10]

2- That guidelines be developed so that medical and nursing schools address – in their curricula, research, extension groups and in their academic events – topics such as sexual orientation and gender identity, so that, from their education, health professionals better understand the specific needs of LGBTI people, in particular transgender people.

3- That measures of awareness and training of professionals working in the health area be adopted, ensuring equal treatment for LGBTI people.

 

 

[1] Report available at: http://oldrace.wp/es/es_publicaciones/

[2] Argentina, Australia, Brazil, El Salvador, Spain, United States, Netherlands, India, Indonesia, Italy, Peru, Pakistan, Thailand, Uruguay and Vietnam.

[3] Available at: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/ 2020_global-aids-report_en.pdf

[4] Available at: https://www.revistaarcadia.com/periodismo-cultural—revista-arcadia/articulo/ lgbt-political-and-the-challenge-confront-hivsida-in-colombia / 68263 /

[5] Available at: https://www.radionacional.co/noticias/comunidad-lgbti-coronavirus

[6] Available at: http://unradio.unal.edu.co/nc/detalle/cat/un-analisis/article/vih-en-america- latina.html

[7] Available at: https://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/2019/C-248-19.htm

[8] Available at: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/country/documents/COL_2020_countryreport.pdf

[9] Available at: https://www.radionacional.co/noticias/comunidad-lgbti-coronavirus

[10] IACHR. Violence against LGBTI Persons. 2015, p. 227, par. 382. Available at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/ViolenceLGBTIPersons.pdf

International Trans Day of Remembrance: Remembering and reaffirming the struggle for equality and justice

Washington, D.C., November 20th, 2020.- On November 20th, International Day of Trans Remembrance, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) remembers the trans people who have been killed around the world, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the majority of such killings take place according to civil society reports. Race and Equality spoke with six trans activists from across the region who keep the memory of those killed alive and carry on the struggle for equality and justice.

An unimaginable reality

Brandy Carolina was 32 years old when she was stabbed to death by a man in the La Chinita neighborhood of Barranquilla, Colombia. Brandy was known as an extrovert who dreamed of earning enough money to buy a house for her mother, but she was killed for being a trans woman before she could make her dream a reality. Her death and the hateful motives behind it were reported by organizations that defend the rights of Colombians with diverse sexualities and gender identities.

“She never expressed fear beforehand, she was confident in herself, and really, nobody expects to die, it comes suddenly and where you don’t expect it,” said Andra Hernández, a representative of the Boyacá LGBTI Network and a member of Femidiversas. However, Andra pointed out that La Chinita was also the site of two murders in the months before Brandy’s death: the killing of a trans woman on April 16th, and the murder of a lesbian woman on March 26th. “We didn’t expect that someone so close to us would meet the same fate, at the hands of a society that doesn’t respect diversity and difference. You can never be prepared for a death, much less being murdered for being trans,” she said.

Every year, in the lead-up to Trans Day of Remembrance, the international organization TransRespect Against Transphobia publishes a detailed report on the killing of trans and gender-diverse people around the world. This year’s report reveals that between October 1st, 2019 and September 30, 2020, there were 350 such murders. 82% occurred in Latin America, with Brazil (152 murders),[1] Mexico (45), and Colombia (16)[2] atop the list of countries with the most killings.

Dying two times

Santiago Balvin, a non-binary trans-masculine activist from Peru, affirmed the importance of commemorating trans people who have been killed. According to Santiago, these victims continue to suffer discrimination and erasure after their deaths: “There is a feeling of frustration because you can’t do anything – their families don’t recognize their names, the media does not report about their identity correctly, it’s very painful when your sister’s death is treated this way and it keeps happening with impunity.”

Santiago also emphasized the importance to Peru’s LGBTI community of marking the Tarapoto Massacre, also known as the Night of the Gardenias, a targeted killing of transgender people on May 31st, 1989 that is recognized as the worst hate crime against transgender people in Peru’s history. According to Santiago, Peruvian civil society organizations have recorded five murders of transgender people in 2020.

Victoria Obando, a Nicaraguan human rights activist and former political prisoner, told Race and Equality that for her, Trans Day of Remembrance is a day to honor the struggle for trans rights, a struggle in which most of those killed had participated during their lives. “We live in a society that does not recognize us as part of society. It’s a tragedy what the trans population has to go through, especially trans women. They don’t recognize that we are also human beings,” she said.

Nicaragua does not have reliable data about violence against trans people, a failure which Victoria links to the broader socio-political crisis affecting the country. She also denounced the tendency to sideline trans activists in discussions about how to return democracy to the country. “Some people think in terms of categories like ‘special topics’ and see trans rights as something secondary to be kept in a box. As an activist, I have had to fight for acceptance; some people underestimate my abilities because of my identity,” she said.

Exclusion and impunity

Athiany Larios Fonseca, a Nicaraguan trans woman living in exile in Costa Rica, recalls one of the first times she encountered anti-trans discrimination. “My friend and her partner were attacked with stones outside her house; she later asked me why people treat us so badly, and I started to cry. People attack us and even kill us because of this hate, because we are not a woman or a man according to their biological rules,” she told Race and Equality.

Christian King, an activist with TRANSSA in the Dominican Republic, explained that Trans Day of Remembrance “is about recognition and reaffirming our trans companions who have lost their lives to discrimination, transphobia, and prejudices that come from a lack of political will or public policies that protect trans rights and penalize discrimination.”

