South America
Prominent transgender activist murdered in Chile
Claudia Diaz Pérez, 73, found dead in her home on Dec. 11
A prominent transgender activist in Chile was found dead in her home over the weekend.
Authorities in Cartagena in the country’s Valparaíso Province on Sunday found Claudia Diaz Pérez, 73, dead.
Ricardo Castillo of the Investigations Police of Chile (PDI)’s Homicide Brigade told El Líder, a Chilean newspaper, the head injuries that Diaz had were “compatible with the action of third parties” and she suffered them less than 24 hours before authorities discovered her body.
Authorities have not determined whether Diaz’s murder was a hate crime. Her friends and fellow activists, meanwhile, have categorized it as such.
Díaz throughout her life worked with a variety of organizations.
She was a spokesperson for Club de Adultos Mayores Sobrevivientes del 73, a group that victims of human rights abuses that took place during Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Diaz was also a leader of Cartagena Atlético, a local sports club, and Sindicato Afrodita, a group for trans women.
Díaz before her death participated in the ” LGBTIQA+ Roundtable” that President Gabriel Boric and the Women and Gender Equality Ministry have been promoting.
Women and Gender Equality Minister Antonia Orellana on her Twitter account condemned Díaz’s murder.
“(Sindicato Afrodita) leader Claudia Díaz participated in our ‘Mesa LGTBIQA,’ presenting on the issue of aging transgender people,” tweeted Orellana. “She was found dead yesterday. (The National Service for the Woman and Gender Equity) will take part in (the effort) for justice. We will continue our work. Trans lives matter.”
Emilia Schneider, the first openly trans woman elected to the Chilean Congress, during an interview with the Washington Blade said Diaz was “a very beloved leader in her community.”
“Her death has caused a lot of commotion,” said Schneider. “This happens in the Fifth Region of Chile’s Valparaíso Province, which has already been labeled as a red zone for the LGBTI community because of the amount of crimes and hate crimes in the area … Claudia was found dead and it must be investigated.”
Schneider said the government “has mobilized … to investigate the possibility of a hate crime.”
“We undoubtedly also have to move forward with substantive responses to the violence and discrimination that affects our community,” she said. “We are working on an amendment to the Anti-Discrimination Law in Congress. And there are many other efforts — comprehensive sex education and other measures, for example — the government should, can and urgently needs to undertake.”
Asociación OTD Chile, the country’s most prominent trans rights organization, also condemned Diaz’s death.
“Again, and days before the end of the year, we must (note) another murder of a trans person in Chile. This time, the victim was Claudia Diaz, an elderly trans activist, who had managed to survive the military dictatorship’s darkest stages and social hatred, but who still met a violent demise,” Ignacia Oyarzún, the group’s coordinator of public policies and legislation, told the Washington Blade. “We sadly see that hate crimes have recently increased, fueled by hateful trans discourse promoted in the media and by indolent political authorities in the face of a reality that they do not want to change.”
Oyarzún said trans people “continue to be discriminated against and violated by our families, segregated from educational spaces, fired from our jobs, discriminated in health centers and in general from any public space.”
“A gender identity law is useless if the State cannot first guarantee our existence,” she said.
Alessia Injoque, a trans activist who is the director of Fundación Iguales, a Chilean advocacy group that partners with the Human Rights Campaign, said “it is painful to know that another trans woman, another trans activist, has been violently murdered.”
“If it is proven that the motivation was her gender identity, she will become one more of the (many) friends and colleagues that hate has stolen from us,” she told the Blade.
Injoque added that she hope “progress is made in the investigation to bring the culprits to justice and that priority is given to expanding the Anti-Discrimination Law.”
“This is the only effective way to confront the violence that affects the lives of all LGBTIQ+ people,” she said. “It is urgent that this government take concrete measures in the face of facts that cannot remain in indifference, understanding that due to the circumstances, we are a population at risk that deserves special protection, and therefore, we need an institutionality that addresses all our problems in a comprehensive manner.”
