Politicized backlash against LGBT rights and tolerance was one of the biggest stories in Latin America this year. Politicized backlash is a special type of backlash. The struggle for LGBT rights everywhere in the world typically produces some sort of counter-reaction: conservative citizens come together to criticize and resist these changes, often claiming the threat to traditional values. The LGBT community and the struggle for LGBT rights is accustomed to this reactionary backlash.
But politicized backlash is different: it is less routine, and it is more insidious. It occurs when societal resistance to LGBT rights gets mobilized politically, forming coalitions with leading political actors and organizations, with the aim of taking advantage of democratic institutions to effectively block or undo change.
While politicized backlash has always existed in the region, it reached new heights this year. First, political pushback to LGBT rights expanded its institutional scope, where large sections of important political parties and congresses have become increasingly captured by these conservative forces mobilized against tolerance and the extension of LGBT rights. Second, it expanded its regional scope. More countries now see conservative forces pushing for the roll back of LGBT rights as part of the mainstream political debate, including in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and many Central American and Caribbean countries. And third, the reactionary forces this year scored important political victories. These reactionary forces also gained greater political traction in the United States, where more than 200 anti-gay bills have been introduced in a number of state legislatures since the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 in favor of gay marriage, with the state of North Carolina leading the way by passing a bill that forces transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds to the sex listed in birth certificates.
And yet, despite this heightened politicized backlash, the region scored enormous achievements in the struggle for LGBT+ rights. It held the gayest Olympic games in history, produced the first gay-inclusive peace agreement in the world, continued to lead the Global South in creating LGBT chambers of commerce, saw lesbian and transgender people running for office, and witnessed episodes in which the rights of non-traditional queer communities received some recognition.
For these reasons, the top story of 2016 is not the unprecedented politicized backlash but rather the persistence of progress even in the face of these growing challenges. Don’t get me wrong, the politicization of the reaction against LGBT rights was a huge story. It’s just not the top one. Here’s my review of the top 10 LGBT stories from Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016:
10. Hurts so good: FIFA, the international soccer governing body, issued fines to seven countries in response to soccer fans using homophobic chants during games. Six of the seven countries were Latin American: Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras. Croatia was the seventh country. The fines were welcomed by LGBT advocates because they prompted discussion across non-traditional audiences on the unacceptability of public homophobia. Others argued that stricter fines will still be needed to make a real dent.
9. Olympic Gold: Rio managed to host the gayest Olympic games in the history of the world. At least 56 openly LGBT athletes competed, more than doubling the London 2012 number, in an environment that was deemed admirably safe. The games featured the first ever same-sex couple competing, Kate Richardson-Walsh and Helen Richardson-Walsh. In addition, Brazil’s delegation at the opening ceremony was led by a transgender woman, Lea T., also the first time ever that any delegation was led by a trans person. And Brazil’s first gold medalist at the games, Judo athlete and community-activist Rafaela Silva, caused a sensation across the world when she came out publicly after her win.
8. Finally, some progress: Two countries not known for strong LGBT rights, Belize and Venezuela, made some progress. In Belize, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a colonial-era anti-sodomy law that is common elsewhere in the English-speaking Caribbean. The decision strikes down Section 53 of the Criminal Code, which banned “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.” In Venezuela there were two LGBT milestones. Bowing to opposition pressure, the government released political prisoner and LGBT rights activist Rosmit Mantilla. In addition, the constitutional wing of the Supreme Court ruled that children from non-heterosexual couples ought to be treated with equal rights as children from heterosexual couples. The ruling came in the context of a court case filed by Migdely Miranda, a Venezuelan mother who gave birth in Argentina to the son of her then-wife and egg donor, the late Ginyveth Soto.
7. A new AIDS crisis in Venezuela: Venezuela’s food and medicine crisis is taking a lethal toll on HIV patients. With the the country’s economic crash, imports of food and medicine have collapsed to crisis levels. The national federation of pharmacies reported that only 15 percent of the medicines needed were available. The national health system, which used to provide antiretroviral drugs, has pretty much discontinued providing them. The stoppage is affecting approximately 4,000 HIV patients, who now face life-threatening conditions.
6. Violence, yet again: The region’s violence against LGBT individuals continues to make headlines. In Brazil, one LGBTQ person is killed in a hate-motivated crime each day, and 40 percent of murder victims are transgender women. In Venezuela, a report concluded that 98 transgender people have been assassinated in the last eight years. In Haiti, the threat of violence (together with widespread opposition), prompted the government to cancel an LGBT festival in Port-au-Prince. In Mexico, in what came to be known as the country’s very own Orlando Pulse massacre, seven people were killed and 12 injured when gunmen entered the gay club La Madame, in Veracruz and opened fire into a crowd of about 180 people.
