News
Elections in Chile: LGBTQ candidates make their mark
Eight queer people elected to write new Constitution
Editor’s note: The Washington Blade published a Spanish version of this story on May 20.
CONCEPCIÓN, Chile — LGBTQ activists and organizations celebrated the results of last weekend’s historic elections in Chile in which eight openly queer candidates were elected to write the Latin American country’s new Constitution.
They are Jennifer Mella, Valentina Miranda, Bessy Gallardo, Pedro Muñoz, Javier Fuchslocher, Gaspar Domínguez, Rodrigo Rojas and Tomás Laibe, who represent 5.2 percent of the total of 155 seats that will make up the Constitutional Convention.
“Although the representation of people with different sexual diversities remains low, it is a historic step to have constituencies that allow us to install the urgency of our demands, and promote respect and protection of the rights of the LGBTIQ+ population in the new constitution and in society. The commitment of feminist and progressive forces regarding these issues will also be very relevant, and as an observatory we will be attentive to that discussion,” explained Marion Stock, coordinator of Les Constituyentes, Marion Stock, in a statement after the votes were counted.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), meanwhile, described “as historic that eight openly LGBTIQ+ people had been elected as constituents, inasmuch as this allows the rich diversity of Chile to have a voice and vote in the most important transformation process faced by the country.”
“We hope that the new constitution explicitly guarantees nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression; as well as by all the categories protected in the Zamudio Law; and full equality of rights is recognized for all individuals, couples and families, whatever their composition. Only with this, each and every one of the homo/transphobic laws and public policies that still persist in Chile can be eliminated at once,” said Movilh spokesperson Óscar Rementería.
Laibe from the Socialist Party of Chile, who was elected in the southernmost area of the country, views his presence and that of seven other LGBTQ people at the convention will help replace the current constitution as a cultural milestone. The current Chilean constitution has been in place since Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.
“I think it is a milestone that, first, we have had more than 40 candidates of sexual diversity to this Constitutional Constitution,” said the political scientist during an interview with Lo Que Queda del Día on Cooperativa radio. “It is a milestone in the history of Chile and it will probably set the tone for what the rest of the elections, in which I am sure we will have more of a presence, will be.”
He added that “we feel proud in our case, because we were the only diverse candidacy in the southern region, where we are so isolated and suddenly we are much more conservative than in the rest of the country and we do not realize that in Santiago they pass things and that perhaps there is a cultural advance that is very different from what is happening in the regions.”
“It has been very important to nail down this flag, to talk about sexual diversity throughout the campaign to try to make visible this problem that is part, I think, of the diagnosis of the social outbreak: There are flags that have been hidden, invisible, for a long time; there are people who feel discrimination every day and who experience inequality and discriminatory treatment in education, health, at work,” said Laibe. “That is going to be, without a doubt, one of the struggles that we are going to have to address in the Constitutional Convention.”
Chileans in the last elections not only elected Constitutional Convention members. They chose their new community and regional representatives. And the LGBTQ community also saw positive results in these races.
The Washington Blade spoke with Cristian Martínez, an LGBTQ activist who was elected as a councilmember in Molina, a city that is 210 kilometers south of the Chilean capital of Santiago.
His race made national news a few weeks ago due to the fact that an Adventist college distributed openly anti-LGBTQ text to its students. Martínez last Sunday made history in Molina as the first openly gay person to be elected as an elected official in his home region.
“My city and my region is rural and conservative. We are a rural area, however, there is a process of change and that is demonstrated by the fact that they have elected me, an openly gay person as a councilor, but it is slower than what is happening in the big cities, I believe that we are going slower here with respect to the LGBTQ+ community and particularly trans people, therefore visibility is the most important thing,” Martínez told the Blade.
“As long as residents do not know trans people, lesbian, bisexual, gay, intersex people, etc., they will not know how to love, respect and welcome them, I believe that making ourselves visible is the most important thing and there you have to do a job that we are advancing. I believe that my town is willing to advance on these issues, but the challenge is huge. There are slightly more conservative Christian communities that also exert social pressure in certain spaces. I believe that this will be lessened as we become more visible,” concluded the now-elected councilor.
Martínez told the Blade that it was “super important” for LGBTQ activists “to participate in these elections because after the social outbreak, all activists and people who participated in social movements felt the responsibility and obligation to assume responsibilities of popular election in the elections that took place. they came, in our territories, in our communes, in our spaces.”
Chile, in this way, leaves behind the prejudices that say LGBTQ people are unqualified to hold public office and this will allow further political inroads, especially in the next elections in November when Chileans go back to the polls to elect a president and members of Congress.
Cristian Martínez (Photo courtesy of Cristian Martínez)
State Department
Democracy Forward files FOIA request for State Department bathroom policy records
April 20 memo outlined anti-transgender rule
Democracy Forward on Tuesday filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records on the State Department’s new bathroom policy.