In the Dominican Republic, the Observatory on the Human Rights of Trans People has registered 49 hate crimes against trans women, of which only 5 have been tried and led to sentences against the perpetrators. Along with TRANSSA, the Observatory advocates for a national Law on Equality and Non-Discrimination, a Law on Gender Identity, and the full implementation of the National Human Rights Plan.

The state’s responsibility

Bruna Benevides, a leader of the National Association of Travestis and Transsexual People (ANTRA)[3] in Brazil, stated that violence against trans people stems from a long historical process by which trans people are rendered invisible, denying them their most basic rights. Bruna placed the blame squarely at the foot of the state, which has failed to respond to trans people’s needs. “We see a growing neoliberal trend around the world, leading to fascism. The specter of “gender ideology” and the belief that trans people, women, and Black people must continue to be subordinated are central to this trend,” she added.

Bruna also emphasized the ways in which COVID-19 has exacerbated violence against trans people, with inequality, unemployment, hunger, and social exclusion all worsening during the pandemic. As TransRespect’s report makes clear, the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on trans people, particularly trans people who are also excluded from society because they are women, Black or another racial minority, sex workers, migrants, young people, or poor.

Bruna went on: “Sadly, the lack of action and the lack of attention to trans people, the way that we are treated as invisible, leaves us without any state assistance. As a result, we are more vulnerable to violence. This is part of a broader logic that decides who can be killed, who can be discarded, who is not part of the hegemonic structure and can be exterminated easily. We are the country with the most killings of trans people in the world, and this year we are at the top of the ranking once again.”

On International Trans Day of Remembrance, Race and Equality calls on all states to remember their obligation to protect and promote the rights of all people without discrimination. Faced with a worldwide crisis of violence and murders against trans people, we offer the following recommendations:

  • States should adopt the necessary laws and policies to guarantee recognition, respect, and inclusion for people with diverse sexualities and gender identities
  • States should establish special mechanisms to respond to acts of violence against LGBT people, leading to full investigations, sanctions for those responsible, and guarantees of non-repetition
  • States should utilize official channels and resources to educate the population about sexual diversity and gender identity in order to promote societal recognition and respect for LGBTI people and their rights

[1] Data recorded by ANTRA, a Brazilian LGBTI advocacy organization

[2] Civil society organizations based in Colombia reported an additional 14 cases, for a total of 30

[3] Travesti is a Portuguese term for a person who was assigned male at birth, but who identifies and self-expresses as female, with or without any related medical interventions.

Lesbian Resistance Collective creates project to map the socio-cultural situation and emotional state of lesbian and bisexual women in Rio’s Maré Favela Complex

In hopes of presenting the daily experiences of lesbian and bisexual women from the slums, specifically those who live in the Maré Favela Complex in Rio de Janeiro, the Lesbian Resistance Collective of Maré created a project to map the socio-cultural and emotional situation of lesbian and bisexual women.  The project was organized by Beatriz Adura Martins and Dayana Gusmão (Read: https://bit.ly/2TDB5ES), and the research was carried out in partnership with the Institute of Psychology at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) between November 2019 and June 2020. The mapping project is available for download on the Metanoia Editora website, run by lesbian women Léa Carvalho and Malu Santos. [1]

Their experiences were shared within Espaço Casulo, or Cocoon Space in English, where the therapeutic group took place, as well as in other social spaces used by the collective, allowing the mapping to take place alongside this region’s residents, rather than somewhere distant from their everyday realities. Before the research began, the psychology students leading it first learned about the situations that permeate lesbian and bisexual experiences within the favelas by exploring the realities of the Maré Favela Complex in person. From this exploration, fundamental questions were born that now form the mapping project.

The document aims to register and denounce the scarcity of information on lesbian favela experiences, particularly non-violent ones, seeing as hegemonic representations of favelas remit the violence and abandonment of public power. “Generally, these surveys only deal with middle-class lesbian women and/or those ‘on track,’ and the reality of lesbians in the favelas ends up being ignored. For this reason, the idea of ​​the mapping project is to affirm these existences in Maré and not to tell them how they should be,” explains Beatriz Adura [2]. Thus, she presents the question: how can numbers and surveying serve to chart subjective experiences?

Based on these reflections, the organizers affirm that this is pioneer research, as they know of no other socio-cultural and emotional mapping of lesbians and bisexuals within Brazilian favelas. With this, they hope to extend the discussion to many other mapping projects about these women’s realities across the country. The organizers emphasize that the plurality of “lesbianalities” needs to be made visible, as research reflects that, even in Maré, there are unique differences between their realities and those of other women. As  outlined in their objectives, the mapping intends to influence the construction of public policies that consider the specific lived experiences of lesbian and bisexual women from these communities, as well as to open debate and produce conviviality that contributes to the elimination of social marginalization that lesbians face in the Maré favelas.

Eight out of the 16 total favelas within the complex were included in the mapping project. The 40-question long questionnaire obtained a total of 59 respondents who answered questions about race, housing, maternity, religion, basic sanitation, and family relationships, among others. Having a majority of university student respondents, the project highlights the importance of community college entrance exams in Maré.  Looking at questions related to gender, researchers noted that these questions are more advanced academic questions. Gender is not a common topic that is considered in the daily lives of these women, so much so that 20% chose not to answer these questions and three designated themselves as non-binary.

