World
UNHCR highlights work with LGBTQ asylum seekers in Central America
Agency adopted LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination policy in 2018
Officials with the U.N. Refugee Agency in Central America and Mexico say they remain committed to helping LGBTQ asylum seekers and migrants in the region.
UNHCR Guatemala Representative Besem Obenson told the Washington Blade during an interview at her Guatemala City office last September that she and her colleagues work with Asociación Lambda and other Guatemalan NGOs to provide LGBTQ asylum seekers with access to LGBTQ-friendly shelters, psychosocial care and other programs once they identify themselves as LGBTQ. Obenson said UNHCR also works with the Guatemalan government to improve the way it responds to an asylum seeker with an ID document that does not correspond to their gender presentation.
“Our role … is to strengthen the government’s response to refugees and asylum seekers,” said Obenson.
Rafael Zavala, a senior UNHCR official in El Salvador, echoed Obenson when he spoke with the Blade at UNHCR’s office in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, last July.
Zavala noted UNHCR has a formal partnership with COMCAVIS Trans, a Salvadoran transgender rights group. Zavala said UNHCR also works with two other LGBTQ groups — Aspidh Arcoíris Trans and Diké LGBTI+ — in a less official capacity.
“What we do is work at the community level to strengthen their role in communities,” Zavala told the Blade. “We also build for them safe spaces (to accept internally displaced people, migrants and deportees who are LGBTQ) and also find spaces where they can receive services, attention and legal assistance.”
Anti-LGBTQ violence among migration ‘root causes’
Vice President Kamala Harris and others have acknowledged anti-LGBTQ violence is one of the “root causes” of migration from Central America’s Northern Triangle that includes El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
The Mexican Commission on Refugee Aid (COMAR) on Monday reported 27.7 percent of the 131,448 people who asked for asylum in Mexico in 2021 were Honduran.
The Justice Department notes 85,391 people asked for asylum in the U.S. in the 2021 fiscal year from Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. More than twice as many people asked for asylum in the U.S. during the 2020 fiscal year, which began before the pandemic.
The Justice Department statistics indicate 10 percent of the 8,679 Guatemalans, 11 percent of the 5,464 Hondurans and 14 percent of the 8,030 Salvadorans who applied for asylum in the U.S. during the 2021 fiscal year won their cases. Neither the Justice Department nor COMAR specify the asylum seekers’ sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Biden administration last February began to allow into the U.S. asylum seekers who the previous White House forced to pursue their cases in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols program. The Biden administration has sought to end MPP, but a federal appeals court last month blocked this effort.
Title 42, a Center for Disease Control and Prevention rule that closed the Southern border to most asylum seekers and migrants because of the pandemic, remains in place.
UNHCR non-discrimination policy includes sexual orientation, gender identity
UNHCR Senior Protection Officer Sofia Cardona last summer during an interview at UNHCR’s Mexico City office acknowledged that identifying asylum seekers who are LGBTQ is a challenge. Cardona and other UNHCR representatives with whom the Blade spoke for this story referred to the agency’s 2018 non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity and specifically recognizes LGBTQ asylum seekers.
“Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons face complex challenges, threats and barriers and are often exposed to discrimination, abuse, prejudice and violence due to their sex, sexual orientation and/or gender identity,” notes the policy. “This is often severely compounded in situations of displacement, where the nature of the discrimination they encounter can be particularly virulent, their isolation from family and community profound and the harm inflicted on them severe.”
The policy states “diversity refers to different values, attitudes, cultural perspectives, beliefs, ethnicities, nationalities, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, health, social and economic status, skills and other specific personal characteristics.”
“Diversity characteristics vary from person to person and intersect, making each person unique,” it reads. “These differences must be recognized, understood, respected and valued by UNHCR in each context and operation in order to address effectively the needs of all persons of concern. Respecting diversity means recognizing and valuing those differences and creating a protective, inclusive and non-discriminatory environment where everyone’s rights are upheld.”
Cardona noted UNHCR staff and representatives of NGOs and governments with which it works regularly attend LGBTQ sensitivity trainings. Topics include ways to determine whether an asylum seeker is LGBTQ without forcing them to out themselves.
“You can’t force a disclosure,” said Cardona. “You can neve directly ask somebody, so, are you gay? Are you transgender? It’s incorrect because you may put people at risk, so it’s a very thin line of you can never force a disclosure of someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation, but you must signify to somebody that you are a safe space to receive that disclosure.”
Cardona said UNHCR representatives can ask an asylum seeker what their name is or disclose to them that they are “de la diversidad” or “from a diverse background.”
