South America
Prominent LGBTQ activist elected to Argentina’s Congress
Esteban Paulón will represent Santa Fe province
A prominent LGBTQ activist in Argentina on Sunday won a seat in the country’s Congress.
Esteban Paulón, who lives in Rosario, a city in Santa Fe province, is the former president of the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender People. The Santa Fe Socialist Party member finished first on La Fuerza de Santa Fe ticket.
“I feel an enormous joy and responsibility,” Paulón exclusively told the Washington Blade after officials announced the results. “I get to represent on the one hand the Socialist Party that has a history of more than 127 years in Argentina … and in turn my province and the LGBT community.”
Paulón noted he was the only openly gay candidate in the election.
“I am going to defend my community, to represent the Socialist Party and to resist the pretensions of the most reactionary and conservative sectors of Argentina that have entered Congress with force in this election, regardless of the fact that the presidency has not yet been defined,” he said.
Massa, Milei to face off in presidential election’s second round
Economy Minister Sergio Massa on Sunday won 36.68 percent of the votes in the first round of the country’s presidential election. Libertarian economist Javier Milei received 29.98 percent of the vote.
The two men will face off in the election’s second round that will take place on Nov. 19 because neither one on Sunday received more than 45 percent of the votes or at least 40 percent and a difference of at least 10 percentage points over the runner-up.
Massa, the ruling Peronism party’s candidate, to the surprise of many election observers won center-left votes. He will compete for the presidency without being bogged down by the fact that he oversees the economy of a country with an inflation rate of nearly 140 percent.
Milei has proposed dollarizing the economy and abolishing Argentina’s Central Bank, among other radical measures.
The winner of the presidential election will have to tackle the economic crisis and $44 billion in debt to the International Monetary Fund.
Paulón, along with LGBTQ activists, expressed concern that so many Argentines voted for Milei, who opposes marriage equality and trans rights. They also note he has pledged to close the country’s Women, Genders and Diversity Ministry.
“Milei’s advance is a concrete risk because he has said it concretely, he has specifically had anti-rights proposals,” said Paulón. “The Socialist Party, for our part, will never support Miley’s candidacy.”
“Milei’s negationist, homophobic, misogynist and anti-rights discourse obviously represents a risk because it has been installed in the public debate,” he added. “We have to work now so that he does not become president.”
Paulón told the Blade that Milei’s rise is due to “the social discontent in Argentina, an economic situation that is not recovering, concrete difficulties for many people and Javier Milei appears as an emergent of something that comes from outside the system and that should come to change everything.”
“That coming from outside and showing himself as someone outside the political system is very much associated with everything that has to do with verbal violence, physical violence, denial of the other,” said Paulón. “His whole campaign is based on violence, but the crisis is indeed so deep that an important part of the population has decided to vote for him.”
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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