Regarding race, 70% declared themselves to be non-white, a fact that the organizers see as vital to creating public policies that contemplate the reality of the favelas, as, generally, these surveys focus on the perspectives of white and middle-class lesbian women. More specifically, 47.5% declared themselves Black; 28.8%, white; 20.3%, brown; 3.4%, Indigenous; and no person claimed to be Asian. “We draw attention to the importance of specific surveys on methods of favela sociability that often do not appear in the statistics of generic surveys, always leaving the favela population destined to talk about their problems and violence. Lesbians living in the favelas of Maré exist and are mostly Black, brown, and Indigenous, representing 71.2% of this population,” the report indicates.

In regard to violence, the interviewees said they felt safer and more comfortable within the favela to express their sexuality, as they have already suffered attacks outside of it. With this, the research reveals that domestic violence is something that characterizes the daily life of lesbians in Maré. Many of them have already been referred by family members to some sort of conversion therapy [3] based on religious practices.  In this sense, this data reflects how the advancement of the conservative agenda and the growth of neo-Pentecostal churches in the region influence the situation of violence and the denial of lesbian existence. For these women, psychological violence represents twice as much oppression as physical violence, resulting in 70% of them declaring that they have no religion.

Given this scenario, the organizers explain that uniting the of lesbians in Maré was important for the construction of research, however, this was only the first stage. At the moment, the Lesbian Resistance Collective of Maré is looking for sponsorship for the second phase of the mapping project in order to cover more favelas throughout the complex. Few financial resources, the lack of technological material and even the difficulty in access to internet, made the project difficult to complete, not mention the COVID-19 pandemic that delayed the end of their research.

“Police violence was another factor that made research difficult. At various times when we were able to mobilize women to answer the questionnaire, police operations were taking place. Militarization only caused damage. For this reason, this research is done from a perspective of demilitarization of the favela and people’s lives. It is necessary to create a territory of care, of life production and not of control,” says Dayana Gusmão. [4]

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human rights congratulates all involved in the elaboration of the dossier and supports all research that affirms the favela as a place of knowledge production. In this sense, we recommend that the Brazilian State:

1 – Create public policies that contemplate the diversity and intersectionality of lesbian women from slums;

2 – Undertake policies that aim to demilitarize slums, not only during the pandemic, but as a continual local policy;

3 – Implement the IACHR’s recommendations from its report on Violence against LGBTI people (2015) regarding actions to analyze and assess the prevalence of violence against lesbian and bisexual women: adopt specific measures to prevent and investigate this type of violence with a differential approach that considers power relations at the intersection of sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender expression [4]

 

[1] Access the mapping project: https://bit.ly/2TDB5ES

[2] Speeches presented during the launch of mapping project on YouTube at the Maré Museum, which took place on October 17th.

[3] Access the report on Conversion Therapies by the UN IESOGI, Victor Madrigal-Borloz: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/44/53

[4] IACHR. Violence against LGBTI people. 2015, p. 311, par. 69. Available at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/violencelgbtipersons.pdf

The launch of the report “What is the color of the Invisible?” calls on the Brazilian State to produce data and recognize the racial agenda of the LGBTI population

“Race and Equality wants to give a space to voices that denounce the human rights violations of the Black LGBTI population to the Brazilian State.” With these words, Carlos Quesada, Executive Director of the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), began the event to launch the report What is the color of the Invisible? The human rights situation of the Afro-LGBTI population in Brazil.  The event allowed Race and Equality to reaffirm its commitment to the Afro-LGBTI population in Brazil. Written by Isaac Porto, LGBTI Program Officer in Brazil for Race and Equality, and coordinated by Zuleika Rivera, LGBTI Program Officer at Race and Equality in Washington D.C., the report calls on the Brazilian State to provide public data on the situation of this specific community in Brazil and to recognize the racial agenda from an intersectional perspective.

 Panel 1: Violence and Access to Justice for the Afro-LGBTI Population

Recalling the importance of Black Awareness Month in Brazil, Carlos Quesada moderated the debate by highlighting the report’s role in making the Afro-LGBTI experience visible, which is often absent from the State’s political agenda. Opening the panel, the author Isaac Porto, shared how the report’s writing trajectory connected with his life story and, like his, many other stories that have also been marked by racism and LGBTIphobia, forms of oppression that simultaneously make these experiences invisible.

Porto indicated that the objective of the report is “to encourage the racialization of discussions about LGBTI lives in the country and, thus, to verify the specific impacts of racism on the lives of this group of people.”

“It should be mentioned that, as of now, the report is not a finalized document because there is no pretense to present arguments and conclusions that form some sort of verdict that declares what the human rights situation experienced by this population is and end any discussions that identify alternative paths to follow. On the contrary: we do not believe that, in the fight for human rights, it is possible to reach a final conclusion. To fight for rights is to always be at a starting point. It is to never to stop moving forward.”

Bruna Benevides, Secretary of Political Articulation of the National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals (ANTRA), emphasized that the merit of the document is that confronts the LGBTI movement and brings to it an intersectional discussion around race and LGBTI people. “That is why the dossier is symbolic and representative, because it demonstrates the importance and urgency of organizing ourselves collectively,” she said, highlighting the importance of building a collective political agenda.