“You never begin an interview assuming anything by the way a person looks because in forced displacement gender expression is unlikely to match up to gender identity,” Cardona told the Blade. “So you need to understand that you may very well have conversations with a trans man who is wearing makeup and a dress, and you may very well be having a conversation with a trans woman who has a beard because that is how they are protecting themselves in a sphere of forced displacement.”
Cardona also noted UNHCR staff wear buttons with slogans that include “en seguridad” or “espacio libre de discriminación,” which translates into “in safety” or “discrimination-free space” respectively. Both Cardona and Zavala were wearing such buttons when they spoke with the Blade.
“We try very, very, very hard to work with our staff and also our partners … so they have their capacity strengthened in LGBTI rights,” Dagmara Mejia, the director of UNHCR’s field office in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, told the Blade last summer during an interview at her office.
Mejia noted the trainings she and her colleagues conduct focuses on topics that include the use pronouns that correspond to an asylum seeker’s gender identity and shelter standards for LGBTQ asylum seekers.
UNHCR works with Jardín de las Mariposas, a shelter for LGBTQ asylum seekers in Tijuana that is less than two miles from El Chaparral, the main port of entry between the city and San Diego. UNHCR also maintains contact with Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration Executive Director Steve Roth and the California-based Transgender Law Center.
“If there is no disclosure, no trust, then we cannot meet their needs and respond,” said Mejia.
“We also create these environments that allow the community to feel safe and to know that it is a place where they can come without the risk of discrimination,” said Zavala.
Obenson told the Blade that UNHCR has worked with the Foundation for Ecodevelopment and Conservation (FUNDAECO), a Guatemalan NGO, to hire asylum seekers who have chosen to stay in Guatemala as park rangers. Trans women are among those who FUNDAECO has hired.
“People need to feel safe,” said Obenson. “People need to be able to live their authentic selves without fear of violence or fear of retribution.”
“That for me, as a rep, is what I strive for,” added Obenson. “Everything that we do here at UNHCR is to encourage that.”
Ernesto Valle contributed to this story from San Salvador, El Salvador.
World
Report: 90 percent of LGBTQ groups around the world have lost funding since 2025
Trump-Vance administration cut US support after it took office
A new report that Outright International released on Thursday notes 90 percent of LGBTQ and intersex rights groups around the world have lost funding since January 2025.
The New York-based global advocacy group surveyed 229 LGBTQ and intersex rights groups in 94 countries.
Forty-nine percent of the organizations that responded said they have lost more than half of their total budget since January 2025 — 75 percent of the groups said they lost more than a quarter of their total funding.
“For nearly half of the respondents, the cuts removed most of the resources that sustained the organization,” reads the report.
When asked which funders “had reduced, suspended, or withdrawn support,” more than half of the responding groups “pointed to a source tied to the United States government, including USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development), the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Department of State.”
“No other funder came close,” notes the report.
‘What was initially framed as a temporary freeze has become a structural disruption’
The Trump-Vance administration froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid shortly after it took office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March 2025 announced 83 percent of USAID contacts had been cancelled, and the State Department would administer the remaining programs. USAID officially shut down on July 1, 2025.
Rubio issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the funding freeze. The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of gaps in U.S. funding.
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
The Outright International report notes the State Department under the Trump-Vance administration “terminated the programs of the Global Equality Fund, the public-private partnership it launched in 2011 with allied governments, companies, and foundations, which distributed more than $100 million in its first decade to LGBTIQ organizations and human rights defenders in over 100 countries.” The Trump-Vance administration, among other things, has withdrawn the U.S. from the U.N. LGBTI Core Group, a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights.
Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin in an op-ed the Blade published on Jan. 28, 2026, wrote the global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement since January 2025 lost more than $125 million — or 30 percent of its total annual funding.
“What was initially framed as a temporary freeze has become a structural disruption,” notes the Outright International report. “The effects have cascaded far beyond U.S. government funding: corporate, institutional, and philanthropic donors have also shifted, stalled, or quietly withdrawn, often without public scrutiny.”
“The broader environment in which LGBTIQ movements operate has continued to deteriorate — with democratic backsliding, anti-NGO legislation, rising violence, coordinated legislative attacks on trans and intersex people’s rights, and emboldened anti-rights actors filling the space left by the retreat of U.S. global leadership.”
The report contains specific examples that include:
• Iraqi lawmakers in 2024 passed a law that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations and transgender people. Funding cuts forced IraQueer, an Iraqi advocacy group, to stop offering safety and security trainings and workshops to activists and LGBTQ rights organizations in the country.
