South America
Chilean lawmakers reject complaint against gay education minister
Marco Antonio Ávila faced insults about sexual orientation
The Chilean Congress on Wednesday rejected a complaint against openly gay Education Minister Marco Antonio Ávila that a group of conservative lawmakers filed against him.
President Gabriel Boric himself denounced and repudiated the series of homophobic statements against his Cabinet member.
The traditional right and the extreme right voted as a block in favor of dismissing Ávila. They accused him of infringing upon parents’ rights to educate their children and failing to fulfill his responsibilities to address an alleged “deep educational crisis.”
Lawmakers voted 78-69 to reject the complaint that 10 conservative lawmakers filed.
Four of the complaint’s seven chapters contained references to the Education Ministry’s gender or sexual education policies they said Ávila implemented. These policies, however, have been in place since leftist President Michelle Bachelet and right-wing President Sebastián Piñera were in office.
“I have never broken the laws or (violated) the constitution,” said Ávila after the vote. “I am a firm defender of democracy, of the constitution and of the tools it contains to control and improve the actions of authorities. But I am also certain that it is through constructive dialogue that the vast majority of those of us who participate in politics can move forward to improve the lives of hundreds and thousands of students, children and young people.”
Boric on Twitter reiterated his rejection of the accusation against Ávila and once again emphasized those who brought it showed “homophobic character.”
“The constitutional complaint against the Education Minister and professor Marco Ávila is the fourth filed by the right wing in less than a year and a half of government has been rejected,” wrote Boric. “Its lack of legal support and homophobic character were on display. Justice and reason have triumphed.”
Congress seemed poised to approve the complaint until the lawmakers who introduced it invited Christian Legislative Observatory Director Marcela Aranda to testify against Ávila.
Aranda is the former spokesperson of the Freedom Bus, which Hazte Oir, an ultra-Catholic organization from Spain, brought to Chile in 2017.
She testified that Avila’s “LGTBIQ+ activism and his condition has exceeded the limit of what is private.” Congresswoman María Luisa Cordero accused Ávila of encouraging child perversion.
“I find it unusual, inadmissible, nauseating and disgusting that the Minister of Education … is concerned about the incitement to sexuality and whether they have an active and reactive clitoris … I would have already asked for the famous Ávila to be imprisoned for inciting precocity and child sexual perversion if he were not Education Minister,” said the congresswoman.
She added Ávila “is a fatty liver patient with high bilirubin levels.”
“This attacks the neurons and causes mental incompetence,” said Cordero. “He is a person about whom nobody worries because he should be evaluated physically and biologically.”
Ávila (and his ministry), according to Cordero “has a perverse preoccupation with the sexual anticipation and development of schoolchildren.”
“They are a bunch of perverts who work from the crotch.”
Her statements, which El Mercurio, Chile’s leading conservative newspaper, and LGBTQ and intersex organizations documented, made lawmakers from Evópoli, a center-right party, and from the center-left Christian Democracy Party, which is not part of the government, reevaluate whether to vote in favor of dismissing Ávila. The coalitions votes were key.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation condemned the anti-gay statements.
“The statements of these people, especially Cordero, are clearly a response to the minister’s sexual orientation and the policies of the Education Ministry to promote LGBTIQ+ human rights,” said Movilh. “These are homophobic speeches that go as far as the irrationality of insulting an authority with child abuse just for being gay.”
Fundación Iguales Executive Director María José Cumplido told the Washington Blade “it is very good news that the constitutional complaint has been rejected because it had no legal arguments and instead was a ruse to personally attack the minister for his sexual orientation. Therefore, from Fundación Iguales’ persepctive we celebrate that there has been a rejection to those homophobic attacks that personally attacked Minister Ávila.”
Emilia Schneider, a pro-government congresswoman, pointed out to the Blade that “the constitutional accusation against Minister Antonio Ávila was rejected for being an accusation without legal grounds, based on lies and homophobia.”
Schneider is the first transgender woman to win a seat in the Chilean Congress.
“It is a very good sign that the National Congress in its majority is not supportive of this civilizational setback, I regret that we have wasted time in this show of the right and ultra-right,” Schneider emphasized.
Finally, Ávila said that “my call today, after this accusation, is to improve (the treatment of people) in the political world, to respect each other beyond differences, not to turn the fair differences between one and the other into personal attacks.”
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.
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.
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