Trans activist Gilmara Cunha denounced the invisibility of this population, especially when it comes to the Afro-LGBTI population living in Brazilian slums. “The report gives visibility to what is invisible in our country and to our leaders, in addition to denying our existence at the national level, it is also denied at a territorial level. We are pleading for existence that is denied to us all the time,” she explains. Washington Dias, Coordinator of the Afro-LGBT Network, states that the violence to which the Black Brazilian LGBTI population is subjected to is linked to historical characteristics of structural racism, and the absence of data is a result of this racism.

Livia Casseres, Coordinator of Racial Equity for Rio de Janeiro’s Public Defender’s Office, stressed the large gap in data production within the country and acknowledged the delay in the normative plan that accounts for the absence of rights that modulate racism. “The report shows how we are advancing in ways of producing citizenship in Brazil alongside LGBTI organizations, which is a form of confronting the coloniality of the legal system,” she claimed, celebrating the launch of the dossier.

Closing the first panel, artist and poet MC Carol Dall Farra presented an artistic intervention, bringing light and visibility to the multiple experiences of Blackness in Brazil.

Panel 2: Social Rights of the Black Population

Zuleika Rivera, the panel’s moderator, highlighted the importance of discussing the discrimination that Afro-LGBTI people face in access to health, education and work, specifically mentioning the difficulties of transgender people. As an example, she cited the Escola Sem Partido [1] project, which proposes to prevent discussions on racism, misogyny and LGBTIphobia in the field of education, advancing a conservative government agenda. Therefore, in her opinion, the report is an important milestone in the fight for LGBTI rights.

Presenting the second part of the document, Isaac Porto draws attention to the myth of racial democracy in Brazil, which has been denounced by the Afro-Brazilian movement for decades. The myth of racial democracy has marked the ideology of whitening, according to which white values ​​are unique and universal, forging the construction of society as a whole. With this, Porto reiterated the urgency to racialize reflections on the human rights of the LGBTI population, emphasizing that the differences between Black and white LGBTI experiences become more astonishing when comparing those of cis and trans people.

“It is clear that Black LGBTI people are the most affected in terms of murders in Brazil, and are the preferred targets of police violence, also facing more difficulties in access to justice, healthcare, education and work. Thus, it is essential to strengthen Brazilian organizations and activists work so that they have the necessary conditions to make the human rights situation of the LGBTI population in Brazil more visible, as well as the ways in which they have resisted the most diverse and perverse violations,” he commented.

Leonardo Peçanha, a Black trans man and activist at the Brazilian Institute of Transmasculinities (Ibrat) and the National Forum of Black Travestis and Transsexuals (FONATRANS), emphasized the issues in access to healthcare for Afro-LGBTI people. He stressed that there are many trans men who are getting pregnant and face gynecological treatments that are reinforced by misogynistic beliefs. Among these beliefs affecting Black trans men, is the myth that Black people have a higher pain tolerance, which is only one of the many consequences of racism.

Janaína Oliveira, Administrative Coordinator of the Afro-LGBT Network, believes that being Black in Brazil means that even the death of the Black population needs to be debated constantly because in Brazil Black people first have to fight for their lives, and then fight for their rights. “Launching this report is not only creating international visibility, but also making the Brazilian population aware of our invisibility. It is a document that brings our lack of access and treatment by the State to our bodies. The report allows us to think about public policies that generate equal conditions of access for the Black Brazilian LGBTI population” she commented.

Alessandra Ramos, President of Instituto Transformar Shelida Ayana, denounced that access to healthcare is not guaranteed on an equal basis to trans people, who are often received with laughter and presented with more barriers when searching for healthcare options. These situations prove that it is necessary to recognize the specific rights of the trans population. “It is important that to know that trans people are the most affected when we talk about the intersectionality of gender and race. These people do not have full enjoyment of their rights, and because of this, the report is a milestone,” she explained.

Concluding the discussion, the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (IE SOGI), Victor Madrigal-Borloz, celebrated the completion of the report and its role in strengthening the construction of public policies on access to healthcare, work and justice. Madrigal-Borloz believes that “the report presents the different identities within the LGBTI movement and the need to recognize these agendas is through the racialization of discussion. The report connects social identities and the importance of occupying political spaces.” With this, the IE SOGI affirmed his mandate’s commitment to continuing its work from a racial perspective.

In light of the research and debate generated between several LGBTI civil society organizations that participated in the construction of the report, Race and Equality concludes the document presenting recommendations to the Brazilian State, international human rights organizations, civil society and other government agencies, of which we highlight:

1 – The ratification of the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance, as well as the Inter-American Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance.

2 – The establishment of a plan to combat LGBTIphobic violence in Brazil, through intersectoral action that establishes unified guidelines to combat LGBTIphobia and racism.

3 – That the Public Ministry of Labor carry out specific campaigns against discrimination against the Afro-LGBTI population in order to guarantee fair criteria for selection, promotion, wages and working conditions.

4 – That the necessary support be given to civil society organizations that are engaged in the production of data concerning the murder of LGBTI people, with the guarantee that they will not find unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles for their proper functioning, and that their work will be respected by government officials.