A memo titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms” that the State Department issued on April 20 notes employees can no longer use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
“The administration affirms that there are two sexes — male and female — and that federal facilities should operate on this objective and longstanding basis to ensure consistency, privacy, and safety in shared spaces,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggot told the Daily Signal, a conservative news website that first reported on the memo. “In line with President Trump’s executive order this provides clear, uniform guidance to the department by grounding policy in biological sex as determined at birth.”
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. The sweeping directive also ordered federal government agencies to “effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”
Democracy Forward’s FOIA request that the Washington Blade exclusively obtained on Tuesday is specifically seeking a copy of the memo that details the State Department’s new bathroom policy. Democracy Forward has also requested “all” memo-specific communications between the State Department’s Bureau of Global Public Affairs and the Daily Signal from April 1-21.
Federal Government
House Republicans push nationwide ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill
Measures would restrict federal funding for LGBTQ-affirming schools
Republicans have been gaining ground in reshaping education policy to be less inclusive toward LGBTQ students at the state level, and now they are turning their focus to Capitol Hill.
Some GOP lawmakers are pushing for a nationwide “Don’t Say Gay” bill, doubling down on their commitment to being the party of “traditional family values” by excluding anyone who does not identify with their sex at birth.
The largest anti-LGBTQ education legislation to reach the House chamber is House Bill 2616 — the Parental Rights Over the Education and Care of Their Kids Act, or the PROTECT Kids Act. The PROTECT Kids Act, proposed by U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), and co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Robert Onder (R-Mo.), and Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), would require any public elementary and middle schools that receive federal funding to require parental consent to change a child’s gender expression in school.
The bill, which was discussed during Tuesday’s House Rules Committee hearing, would specifically require any schools that get federal money from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 — which was created to minimize financial discrepancies in education for low-income students — to get parental approval before identifying any child’s gender identity as anything other than what was provided to the school initially. This includes getting approval before allowing children to use their preferred locker room or bathroom.
It reads that any school receiving this funding “shall obtain parental consent before changing a covered student’s (1) gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name on any school form; or (2) sex-based accommodations, including locker rooms or bathrooms.”
LGBTQ rights advocates have criticized both national and state efforts to require parental permission to use a child’s preferred gender identity, as it raises issues of at-home safety — especially if the home is not LGBTQ-affirming — and could lead to the outing of transgender or gender-curious students.
A follow-up bill, HB 2617, proposed by Owens, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, prevents the use of federal funding to “advance concepts related to gender ideology,” using the definition from President Donald Trump’s 2025 Executive Order 14168, making that an enshrined definition in law of sex rather than just by executive order. There is also a bill making its way through the senate with the same text— Senate Bill 2251.
Advocates have also criticized this follow-up legislation, as it would restrict school staff — including teachers and counselors — from acknowledging trans students’ identities or providing any support. They have said that this kind of isolation can worsen mental health outcomes for LGBTQ youth and allows for education to be politicized rather than being based in reality.
David Stacy, the Human Rights Campaign’s vice president of government affairs, called this legislation out for using LGBTQ children as political pawns in an ideology fight — one that could greatly harm the safety of these children if passed.
“Trans kids are not a political agenda — they are students who deserve safety and affirmation at school like anyone else,” Stacy said in a statement. “Despite the many pressing issues facing our nation, House Republicans continue their bizarre obsession with trans people. H.R. 2616 does not protect children. It targets them. This bill is cruel, and we’re prepared to fight it.”
This is similar to Florida House Bills 1557 and 1069, referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and “Don’t Say They” bill, respectively, restricting classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity, prohibiting the use of pronouns consistent with one’s gender identity, expanding book banning procedures, and censoring health curriculum.
The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking 233 bills related to restricting student and educator rights in the U.S.
Botswana’s government has repealed a provision of its colonial-era penal code that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations.
The country’s High Court in 2019 struck down the provision. The Batswana government in 2022 said it would abide by the ruling after country’s Court of Appeals upheld it.
The government on March 26 announced the repeal of the penal code’s “unnatural offenses” section that specifically referenced any person who “has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” and “permits any other person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature.”
Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana, a Batswana advocacy group known by the acronym LEGABIBO, challenged the criminalization law with the support of the Southern Africa Litigation Center. LEGABIBO in a statement it posted to its Facebook on April 25 welcomed the repeal.
“For many, these provisions were not just words on paper — they were lived realities,” said LEGABIBO. “They affected access to healthcare, safety, employment, and the freedom to love and exist openly.”
“LEGABIBO believes that the deletion of these sections is a necessary and long-overdue step toward restoring dignity and aligning our legal framework with constitutional values of equality and human rights,” it added. “It is a clear message that LGBTIQ+ persons are not criminals, and that their lives and relationships deserve protection, not punishment.”
LEGABIBO further stressed that “while this does not erase the harm of the past, it creates space for healing, inclusion, and continued progress toward full equality.”
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