In a country that has historically been considered a vanguard in terms of human rights and recognition of sexual diversity in South America, Uruguay’s activists continue to emphasize the importance of continuing to fight for the effective implementation of policies that will improve LGBTQ people’s lives.

Various marches took place across the country last month, 30 years after Uruguay’s first queer rights demonstration. The march in Montevideo, the country’s capital, was the last of these protests that took place.

Nicolás Pizarro and Daniela Buquet of Coordinadora de la Marcha por la Diversidad and Diego Sempol, a political scientist and supporter of various organizations, in a series of exclusive interviews with the Washington Blade offered an in-depth look at Uruguay’s LGBTQ community’s current situation and the challenges it faces.

Progressive laws, incomplete implementation

Uruguay has been a pioneer in the region in terms of the implementation of laws that protect the rights of LGBTQ people. They include the Comprehensive Law for Trans Persons; the Law on the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy; the Law Against Racism, Xenophobia and all forms of Discrimination, and the Law on Gender-Based Violence. Uruguay’s marriage equality law took effect in 2013.

These laws have been the result of the hard work of social movements and activists who have fought tirelessly for equality and justice. Their effective implementation, however, remains a challenge.

Pizarro points out a lack of budget and political will has hindered the full realization of these public policies. 

“Uruguay is in a difficult political context today, where the right-wing government is cutting budgets and pursuing a regressive agenda in (terms of) human rights legislation,” Pizarro told the Blade. 

He said this situation has led to LGBTQ people having to lobby and take to the streets to demand that existing laws be enforced and the necessary resources be allocated to do so.

Sempol, meanwhile, indicated “the movement’s current demands are linked to the effective enforcement of the laws in all their terms and that economic resources are actually allocated to strengthen public policies.”

Pride march participants denounce impunity

Montevideo’s Pride march is an emblematic event that brings together thousands of people every year to celebrate diversity and demand equal rights. 

Buquet explained this year’s demonstration happened under the slogan “Basta de impunidad y saqueo de derechos” or “Enough impunity and plundering of rights.” It reflects the LGBTQ community’s concerns over the obstacles they face in the search for equality and justice.

One of this year’s march highlights was the denunciation of the lack of governmental will to advance investigations into those who disappeared during Uruguay’s military dictatorship from 1973-1985. The LGBTQ community has joined this struggle, demanding justice for victims and accountability on the part of the State.

The march also sought to address a number of fundamental demands: Access to health care, education, work and housing without discrimination. The lack of budget to implement the gender-based violence and trans rights laws was an additional concern. 

“We believe it is essential to denounce the cuts in public policies that leave the most vulnerable populations adrift,” Buquet told the Blade, specifically referring to the transgender rights law that has yet to be fully implemented. “They (trans people) continue to be one of the populations in the worst socioeconomic situations, they do not have access to jobs, they do not have access to education and health professionals still do not have the necessary training, which means that access to health care continues to be violated.”

Pizarro pointed out “the sex-identity dissidences continue without access to health, culture, education, work and housing without being discriminated against.” 

Initiatives seek to help LGBTQ Uruguayans

LGBTQ organizations and activists in Uruguay continue to carry out a series of initiatives and projects designed to help the community, despite the challenges and obstacles. 

Pizarro noted Colectivo Diverso Las Piedras works in the Public Policy Council for Sexual Diversity to ensure the comprehensive implementation of existing laws that include the creation of assistance plans for LGBTQ people with a special focus on trans people who are in vulnerable situations. The group is also committed to training and raising awareness in places that include educational and institutional centers. 

Colectivo Diverso Las Piedras works closely with other social movements in Canelones department and across the country to promote inclusive and equitable public policies.

One outstanding project on which it is working is “Trans Memories and Authoritarianisms” in collaboration with Diego Sempol, who is a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Social Services, and other organizations. project seeks to make visible the experiences of trans women detained and tortured during the Uruguayan dictatorship, shedding light on a dark period in the country’s history and highlighting the importance of an intersectional perspective when analyzing the recent past.

Pizarro told the Blade “the most important thing is to show the state that our rights are systematically violated.”

“Fifty years after the coup d’état in Uruguay we denounce the government’s unwillingness to move forward in the investigations of disappeared detainees, wanting to take human rights violators to serve their sentences at home and installing a false story of the two demons about this period, wanting to remove the responsibility of the State in crimes against humanity,” he said.

Sempol explained this reconstruction milestone “has a lot to do with the emergence of a memory, of a memory, of the gender dissidence that is trying to bet on reconstructing the past and somehow, to give this temporality to the struggles and to the identity of LGBTQ+ people in Uruguay. So there is a process of reconstruction, of a memory.”