Download the report in English: https://bit.ly/3cil69J 

Download the report in Portuguese and Spanish: http://bit.ly/3evTMnm

Did you miss our launch? Watch: http://bit.ly/350lGF5

 

[1] The Movement Escola Sem Partido was created in 2004 by lawyer Miguel Nagib. Generally speaking, the movement demands a supposed “neutrality” for teachers, limiting them from giving their opinions in the classroom and restricting encouragement of political participation.  In May of 2014, Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of Jair Bolsonaro, then a state representative for Rio de Janeiro, asked Nagib to write a bill entitled Escola Sem Partido. Right after that, his brother Carlos Bolsonaro, a councilman for the city of Rio de Janeiro, presented a bill of the same type in the state capital. From there, these bills spread across the country. From 2014 to August of 2019, 121 bills of this type had already been presented in state and municipal legislative chambers in Brazil.  Source: O Globo. Anúncio de suspensão garantiu patrocinador secreto ao movimento Escola Sem Partido. November 8, 2019. Available at: https://oglobo.globo.com/sociedade/educacao/anuncio-de-suspensao-garantiu-patrocinador-secreto-ao-movimento-escola-sem-partido-24068869

Lesbian Rebellions: encounter of lesbian voices from Brazil and Colombia

“Lesbians against war! Lesbians against capitalism! Lesbians against racism! Lesbians against neoliberal terrorism!” It was with these words of liberation that on February 2007, during the 7th Forum of Feminist Lesbians from Latin America and the Caribbean, October 13 was anointed the day of Lesbian Rebellions (1).  During this meeting of anti-patriarchal struggle, with close to 200 feminist lesbian women from various countries, the General Assembly of the Forum decided to collectively honor the 1st Regional Forum of Feminist Lesbians which took place in Mexico, on October 13, 1987.

According to Angelina Marín, lesbian feminist activist of the collective Moiras, October 13 was consecrated as witch day and also represents the day of the arrival of the colonizers to indigenous lands. Marín pronounced this during her speech in Santiago, Chile’s city square, in a meeting with other lesbian feminists to celebrate this day (2). The day rallies feminist lesbian collectives and organizations around the region to celebrate lesbian existence through art and culture as an act of rebellion against the oppressions imposed by a patriarchal system that oppresses the existence of those that defy a cis-heteronormative society.

To honor these women’s bodies who persist and resist the erasure of their identities and their political expressions, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) invited lesbian women from Brazil and Colombia to share their voices, views and experiences on the meaning of this day and the challenges they face in their countries. Know their rebellious stories.

Colombia

 For María Vélez, an activist from Caribe Afirmativo, “this 13th of October is a day to remember and thank our older lesbian sisters for the struggle they began years ago. From naming, to self- recognition, to cohabitation of same-sex couples—these were the first steps so that today we can enjoy the recognition of these rights.”

María draws attention to the fact that lesbian rebellions pose challenges, especially in a country marked by an armed conflict like Colombia. These are adversities that make lesbian women constantly experience situations of intimate private violence, forced displacement, gang rape and forced pregnancy. She emphasizes that because it is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country, in all these indigenous and Black identities, structural racism and machismo are embedded.

“Therefore, being indigenous and LGBTI or Afro-LGBTI, we face oppression inside our own communities and a particular type of violence in each territory. When you are a lesbian and Afrodescendant the violence takes a particular form related to the exotic nature of our identity and the sexualization of our bodies as Black women. Society considers that if you are a Black woman then you must be heterosexual, otherwise it does not suit us.”

Sami Arazabaleta, an activist from the NGO Somos Identidad, highlights the importance of lesbian women recognizing themselves as sexual beings that admire their own bodies outside of the heteronormative and machista norms. “Lesbian Rebellions are a necessary call to make lesbians visible, we refuse to continue being invisible from the “homosexual” global norm. We have learned that what is not named does not exist. A Lesbian Rebellion is to be and to love a woman face to face.”

Lesbian Rebellions are also an act of repudiation to the binary, feminist lesbians denounce that the binary way of seeing and being in the world confines lesbians to certain stereotypes. As an act of liberation, Lesbian Rebellions proclaim that their bodies exist for themselves, in a relationship of interdependence and (co)existence with nature. Sami translates her rebellion into poetry: “lesbian love is sublime, it allows women to be loved and recognized without male approval. I am a lesbian because I love myself and I love a woman!”

Brazil

The filmmaker, Naira Évine, activist from the Levante Negro collective, reflects that the affirmation of lesbian existence within the audiovisual industry is already an act of rebellion. “Because we are going against every heterosexual and cis-heteronormative system that makes a point of erasing our existence. It makes a point that our memory is not passed from generation to generation, that our stories are not told, that our perspectives are not commented or filmed. So, when a lesbian filmmaker, and in my case, a Black woman, makes sure that all these demarcations are placed on the agenda and are also spoken about and respected, I think that is being a rebellious woman,” she says.

In 2019, Naira launched the short film “O dia em que resolvi voar” (3) (The day I decided to fly, in English) which portrays lesbian stories. She re-enforces that films made by lesbian women, that talk about lesbian experiences and that have a racialized perspective, or not, of a lesbian woman, and are Latin American, is already a great act of rebellion. The filmmaker recalls that lesbians are diverse and deserve respect, a dignified life, a healthy and well-lived life, within the scope of basic human rights. Therefore, they resist when they insist that their existences be understood and respected.

“I don’t think there is a single way to be a lesbian, a way to demonstrate your sexual orientation. Oftentimes the closet is a place of protection, it is a place of self-defense and being inside the closet does not always mean cowardice. Sometimes it is also very courageous not to talk about it; there are many cases. There is no one way to dream of a more egalitarian society. This society would be conglomeration of the existence of several lesbians, bisexuals, homosexuals and the diverse experiences of different social groups. We are surrounded by lesbian rebels! Glad this day exists! Let us celebrate more and talk more about these brave women!” she says.