5. Gay business is good business is Latin business: LGBT chambers of commerce were established in Chile, the Dominican Republic and Peru, solidifying the very Latin American trend of progressive LGBT social movements working closely with the private sector to create a friendlier environment for LGBT customers, employees, and investors. Similar chambers had already been created in Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia.
4. Trans victories with a +: Transgender rights continue to expand, as well as the rights of other less traditional queer communities. In Brazil, before being impeached, president Dilma Rousseff issued a decree authorizing individuals to use their so-called social name (nome social) in any public agency such as a ministry, a social program or university, which was seen as a victory for defenders of sexual and gender diversity. (You paying attention North Carolina?) Argentina, which celebrated the fourth anniversary of its progressive gender identity law, reported that at least 10,000 people have changed their names and sex in official government ID documents. In Peru, a country not known for progressive court rulings, the Supreme Court surprised the nation by ruling that “biology” is not the only element determining sex assignment; the latter is also a “construct.” In Ecuador, transgender woman Diane Rodríguez and lesbian activist Pamela Troya announced their candidacy for congress in 2017. In Panama, the first trans person ever was permitted to change name and sex assignment in national ID documents. And in Brazil and Chile, the year brought victories for other queers: in the former, a few more “polylove or polyamorous” relationships (with more than two partners) were legally recognized, and in the former, the Ministry of Health ordered the medical community not to conduct genitalia-altering surgeries on intersex minors until the person is old enough to make a gender decision on their own, a victory for the intersex community. Intersex individuals are those born with both male and female anatomical features.
3. Presidential evolution and retrogression: The presidents of Chile and Mexico, Michelle Bachelet and Enrique Peña Nieto, publicly expressed their commitment to enacting marriage equality, and in Bolivia, President Evo Morales successfully promoted a progressive transgender law. These are examples of presidential evolution. None was a major LGBT rights champion before, and in the case of Morales, he had a history of making embarrassing homophobic comments. In contrast, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa showed more signs of continued backsliding. He issued a partial veto to a progressive gender identity law approved by the Ecuadorian Congress, making the law far more restrictive than was approved by Congress.
2. Politicized backlash: In a number of countries, a coalition of conservative voters, religious leaders and professional politicians organized massive public relations campaigns and even protests against gay rights, with some success. A common theme is their opposition to “gender ideology,” a term they use to describe and dismiss efforts to promote tolerance toward sexual diversity and gender fluidity. For these groups, not recognizing the gender associated with anatomical features is anti-Biblical, and efforts to teach sexuality tolerance at schools violates the rights of parents to teach their own values. In Brazil, these groups played a role in the impeaching president Rousseff and, as in Chile, helped elect a number of mayors in municipal elections. In Puerto Rico, they helped elect a new governor who had promised evangelicals that he would ban gender ideology in education reforms. In Mexico they organized massive protests against gay adoptions and succeeded in persuading the Mexican Congress to defeat a marriage-equality law. In the Dominican Republic, they sustained a campaign against openly gay U.S. ambassador, James Brewster, urging President Danilo Medina to declare him persona non grata. In Colombia, where the Supreme Court essentially legalized gay marriage, conservatives responded on a number of fronts: mobilizing massive protests against an effort by the Ministry of Education to distributed pamphlets raising awareness about bullying, organizing opposition to a plebiscite to approve the peace agreement, and currently leading a campaign to call for a referendum against adoptions by non-heterosexual couples. This is a trend that is very advanced in the United States, where conservative evangelical groups work closely with leaders of the Republican Party to advance laws, regulations, and even candidates for office with an openly homophobic agenda. The United States’ politicized backlash has gone global, with many of the conservative/religious groups teaming up with similar groups abroad; they played a major role in helping organize the anti-LGBT marches in Mexico this year.
1. A gay peace: Colombia produced the first-ever peace agreement in the world mentioning the need for reparations for LGBT-victims of a civil conflict. The peace agreement was signed between the Colombian government and the FARC, one of the oldest and most vicious insurgent guerrillas in Latin America. Despite major societal opposition to its provisions (see above), the signatories of the agreement stood firm in recognizing some of the demands stemming from Colombia’s LGBT community. The agreement calls for investigating cases of hate crimes against LGBT people during the conflict and offering reparations. Despite its imperfections, this peace agreement is likely to become a standard in international law on how to think about LGBT issues in the settlement of civil wars.
On the whole, the region has advanced. Regression never deserves to be the lead story, especially in a region that has made so many unprecedented advances in progressively re-defining gender and identify, the rights of gay parents, hate speech, marriage equality, and tolerance—and even building LGBT rights into a historic peace agreement. Nevertheless, the emergence and growth of politicized backlash, not just south of the Rio Grande but in the United States as well, should give all of us a reason to remain vigilant and aware of the risks in 2017.