• An intersex-led organization in West Africa can no longer maintain office space or pay its staff.
• An Ecuadorian group that operated a community center for a decade was “forced to close” it on Feb. 1, 2026. “It has been a true loss for the LGBTIQ+ communities in our city and the country as a whole, as we were a model of self-management and resistance in one of Ecuador’s most conservative cities,” said the group in the report.
• An “LGBTIQ-led refugee organization” in Uganda “has lost the emergency relocation support that once moved people facing immediate violence to safer locations.”
• An advocacy group in Ukraine that lost funding said it was “forced to stop paying some of our specialists and reduce our hours for handling inquiries … We used to be able to respond promptly to requests and support people throughout the entire process of resolving their issues, whereas now we are forced to limit ourselves to one-time consultations or refuse assistance altogether due to a lack of resources.”
• The Tonga Leitis Association in the report said a lack of funding has forced it to reduce “the number of activities the organization can run and erodes the prevention infrastructure behind” the country’s low HIV rate.
The Outright International report notes “global LGBTIQ funding had begun to fall even before the current U.S. administration took office.”
It further cites statistics from the Human Rights Funders Network that project “rights-focused development assistance will fall by between” $1.4-$1.9 billion a year by 2026, “with movements for LGBTIQ people’s rights and gender equality among the hardest it.”
“At the same time, LGBTIQ organizations have not stood still,” reads the Outright International report. “They have continued to resist, adapt, and serve their communities under extraordinary pressure, often absorbing the costs of these funding shocks in ways that remain largely invisible.”
“This report is an effort to make those costs — and that resilience — visible,” it adds.
United Kingdom
Grindr settles UK lawsuit over claims it shared users’ personal information
Plaintiffs allege gay hookup company disclosed HIV status to third parties
Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million ($35.24 million) to settle a lawsuit in the UK over allegations it shared users’ HIV status and other personal information with third parties.
The BBC on Monday reported a lawsuit was filed in the High Court of England and Wales in 2024. A class action lawsuit with more than 11,000 plaintiffs was later filed in the U.S.
Grindr in a U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing notes the California-headquartered company as part of the settlement it reached on Sept. 2 will pay £13.0 million ($17.62 million) “to the counterparties” by Dec. 31, 2026, and another £13.0 million ($17.62 million) by March 31, 2027.
“As previously disclosed, in April 2025, Grindr Inc. and Grindr LLC, its indirect and wholly-owned operating subsidiary (collectively, ‘Grindr’), were served with proceedings in the High Court of England and Wales, which proceedings were originally issued in April 2024, brought on behalf of UK Grindr users from a period up to early 2020 alleging violations of UK privacy laws,” reads the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing.
“On Sept. 2, 2026, Grindr resolved the above-described UK group action related to historical data practices before 2020, when Grindr was owned and controlled by the Chinese conglomerate Kunlun,” it continues. “The settlement includes no findings or admission of liability. While Grindr disputes the allegations, it recognizes and acknowledges the distress and loss of trust expressed by some of its UK users regarding that pre-2020 period.”
The filing further notes Grindr in 2020 “was sold to new owners and appointed new management” and in 2022 became a publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Since 2020 Grindr has overhauled its privacy program with a keen focus on the unique needs of its community,” reads the filing. “Grindr is and remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control, and responsible data practices.”
A Grindr spokesperson in the UK on Tuesday referred the Washington Blade to the filing for comment on the settlement.
El Salvador
Mujer trans salvadoreña es encontrada sin vida
La muerte de Yoisi Villalta vuelve a poner sobre la mesa la violencia
SANTA ANA, El Salvador — La muerte de Yoisi Villalta, mujer trans y vendedora de tortas en Texistepeque, Santa Ana Norte, ha vuelto a colocar en el centro del debate una realidad que durante años ha acompañado a la población LGBTQ en El Salvador: la violencia no termina con una agresión o con una muerte. También puede manifestarse en la manera en que una persona es buscada, nombrada, registrada, despedida y recordada.
Villalta fue reportada como desaparecida por su familia a finales de agosto de 2026. Días después, medios de comunicación y plataformas digitales informaron sobre el hallazgo de su cuerpo sin vida. Un reporte publicado el 5 de septiembre señala que el cuerpo fue localizado en Tacuba, Ahuachapán, ocho días después de su desaparición, mientras que la Policía Nacional Civil no había confirmado hasta entonces la causa de muerte ni clasificado oficialmente el caso como homicidio intencionado.