Camila Carmo, professor, investigator, writer and activist of the LesbiBahia collective, stresses that when thinking about what lesbian rebellions would look like in a country like Brazil, the construction of a political project that is emancipatory for all women and that defies the heterosexual system is key. As a Black, lesbian woman, she understands that “being a lesbian woman in Brazil is dealing everyday with racism, machismo, sexism and also putting myself in those movements of re(existence) for the construction of other modes of existence.” (4)

Camila also points to the structural issues of racism, poverty and femicide that are present within the cis-heteronormative system and how that is aggravated in territories marked by dictatorships and colonial invasions. “I think that the challenge has to do with removing attacks against indigenous people and the exploitation of people, animals and nature. This reflection goes through us and defines us all, even though I say ‘I’. Because when I say ‘I’, I am also talking about us. I do not believe alliances are possible outside a collective, so our big challenge is to think about how to act collectively, respecting differences and individualities,” she analyses.

Based on the stories of these inspiring rebellious lesbians, Race and Equality supports the defiance that comes from the strengthening of affective bonds between women and nature, between human rights and disobedience as a rupture with colonialism. We re-enforce our commitment to make visible the agenda and voices that represent Latin America, in alliance with activists and civil society organizations, and will denounce violations that affect the peaceful construction of a democratic society.

Race and Equality recommends that States in the region:

  1. Make all the necessary efforts to combat lesbofobia within their society, foster actions that promote and respect sexual diversity, and combat prejudice and discrimination;
  2. Create public policies to combat lesbofobia in the educational sphere and inhibit any initiatives that seek to prohibit debates around race, gender, and sexuality in schools and universities;
  3. Sign and ratify the Interamerican Convention against Racism, Racial Discriminations and other Related Forms of Intolerance and the Interamerican Convention against all forms of Discrimination and Intolerance.

[1]  http://feministautonoma.blogspot.com/2007/10/13-de-octubre-da-de-rebeldas-lesbianas.html

[2]  http://feministautonoma.blogspot.com/2007/10/13-de-octubre-da-de-rebeldas-lesbianas.html

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYjs54EfwxY&t=26s&ab_channel=Naira%C3%89vine

[4] On the concept of (re) existences, Camila makes reference to Professor Ana Lúcia da Silva Souza.

Race and Equality urges concrete government action to combat the alarming increase in violence against LGBTI Colombians

Bogota, October 6, 2020.– The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) is deeply concerned at the rising rates of violence and discrimination against the LGBTI population of Colombia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Race and Equality calls upon the Colombian government to take concrete actions to prevent, investigate, and respond to attacks and killings motivated by anti-LGBTI prejudice.

Although LGBTI Colombians have achieved important recent victories in securing their human rights, including a court ruling that the LGBTI population of the city of El Carmen (Bolívar department) was eligible to receive reparations for abuses during Colombia’s armed conflict as a collective body and another allowing a trans woman to receive women’s pension benefits, the numbers of killings, threats, and cases of harassment continue to grow exponentially.

As of September 15th, the national Ombudsman’s Office had reported 63 murders of LGBTI persons and 388 cases of violence motivated by anti-LGBTI bias. The Office stated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, “prejudice and discrimination have been exacerbated, obstacles to accessing justice by reporting crimes have increased, and so have other barriers created by a lack of empathy among officials charged with assisting the population.” To date, Race and Equality has documented 61 attacks against LGBTI persons, among them discrimination in public spaces, denial of rights to health and to nutrition, physical attacks including those with weapons, harassment, threats, and murders.

On September 5th, a man aggressively accosted Bogotá mayor Claudia López, a lesbian woman, and accused her of “teaching improper things to children.” This homophobic act, which the man said he did “in the name of Jesus Christ,” reveals that a climate of discrimination and social exclusion goes beyond official institutions. Despite formal progress, there is still not widespread tolerance for sexual diversity in Colombian society, preventing true recognition and inclusion from taking root.

Alarming numbers of attacks

From January-September 2020, Race and Equality has documented 30 cases in which LGBTI people were killed or severely wounded. Most recently, the killing of Juliana, a trans woman, from gunshots fired by a soldier put the violence facing LGBTI Colombians, especially trans people, into the spotlight. Throughout the country, indicators of violence are on the rise: in Armenia (Quindío department), the Ombudsman’s office issued an official alert about dangers facing the LGBTI population on August 25th. On September 1st, the LGBTI Network in Boyacá department denounced increasing police abuses of sex workers, particularly trans women, on social media. Caribe Afirmativo (Affirmative Caribbean) recently published an open letter to the authorities in the Caribbean region demanding a response to increased murders and attacks against LGBTI people, which have doubled compared to the same period in 2019.

LGBTI leaders face particular risks

Attacks against the leaders of LGBTI organizations indicate the fierce desire by LGBTI-phobic elements to repress pro-LGBTI initiatives across the country. To date, Race and Equality has documented 8 cases of attacks, threats, and murders of LGBTI leaders.