Chile
Far-right José Antonio Kast elected Chile’s next president
Advocacy group declares ‘state of alert’ over president-elect’s opposition to LGBTQ rights
José Antonio Kast on Sunday won the second round of Chile’s presidential election.
Kast is the far-right leader of the Republican Party who was a member of the country’s House of Deputies from 2002-2018. He defeated Jeannette Jara, a member of the Communist Party of Chile who was former labor and social welfare minister in outgoing President Gabriel Boric’s government, by a 58.2-41.8 percent margin.
The election’s first round took place on Nov. 16.
Kast and Jara faced each other in the runoff after no candidate received at least 50 percent of the vote in the first round. Kast will take office on March 11.
“Under his leadership, we are confident Chile will advance shared priorities to include strengthening public security, ending illegal immigration, and revitalizing our commercial relationship,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday in a statement. “The United States looks forward to working closely with his administration to deepen our partnership and promote shared prosperity in our hemisphere.”
The Washington Blade has previously reported Kast has expressed his opposition to gender-specific policies, comprehensive sex education, and reforms to Chile’s anti-discrimination laws. The president-elect has also publicly opposed the country’s marriage equality law that took effect in 2022.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, a Chilean LGBTQ and intersex rights group known by the acronym Movilh, in a statement acknowledged the election result. Movilh also declared a “state of alert, given this leader’s (Kast’s) public and political trajectory, characterized for decades by systematic opposition to laws and policies aimed at equality and nondiscrimination of LGBTIQ+ individuals.”
“We urge the president-elect and far-right sectors that follow him to understand and internalize (the fact) that the rights of LGBTIQ+ people are inscribed in the universality of human rights, and they are not built upon an ideology or a political trend,” said Movilh in its statement. “This is not, and never has been, a left-wing or right-wing issue, although some on both sides have gone to great lengths to suggest otherwise, without any basis other than their own partisan or electoral aspirations.”
Organizado Trans Diversidades, a group that advocates on behalf of trans and nonbinary Chileans, on social media said it will “continue the fight for our community’s human rights.”
Colombia
Colombia anunció la inclusión de las categorías ‘trans’ y ‘no binario’ en los documentos de identidad
Registraduría Nacional anunció el cambio el 28 de noviembre
Ahora los ciudadanos colombianos podrán seleccionar las categorías ‘trans’ y ‘no binario’ en los documentos de identidad del país.
Este viernes la Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil anunció que añadió las categorías ‘no binario’ y ‘trans’ en los distintos documentos de identidad con el fin de garantizar los derechos de las personas con identidad diversa.
El registrador nacional, Hernán Penagos, informó que hizo la inclusión de estas dos categorías en los documentos de: registro civil, tarjeta de identidad y cédula de ciudadanía.
Según la registraduría: “La inclusión de estas categorías representa un importante avance en materia de garantía de derechos de las personas con identidad de género diversa”.
Estas categorías estarán en el campo de ‘sexo’ en el que están normalmente las clasificaciones de ‘femenino’ y ‘masculino’ en los documentos de identidad.
En 2024 se inició la ejecución de diferentes acciones orientadas implementar componentes “‘NB’ y ‘T’ en el campo ‘sexo’ de los registros civiles y los documentos de identidad”.
Las personas trans existen y su identidad de género es un aspecto fundamental de su humanidad, reconocido por la Corte Constitucional de Colombia en sentencias como T-236/2023 y T-188/2024, que protegen sus derechos a la identidad y no discriminación. La actualización de la Registraduría implementa estos fallos que ya habían ordenado esos cambios en documentos de identidad.
Por su parte, el registrador nacional, Penagos, comentó que: “se trata del cumplimiento de unas órdenes por parte de la Corte Constitucional y, en segundo lugar, de una iniciativa en la que la Registraduría ha estado absolutamente comprometida”. Y explicó que en cada “una de las estaciones integradas de servicio de las más de 1.200 oficinas que tiene la Registraduría Nacional se va a incluir todo este proceso”.
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.
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