La precisión es importante; hasta el momento no debe afirmarse como un hecho que Yoisi haya sido víctima de un crimen de odio o de un homicidio motivado por su identidad de género, mientras no exista una investigación oficial que determine las circunstancias y causa de su muerte. Lo que sí existe es una profunda preocupación expresada por organizaciones de la sociedad civil y por personas de la comunidad LGBTQ, especialmente ante el contexto de violencia y discriminación que históricamente han enfrentado las mujeres trans en El Salvador.
Una mujer detrás de una noticia
Antes de convertirse en noticia, Villalta tenía una vida. Era una mujer trans que trabajaba como vendedora de tortas en Texistepeque. Desde su negocio desarrollaba una actividad cotidiana para ganarse la vida, pero también había convertido aquel espacio en una expresión de solidaridad con su comunidad.
De acuerdo con la información difundida por organizaciones LGBTQ, Villalta compartía alimentos con las brigadas de salud sexual que realizaban jornadas en la zona. Esa faceta de su vida permite verla más allá de las circunstancias de su muerte: como una mujer trabajadora, solidaria y vinculada a acciones comunitarias.
La Federación Salvadoreña LGBTI pidió precisamente que su memoria fuera abordada desde esa perspectiva. En el mensaje difundido tras conocerse su muerte, la organización llamó a recordarla por “su vida, su trabajo, su generosidad, y sobre todo desde su nombre”, y pidió que su historia no fuera reducida al morbo.
Ese llamado resulta especialmente importante en tiempos en que las redes sociales pueden convertir una tragedia humana en una sucesión de comentarios, fotografías, especulaciones y publicaciones hechas sin sensibilidad. Una persona fallecida no deja de tener dignidad.
Y una mujer trans no deja de ser mujer porque haya muerto.
El derecho a ser nombrada
Uno de los aspectos que más indignación ha provocado en torno al caso es el tratamiento de la identidad de Villalta durante la búsqueda. Organizaciones y personas cercanas han denunciado que durante el proceso de búsqueda se utilizó el nombre que aparece en su Documento Único de Identidad (DUI), en lugar del nombre con el que Villalta vivía y era reconocida socialmente.
Este aspecto no es meramente una cuestión semántica. Para las personas trans, el nombre puede representar una parte fundamental de su identidad y de la manera en que construyen su vida frente a la sociedad. Ser reconocidas por el nombre con el que se identifican constituye también una forma de respeto.
En el caso de Villalta, la Federación Salvadoreña LGBTI expresó que negar el nombre y la identidad de una persona trans también constituye una forma de violencia. La situación adquiere una dimensión todavía más compleja en El Salvador, donde continúa sin existir un mecanismo legal general que permita a las personas trans modificar su nombre y marcador de género en sus documentos de identidad conforme a su identidad de género.
Así, una persona puede construir durante años una vida social, familiar, laboral y comunitaria con un nombre determinado y, sin embargo, encontrarse ante instituciones que continúan identificándola exclusivamente mediante los datos registrales que no corresponden a la identidad con la que vive. El caso de Villalta vuelve a evidenciar esa tensión entre la identidad vivida y el reconocimiento institucional.
Un problema que va más allá de un solo caso
El caso de Villalta ocurre en un país donde las organizaciones de derechos humanos han advertido durante años sobre la violencia y discriminación que afectan a la población LGBTQ. La información disponible también muestra un problema relacionado con la documentación de estos hechos.
Organizaciones defensoras de derechos humanos han cuestionado la ausencia o insuficiencia de registros públicos actualizados y desagregados que permitan conocer con precisión cuántos delitos violentos afectan a personas LGBTQ y cuántos de ellos tienen como posible motivación la orientación sexual, identidad o expresión de género. La falta de información no significa necesariamente ausencia de violencia. Por el contrario, puede hacerla más difícil de identificar.
Un crimen que no registra la identidad de género de la víctima, o que no investiga adecuadamente una posible motivación relacionada con prejuicios, termina incorporándose estadísticamente como un hecho aislado, sin permitir comprender patrones. Ese problema tampoco es exclusivo de El Salvador. Sin embargo, en el país constituye una preocupación recurrente para las organizaciones que documentan vulneraciones contra personas LGBTQ.
301 denuncias en 2025
Un indicador permite dimensionar que el problema trasciende los homicidios. El Informe 2025 sobre las vulneraciones de los derechos humanos de las personas LGBTQ en El Salvador, elaborado por el Observatorio de Derechos Humanos LGBTIQ+ de ASPIDH con apoyo de Hivos y Arcus Foundation, registró 301 denuncias de vulneraciones de derechos entre el 1 de enero y el 22 de septiembre de 2025. La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos también recogió estos datos en su informe anual.