A dramatic example took place when Aurora Iglesias, popularly known as “Zunga,” a trans leader in Florencia (Caquetá department), was threatened with a firearm in her own home and warned to stop her work in the community. On September 17th, a burned LGBTI pride flag was found in front of a leader’s home in Armenia. The home of a gay leader in El Roble (Sucre department) was burned on August 25th. In addition to the direct impacts upon the targeted victims, these acts send a threatening message designed to tamp down LGBTI activism. Incidents such as the murder of Mateo, a trans community leader, and the attempted murder of John Restrepo, a leader in LGBTI conflict victims’ activism, both of which took place in public in broad daylight, underscore the risk facing LGBTI leaders.

Police abuse of sex workers

As Colombia experiences a tense climate of protest and debate about abuses by security forces, serious rights violations committed by the police against LGBTI persons have come to light. Race and Equality has documented 12 cases in which members of the National Police were denounced for attacking trans sex workers. These cases include physical aggression, unjustified seizures of property, and attacks using police service weapons. A common pattern is for police to threaten sex workers with arrest or fines (including arrests or fines for violating quarantine), demand payment, and physically and psychologically abuse those who do not pay, as has taken place in Medellín, Caldas, and Bogotá.

In another highly concerning incident, a young gay man named Juan Luis Guzmán was found dead in a police station under suspicious circumstances. He had been brought to the station after being arrested for breaking the curfew imposed due to COVID-19.

As civil society has consistently documented, police and military forces in Colombia play a major role in reproducing patterns of discrimination and exclusion against LGBTI people. When LGBTI people seek justice by reporting the abuses they suffer, they face greater vulnerability due to a lack of LGBTI-sensitive and gender-sensitive approaches in complaint offices, police retaliations, and/or institutional cover-ups.

Race and Equality joins with Colombian civil society to denounce these violations of LGBTI people’s rights and the ongoing crisis of violence against the LGBTI population. We call upon the government to:

  1. Prioritize investigations of rights violations against LGBTI people, sanction those responsible, and combat impunity. These efforts must integrate an approach that is sensitive to sexual and gender diversity.
  2. Strengthen efforts to educate security forces, especially the National Police, on LGBTI rights; monitor their compliance with LGBTI rights; and improve internal investigations about violations of LGBTI rights to fight impunity.
  3. Ensure that LGBTI people enjoy the right to access justice without discrimination. To make this right effective, efforts to train justice sector officials on LGBTI rights, mainstream LGTBI-sensitive approaches in the justice system, and strengthen monitoring systems will be crucial.
  4. Publicly condemn acts of discrimination and violence against the LGBTI population and implement public policies to combat LGBTI-phobia among the Colombian public.

UN Independent Expert on SOGI calls for global ban on “Conversion Therapy”

Washington D.C. July 17, 2020. – On July 14, the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (IE SOGI), Victor Madrigal-Borloz, launched his report on practices of so-called “conversion therapy” in an interactive online event in Spanish and Portuguese, following his presentation to the Human Rights Council on July 7-9, where he explained the severity of these practices, and the need for a global ban to protect LGBTI people.

The event included the participation of the UN Resident Coordinator in Honduras, Alice Shackelford, and Andrés Sánchez Thorin, Deputy Representative and Officer-in-Charge of the Regional Office for Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

According to the report, “conversion therapy” is used as an umbrella term to describe interventions of a wide-ranging nature, all of which have in common the belief that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity can and should be changed. Such practices aim (or claim to aim) at changing people from gay, lesbian, or bisexual to heterosexual and from trans or gender diverse to cisgender.

In the report, Madrigal-Borloz provided examples of interventions applied to attempt conversion which include acts of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse; electrocution and forced medication; and isolation and confinement, as well as verbal abuse and humiliation. It also shows that conversion therapy puts LGBTI people through many forms of physical and mental abuse, which constitutes inhumane, cruel, and degrading treatment and can amount to torture depending on the severity of pain and suffering inflicted.  “All practices which attempt forms of conversion are inherently humiliating, degrading, and discriminatory,” he explains.

The report also examines the perpetrators, promoters, and economics surrounding these practices, showing that they are oftentimes a lucrative business for different providers worldwide.  It notes that in some places, such as Ecuador, the average monthly cost for internment in these centers can be estimated to be around $500 per month.

Leading up to this event, Madrigal-Borloz carried out a series of consultations and received inputs from different regions around the world on these practices. This included an expert meeting held at Harvard University, where over 30 experts and activists from various countries came together to discuss this important topic. The meeting, supported by the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) and the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, opened dialogue on the subject which was vital for the elaboration of the report.

During the event, the IE SOGI highlighted that “there have been norms on what is considered sexual orientation and gender identity, and those who fall outside of those norms, such as LGBTI people, suffer stigma and discrimination.”

UN Deputy Representative Andrés Sánchez confirmed that, “The report reveals that these conversion therapies are carried out in all regions of the world and by a wide range of actors and include the active participation of family members and community members. It also highlights how children are vulnerable to these practices that cause serious and irreversible damage to their well-being.”

He continued by explaining that “the description of the pain and suffering of people who have undergone these so-called conversion therapies should deeply concern the entire population and the States to ensure that there is respect and guarantees of their human rights.”

The event was livestreamed through Facebook and attendees from various countries in Latin America joined. Attendees expressed their questions, concerns, and gratitude, and acknowledged the importance of these findings for their communities and how they are the first steps towards change.

