News

Chile’s first openly gay elected official takes office

Jaime Parada Hoyl won a seat on the Providencia municipal council on Oct. 28

Published

13 years ago

December 7, 2012

Jaime Parada Hoyl on Oct. 28 became Chile’s first openly gay candidate elected to office. (Photo courtesy of Jaime Parada Hoyl)

A Chilean LGBT rights activist who became the first openly gay political candidate elected in the South American country officially took office on Thursday.

Jaime Parada Hoyl, spokesperson for the Movement of Homosexual Integration and Liberation (MOVILH,) is one of five candidates who won seats on the municipal council in Providencia, a wealthy enclave in Santiago, the country’s capital, on Oct. 28. He wore a gay Pride flag on his lapel during the inauguration ceremony.

“It is further proof that Chile is a country that is changing,” he told the Washington Blade hours after he took office, noting he remains thankful to those who voted for him. “Providencia, the third wealthiest commune in the country, was believed to be a conservative stronghold. Today, without question, I was elected with a strong vote, precisely because I ran a campaign focused on the demands of the LGBTI population and the effects it had on local life in [Providencia.]”

Parada, who is among the nine LGBT Latin American activists who met with their American counterparts in September during a State Department-organized trip, conceded he was surprised by how some Providencia residents responded to his campaign.

“Many people, including older people, told me on the street, ‘I voted for you because you are brave,’” he said. “I never thought that my platform would resonate with generations that are usually seen as more conservative.”

Parada’s election is the latest in a series of events over the last year that have highlighted the South American country’s increasingly visible LGBT rights movement.

President Sebastián Piñera in July signed a hate crimes and anti-discrimination bill with sexual orientation and gender identity and expression roughly four months after a group of self-described neo-Nazis allegedly beat Daniel Zamurio to death in a Santiago park because he was gay.

Thousands of Santiaguïnos marched in the streets of the capital in the days and weeks after the March 3 attack that had left him in a coma. An estimated 80,000 people also took part in an LGBT rights march in Santiago in June.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in February ruled in favor of lesbian Judge Karen Atala who lost custody of her three daughters to her ex-husband in 2005 because of her sexual orientation. Three gay Chilean couples who had been denied marriage licenses filed a lawsuit with the same tribunal in September after the country’s Supreme Court ruled against them.

In addition to Parada; voters in Lampa outside Santiago re-elected transgender Councilwoman Alejandra González during the country’s Oct. 28 municipal elections. Trans activist Zuliana Araya also won a seat on the Municipal Council in the coastal city of Valparaíso.

Josefa Errázuriz, who backed Parada’s campaign, defeated long-time Providencia Mayor Cristián Labbé, a retired colonel who was a member of the secret police force that operated in years after Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship began in 1973. She stressed the need to promote diversity and equality during her inaugural speech.

“To our neighbors in Providencia, the new Providencia does not exist without you,” said Errázuriz. “We play an active role in it. I pledge to all of Providencia’s inhabitants that in order to incorporate our projects I will be the mayor for everyone because in Providencia there will be no space for discrimination.”

Parada said bringing diversity education to local schools, implementing anti-discrimination campaigns and helping “those neighbors who feel vulnerable” are among his priorities.

“We have a big task ahead of us,” he said.

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Virginia

VIDEO: LGBTQ groups march in Va. inaugural parade

Abigail Spanberger took office on Saturday

Published

10 hours ago

January 17, 2026

Michael Key

Diversity Richmond and the Virginia Pride project of Diversity Richmond march in the 2026 Inauguration Parade on the grounds of the state capitol in Richmond, Va. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The inaugural ceremonies for Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger were held in Richmond, Va. on Saturday. Among the groups marching in the parade were Diversity Richmond and the Virginia Pride project of Diversity Richmond.

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*The LGBTQ contingent in the inaugural parade in Richmond, Va. pass by the review stand on Jan. 17, 2026. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)*

Virginia

Va. Senate approves referendum to repeal marriage amendment

Outgoing state Sen. Adam Ebbin introduced SJ3

Published

18 hours ago

January 17, 2026

Staff reports

(Bigstock photo)

The Virginia Senate on Friday by a 26-13 vote margin approved a resolution that seeks to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Outgoing state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) introduced SJ3. The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee on Wednesday approved it by a 10-4 vote margin.

Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2024 signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.

A resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment passed in the General Assembly in 2021. The resolution passed again in 2025.

Two successive legislatures must approve the resolution before it can go to the ballot. Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates have said the resolution’s passage is among their 2026 legislative priorities.

“It’s time for Virginia’s Constitution to reflect the law of the land and the values of today,” said Ebbin after Friday’s vote. “This amendment, if approved by voters, would affirm the dignity of all committed couples and protects marriage equality for future generations.”

Florida

DNC slams White House for slashing Fla. AIDS funding

State will have to cut medications for more than 16,000 people

Published

1 day ago

January 16, 2026

Joe Reberkenny

HIV infection, Florida, Hospitality State, gay Florida couples, gay news, Washington Blade

The Trump-Vance administration and congressional Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” could strip more than 10,000 Floridians of life-saving HIV medication.

The Florida Department of Health announced there would be large cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program in the Sunshine State. The program switched from covering those making up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, which was anyone making $62,600 or less, in 2025, to only covering those making up to 130 percent of the FPL, or $20,345 a year in 2026.

Cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which provides medication to low-income people living with HIV/AIDS, will prevent a dramatic $120 million funding shortfall as a result of the Big Beautiful Bill according to the Florida Department of Health.

The International Association of Providers of AIDS Care and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo warned that the situation could easily become a “crisis” without changing the current funding setup.

“It is a serious issue,” Ladapo told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s a really, really serious issue.”

The Florida Department of Health currently has a “UPDATES TO ADAP” warning on the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program webpage, recommending Floridians who once relied on tax credits and subsidies to pay for their costly HIV/AIDS medication to find other avenues to get the crucial medications — including through linking addresses of Florida Association of Community Health Centers and listing Florida Non-Profit HIV/AIDS Organizations rather than have the government pay for it.

HIV disproportionately impacts low income people, people of color, and LGB TQ people

The Tampa Bay Times first published this story on Thursday, which began gaining attention in the Sunshine State, eventually leading the Democratic Party to, once again, condemn the Big Beautiful Bill pushed by congressional republicans.

“Cruelty is a feature and not a bug of the Trump administration. In the latest attack on the LGBTQ+ community, Donald Trump and Florida Republicans are ripping away life-saving HIV medication from over 10,000 Floridians because they refuse to extend enhanced ACA tax credits,” Democratic National Committee spokesperson Albert Fujii told the Washington Blade. “While Donald Trump and his allies continue to make clear that they don’t give a damn about millions of Americans and our community, Democrats will keep fighting to protect health care for LGBTQ+ Americans across the country.”

More than 4.7 million people in Florida receive health insurance through the federal marketplace, according to KKF, an independent source for health policy research and polling. That is the largest amount of people in any state to be receiving federal health care — despite it only being the third most populous state.

Florida also has one of the largest shares of people who use the AIDS Drug Assistance Program who are on the federal marketplace: about 31 percent as of 2023, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

“I can’t understand why there’s been no transparency,” David Poole also told the Times, who oversaw Florida’s AIDS program from 1993 to 2005. “There is something seriously wrong.”

The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors estimates that more than 16,000 people will lose coverage