First modification: 07/02/2021 – 20:51
In this edition of El Debate, at the end of June in which LGBTIQ + pride is celebrated, we take stock of the situations that afflict this sector, especially in Latin America, which has the highest rates of violence against it. collective, although, paradoxically, it also has some of the most progressive and advanced laws on equality. A thorny issue in the region for having diverse conservative societies, not very tolerant and with a structural disparity at all levels.
Between 2014 and 2020 alone, some 3,514 LGBTIQ + people were murdered in the region. Of these, about 1,401 victims related to prejudice. By 2020, the year of the pandemic closed with 351 fatalities. Countries such as Colombia, Mexico and Honduras concentrate 89% of the total victims, while in Brazil 175 victims were reported, all of them trans women.
Meanwhile, relationships between same-sex couples continue to be a crime or punished in at least nine Latin American and Caribbean states; in South America, Guyana stands out, with a very restrictive law, and in the Caribbean there is Jamaica and several states in the Antilles that have similar laws.
Only Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba and Mexico protect LGBTIQ + people in a specific way in the Constitution of their countries, while equal marriage is recognized in seven nations: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and some states of Mexico, including Mexico City, Chile and Bolivia recognize civil unions. In Chile, the law that allows equal marriage is underway in Congress and is promoted by the Government of President Sebastián Piñera.
At least 11 states in Latin America and the Caribbean recognize attacks against various people as “hate crimes” and only in 14 countries is there a law that protects discrimination at work.