Según esa información, las mujeres trans representaron el 53,5 por ciento de las víctimas registradas y los hombres gays el 26,6 por ciento. El informe también señaló como principales presuntos responsables a cuerpos uniformados, entre ellos la Policía Nacional Civil, los cuerpos de agentes municipales y militares desplegados bajo el régimen de excepción.
Estos datos deben leerse con cautela: se trata de denuncias de vulneraciones de derechos, no de una cifra de homicidios ni de todos los casos ocurridos en el país.
Pero muestran algo importante: la violencia contra las personas LGBTQ no puede analizarse exclusivamente desde los asesinatos. También existe violencia en la discriminación, en el acceso a servicios, en el trato institucional, en la familia, en el trabajo, en los espacios públicos y en la imposibilidad de ejercer plenamente derechos fundamentales.
El precedente de Zashy Zuley
La historia reciente de El Salvador ofrece antecedentes que ayudan a comprender por qué el caso de Villalta genera preocupación. En abril de 2021 fue asesinada en San Miguel Zashy Zuley del Cid, una mujer trans y activista vinculada al trabajo comunitario de personas LGBTQ.
ACNUR condenó entonces su asesinato y señaló que Zuley había sido previamente desplazada de su hogar debido a amenazas. La agencia de Naciones Unidas explicó que trabajaba junto con COMCAVIS TRANS para apoyarla en un proceso de emprendimiento y medios de vida.
Su muerte también puso en evidencia otra forma de violencia: después de morir, hubo dificultades para que su identidad de género fuera respetada durante sus honras fúnebres. Medios que documentaron el caso señalaron que fue sepultada con una expresión masculina y que existieron obstáculos para la participación de personas LGBTQ cercanas a ella.
El caso de Zuley se convirtió así en un símbolo de una problemática que tiene dos dimensiones: la violencia contra el cuerpo y la violencia contra la identidad.
Más de cinco años después, la muerte de Villalta vuelve a colocar ambas preocupaciones en la conversación pública.
¿Dónde están los datos oficiales?
Una de las preguntas que surgen nuevamente es cuántos casos de violencia contra personas LGBTQ han ocurrido en los últimos años y cuántos han sido investigados considerando una posible motivación por prejuicio.
La ausencia de información pública reciente y desagregada dificulta responder.
Esta falta de datos no solo afecta a las organizaciones defensoras de derechos humanos. También afecta a las instituciones encargadas de diseñar políticas públicas, prevenir la violencia y garantizar justicia.
Si no sabemos cuántos casos existen, dónde ocurren, quiénes son las víctimas, qué tipos de violencia se presentan y qué resultados tienen las investigaciones, resulta mucho más difícil diseñar respuestas adecuadas. La documentación independiente adquiere entonces un papel fundamental, aunque nunca debería sustituir la obligación del Estado de generar estadísticas confiables y transparentes.
El desafío de no olvidar
El caso de Villalta vuelve a plantear una pregunta incómoda para El Salvador:
¿Qué ese está haciendo para que las personas LGBTQ puedan vivir y morir con dignidad? La respuesta no puede depender únicamente de las organizaciones LGBTQ, de las familias o de las comunidades.
Requiere instituciones que registren adecuadamente los hechos, investigaciones que determinen responsabilidades, y de acuerdo con activistas de sociedad civil, también “se necesita un Estado que cree y promueva políticas de prevención y que reconozca la identidad de las personas diversas, formación de funcionarios y una sociedad que comprenda que la diversidad no disminuye el valor de ninguna persona”. Por ahora, las circunstancias de la muerte de Yoisi dejan muchas dudas en lo sucedido y no corresponde afirmar que se trató de un crimen de odio sin una determinación oficial de una investigación que no existió.
‘Thelma and Louise’ remains landmark of unspoken queer rebellion
Comings & Goings
LGBTQ Military Happy Hour set for Sept. 15
Calendar: September 11-17
Multi-billion-dollar 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund to continue until 2090
Anti-science, anti-LGBTQ movements go hand in hand
Everton Blair makes history as first openly gay congressman from Ga.
Chris Pappas wins NH Democratic Senate primary
Mujer trans salvadoreña es encontrada sin vida
Md. groups receive state grants to fight hate crimes
-
Commentary5 days agoAnti-science, anti-LGBTQ movements go hand in hand
-
Georgia5 days ago
Everton Blair makes history as first openly gay congressman from Ga.
-
2026 Midterm Elections5 days ago
Chris Pappas wins NH Democratic Senate primary
-
El Salvador5 days ago
Mujer trans salvadoreña es encontrada sin vida
