Latin America Is the Most Deadly Region for Transgender Communities Lucia He - Equal Times
go to original November 16, 2016

Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have legalised same-sex marriage. What explains the advance of gay rights in Latin America, and how far will they spread? (The Economist)

On the night of 13 October 2015, Diana Sacayán, a prominent Argentinian transgender activist, died after being stabbed 13 times in her home. Sacayán had become a strong figurehead in the trans community, and had been the driving force behind a law setting quotas for the employment of trans people in the Province of Buenos Aires, amongst other achievements. So far, no date has been set for the trial of the two murder suspects.

On 28 July this year, during LGBTI International Pride Day, hundreds of activists and defenders of the rights of transgender people took to the streets of Buenos Aires to demand justice for the death of Sacayán and the dozens of trans people who have been murdered in Argentina in the past few years.

“We are seeing one transvestite friend a week being murdered; we live a marginalised existence, constantly at threat of violence, in conditions that are related to the fact that the government does not treat us like other people. Many from our community have been murdered, yet so far we have not seen a single trial,” said Romina Pereyra, an activist and member of the Commission for Justice for Diana Sacayán, speaking to Equal Times during the march.

Of these, 78 per cent occurred in Central and South America. Six of the ten countries with the most murders of trans people are in Latin America: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, and Guatemala. Argentina is in eleventh place.

The most up-to-date figures, relating only to 2016, that the organisation will publish in November, have again put Latin America in the spotlight, although as the TGEU points out that “the trans communities in this region are very closely connected, so it is much easier to report a crime here than in Africa”.

According to activists, one of the reasons the murder rate amongst trans people is so high in the region is the deeply rooted machismo in Latin American society.

Read the rest at Equal Times

Related: Transgender Day of Remembrance: A Time to Honor All Who Have Been Murdered Simply for Being Transgender (LGBT Weekly)

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