Based on the findings in his report, the Independent Expert calls for a global ban on such practices and issues the following recommendations to States:

  1. Take urgent measures to protect children and young people from practices of “conversion therapy.”
  2. Carry out campaigns to raise awareness among parents, families and communities about the invalidity and ineffectiveness of and the damage caused by practices of “conversion therapy.”
  3. Adopt and facilitate healthcare and other services related to the exploration, free development, and/or affirmation of sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
  4. Foster dialogue with key stakeholders, including medical and health professional organizations, faith-based organizations, educational institutions, and community-based organizations to raise awareness about the human rights violations connected to practices of “conversion therapy.”

Race and Equality continues to support the work of the Mandate of the Independent Expert on SOGI and joins the call for a global ban on practices of “conversion therapy.”

To learn more about the report and watch this presentation, please follow the links below:

Summary: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/SexualOrientation/ConversionTherapyReport.pdf

Full Report: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/44/53

On July 10, there was another launch event in English. Watch the English presentation here:

https://www.facebook.com/IESOGI/videos/278885676780658/?v=278885676780658

#EndConversionTherapy

Pride Month: A Time to Celebrate and Resist

This year marks fifty-one years since the Stonewall Inn riots. This year we celebrate in isolation or with social distancing measures in place; nevertheless, we celebrate and we resist. The Stonewall Inn riots empowered generations to come and galvanized the LGBTI movement around the world, it became a symbolic call to arms. Stonewall said enough is enough and the personal became political.

Fifty-one years later we have a lot to celebrate. Many countries around the world have recognized the existence of LGBTI people and have passed laws prohibiting discrimination due to sexual orientation and gender identity. Transgender people also have more rights now and can legally change their names in many countries. In addition, in many countries, LGBTI can marry the person they love regardless of their sex or gender. In fifty-one years, the LGBTI movement has accomplished many things that were only dreamed of pre-Stonewall riots.

In Latin America, this month we celebrate Costa Rica’s legalization of same-sex marriage in compliance with the Inter-American Court`s Advisory Opinion 24/17. We also celebrate Brazil’s Supreme Court decision to allow gay men and bisexual men to donate blood. The decision; however, did not include travesties and transgender women. The last decade has seen many Latin American countries pass legislation in favor of LGBTI rights. There are now seven countries in Latin America that recognize same-sex marriages or unions[1], eight countries that allow transgender people to legally change their name[2], and countless others have anti-discrimination laws in place.

However, the sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBTI people in the region is constantly questioned. The rise of fundamentalist groups and hate speech has meant our lives and achievements are also threatened. The murders of LGBTI persons exhibit a profound hate, a sort of macabre scenario, just because we deviate from the binary. LGBTI people have also not been included in any government’s response to COVID-19, even though they represent one of the most vulnerable populations and are more likely to work in the informal sector and are therefore more vulnerable. Other countries in the region implemented gender-based measures which meant transgender people and gender diverse people were discriminated against. In Brazil, in the middle of COVID-19, murders against transsexual women and travesties continue to increase[3]. The fact is that we continue to live in a cis-heteronormative, machista society that continues to silence LGBTI voices, but we resist.

Pride Month is also a month to celebrate the historical memory of the LGBTI movement around the world. We must not forget the LGBTI lives lost during war. Latin America is also a region that continues to deal with the legacy of armed conflict and LGBTI victims. In Peru, May 31 is recognized at the national day against hate crimes and is a day where the LGBTI community commemorates the LGBTI lives lost during the armed internal conflict. To this day, the exact number of people who were killed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is unknown, this was never a part of the Truth Commission’s mandate.[4] However, the armed forces and guerilla groups both instituted “cleansing campaigns” which looked to eliminate the LGBTI population in the country. The signing of the Peace Agreement in Colombia presents an opportunity to learn from Peru’s errors and include LGBTI voices in the historical memory of the armed conflict and build a post conflict society that breaks the cycle of violence against LGBTI people.

This month is a time to celebrate but also to reflect on the achievements we have made and the coming struggles. We are living in a unique moment where the structural inequalities and historical marginalization of the LGBTI community is more apparent than ever, COVID-19 is proof of that.

A post-COVID-19 world must include the LGBTI community, promote tolerance, and education –  but what does that look like for a region that is so unequal, carries a legacy of colonization, and condemns whoever is “different”?

At Race and Equality, we make the following recommendations to States:

First, States must educate the population on sexual orientation and gender identity. Many of the prejudices against the LGBTI community come from a place of ignorance and informing the population is a way to combat this. States can incorporate an LGBTI program in their public tv channels.

Second, there is an urgent need to train all public authorities, not only on sexual orientation and gender identity, but also on LGBTI rights as well. States should mandate that all public authorities receive a course on these issues and current international jurisprudence on LGBTI rights.

Third, a gender identity law is crucial for the recognition of the rights of transgender people. It opens the door to other rights, allowing them to register under their social name at the bank or school and avoid the stigma their biological name carries.

Fourthly, all States should sign and ratify the Inter-American Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance[5].

Finally, States need to collect disaggregated data on LGBTI people. Public policies will only work if we know where the gaps are.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-52803210

[2] https://www.eltiempo.com/mundo/latinoamerica/trans-en-america-latina-una-poblacion-en-constante-riesgo-480934

[3] https://antrabrasil.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/boletim-2-2020-assassinatos-antra-1.pdf

[4] https://idehpucp.pucp.edu.pe/analisis/31-de-mayo-recordando-los-crimenes-de-odio-durante-el-conflicto-armado-por-ariana-jauregui/

[5] http://www.oas.org/en/sla/dil/inter_american_treaties_A-69_discrimination_intolerance.asp

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