South America
Peruvian capital’s mayor-elect raises eyebrows among LGBTQ activists
Rafael López Aliaga is an Opus Dei member
Lima earlier this month elected a new mayor to lead Peru’s most populous city.
Rafael López Aliaga, a conservative businessman, narrowly defeated his opponent in a campaign marked by fervent opposition to communism and progressive values. After his victory, Lima’s LGBTQ community may have cause for concern.
A devout Catholic, López, also known as RLA, is a member of Opus Dei who has practiced self-flagellation and celibacy ever since he joined the conservative Catholic sect when he was 19-years-old.
“Just as a homosexual cannot impose his life on anyone, so too he would be crazy to impose his beliefs on all of Peru,” López has said.
However, his views on social issues closely mirror rightwing Christian doctrine.
He is staunchly against abortion, marriage equality and “gender ideology” and has railed against all three on Twitter. He has also decried the supposed “homosexualization” of Peruvian children.
The mayor-elect, though, is perhaps distinct in some respects among conservative politicians on the continent.
López has endorsed domestic partnerships for same-sex couples and has claimed he would hire a “transsexual” if they were the best person for the job. López has also contrasted himself from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
“Bolsonaro insults the gay community,” López has said. “I am inclusive, the community must be welcomed.”
The veracity of his “inclusivity,” though, is up for debate.
Peruvian writer and political scientist José Alejandro Godoy is unconvinced.
He told the Washington Blade that López has been cautious with regard to what he is saying on LGBTQ-related topics. Godoy fears that with López’s election, a rollback of LGBTQ human rights is imminent. According to the political scientist, anti-discrimination ordinances and the permissions granted to Lima’s Pride Parade may be on the line.
Indeed, there is reason to believe that the fight for LGBTQ rights in Lima is taking a turn for the worse.
Throughout October, Lima has been a hotbed of anti-trans activism. Coordinated in part by leading members of Congress and Popular Renewal, López’s political party, the city has experienced “anti-gender ideology and pro-family” protests.
Popular Renewal Congressman Alejandro Muñante, who is the Peruvian Congress’ third vice president, and CitizenGO, a rightwing activist group, on Oct. 3 managed to get a truck to enter the front of Peru’s parliamentary headquarters with the message: “OAS: Women are defined by biology, not by ideology.”
Targeting the Organization of American States at its 52nd General Assembly, Muñante and CitizenGO have been campaigning against international efforts to push for a more diverse definition of gender. The following day, on Oct. 4, Popular Renewal sent a letter to the Peruvian Foreign Minister opposing abortion and rejecting any OAS document which may force Peru to “grant improper recognition to transsexual men and grant them the rights of women.” Finally, on Oct. 6, thousands took to the streets of Lima, marching against abortion and gender ideology. Muñante promoted the march and López retweeted coverage of it.
Jazmín Peña-Laurencio, a Peruvian human rights defense attorney, believes the LGBTQ community in Lima should not lose hope.
Municipal ordinances that protect against gender and LGBTQ discrimination have been hard-won by the community, she explains.
“Although Congress does have the power to eliminate these protections, the citizenry would not allow it, as the problem [of LGBTQ discrimination] has been made very visible compared with a few years ago,” she said.
Peña-Laurencio said the community should continue fighting for visibility, as that allows many sectors of society to join the fight and not see LGBTQ discrimination as a niche issue. Activists from Lima agree with the lawyer’s approach.
Manuel Ramirez-Gomez, an activist from Lima and host of a popular LGBTQ podcast, is similarly optimistic about the future of his city. He says that López’s election is nothing new; his community has always felt fear as minorities in the conservative city. However, according to the podcaster; LGBTQ activists in Lima plan to continue organizing, marching and fighting until their rights are fully recognized.
Enrique Vega-Dávila, a queer pastor and academic, echoes Ramirez-Gomez’s sentiment.
“This is not the first time we’ve had a diversity-phobic mayor,” Vega-Dávila told the Blade. “LGBTTTIQ activism has never been easy in Peru. The conservative society in our country has made the closet an alternative to the possibility of fighting for our rights. The RLA administration will surely try to undermine our right to appear in public spaces, but we have been fighting anti-human rights groups for a long time and will continue to do so.”
Despite the activists’ efforts, not all are as optimistic about the possibility for progress in Lima under a López administration.
Godoy explained to the Blade that Popular Renewal won a majority in Lima’s Metropolitan Council (El Concejo Metropolitano.)
“Unfortunately, I don’t think any progress towards LGBTI rights in Lima is currently possible,” Godoy told the Blade. “I’m not only saying this because of Popular Renewal’s majority but also due to the fact that other parties who have won seats have not been inclined to defend the LGBTI agenda.”
Combined with President Pedro Castillo’s unsympathetic, leftist federal administration, the prospects for Lima’s LGBTQ community are not looking bright.
López is set to replace Lima’s incumbent mayor when his term ends on Dec. 31.
Brazil
Black transgender singer from Brazil wins three Latin Grammy Awards
Liniker performed at Las Vegas ceremony
A Black transgender singer and songwriter from Brazil on Nov. 13 won three Latin Grammy Awards.
Liniker, who is from Araraquara, a city in São Paulo State, won for Best Portuguese Language Song for her song “Veludo Marrom,” Best Portuguese-Language Urban Performance for her song “Caju” from her sophomore album of the same title, and Best Portuguese Language Contemporary Pop Album for “Caju.”
She accepted the awards during the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony that took place in Las Vegas. Liniker also performed.
“I’ve been writing since I was 16. And writing, and poetry, have been my greatest form of existence. It’s where I find myself; where I celebrate so many things I experience,” said Liniker as she accepted her first Latin Grammy on Nov. 13. “And being a composer … Being a trans composer in Brazil — a country that kills us — is extremely difficult.”
Liniker in 2022 became the first openly trans woman to win a Latin Grammy.
Chile
Chilean presidential election outcome to determine future of LGBTQ rights in country
Far-right candidate José Antonio Kast favored to win Dec. 14 runoff.
The results of Chile’s presidential election will likely determine the future of LGBTQ rights in the country.
While Congresswoman Emilia Schneider, the first transgender woman elected to Congress, managed to retain her seat on Sunday, the runoff to determine who will succeed outgoing President Gabriel Boric will take place on Dec. 14 and will pit two diametrically opposed candidates against each other: the far-right José Antonio Kast and Communist Jeannette Jara.
Schneider, an emblematic figure in the LGBTQ rights movement and one of the most visible voices on trans rights in Latin America, won reelection in a polarized environment. Human rights organizations see her continued presence in Congress as a necessary institutional counterweight to the risks that could arise if the far-right comes to power.
Kast v. Jara
The presidential race has become a source of concern for LGBTQ groups in Chile and international observers.
Kast, leader of the Republican Party, has openly expressed his rejection of gender policies, comprehensive sex education, and reforms to anti-discrimination laws.
Throughout his career, he has supported conservative positions aligned with sectors that question LGBTQ rights through rhetoric that activists describe as stigmatizing. Observers say his victory in the second-round of the presidential election that will take place on Dec. 14 could result in regulatory and cultural setbacks.
Jara, who is the presidential candidate for the progressive Unidad por Chile coalition, on the other hand has publicly upheld her commitment to equal rights. She has promised to strengthen mechanisms against discrimination, expand health policies for trans people, and ensure state protection against hate speech.
For Schneider, this new legislative period is shaping up to be a political and symbolic challenge.
Her work has focused on combating gender violence, promoting reform of the Zamudio Law, the country’s LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination and hate crimes law named after Daniel Zamudio, a gay man murdered in Santiago, the Chilean capital, in 2012, and denouncing transphobic rhetoric in Congress and elsewhere.
Schneider’s continued presence in Congress is a sign of continuity in the defense of recently won rights, but also a reminder of the fragility of those advances in a country where ideological tensions have intensified.
LGBTQ organizations point out that Schneider will be key to forging legislative alliances in a potentially divided Congress, especially if Kast consolidates conservative support.
Argentina
Gay Argentine congressman loses bid for country’s Senate
Esteban Paulón is a long-time activist, vocal Javier Milei critic.
A gay man who ran for the Argentine Senate lost in the country’s midterm elections that took place on Sunday.
Congressman Esteban Paulón, a long-time LGBTQ rights activist who has represented Santa Fe province in the country’s House of Deputies since 2023, ran to represent Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, as a member of the Movimiento de Jublidaos y Juventud or “Movement of Young People and Retirees” party.
Paulón’s party received .6 percent of the total votes in the city.
“A new space that wants to be part of the construction of a future of development, equality, and growth for Argentina was born today in Buenos Aires,” said Paulón on Monday in a social media post.
“I want to think all of the residents of Buenos Aires who put their confidence in the citizen movement and who think another way to do politics is possible,” he added. “We are not here to pass through, we are here to continue growing. We’re convinced that Argentina needs a better approach.”
The elections took place two years after President Javier Milei took office.
Milei has enacted a series of anti-LGBTQ policies that include the closure of Argentina’s National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism and dismissing transgender people who the previous government hired under the Trans Labor Quota Law, which set aside at least 1 percent of public sector jobs for trans people. Paulón earlier this year filed a criminal complaint against Milei after he linked the LGBTQ community to pedophilia and made other homophobic and transphobic comments during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Associated Press notes Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party on Sunday won 14 seats in the Senate and 64 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower house of Congress. The election took place against the backdrop of the Trump-Vance administration’s promised $40 billion bailout for Argentina if Milei won.
Paulón, for his part, will remain in the Chamber of Deputies.
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