Luna Humérez has made history in Bolivia as the first transgender woman to run for a seat in the country’s Senate.

“We are making history, my candidacy is a bet on human rights,” Humérez told the Washington Blade.

She hopes to represent La Paz Province under the banner of SÚMATE, a center-left political movement that includes presidential candidate Manfred Reyes Villa. 

“It is important to occupy these spaces and demonstrate that beyond our identity we have the capacity,” said Humérez.

With a trajectory of more than 15 years as an activist for trans rights in Bolivia, Humérez is not a new figure in the public arena. A lawyer by profession and president of the Organization of Transvestites, Transgender and Transsexual Women of Bolivia known by the acronym OTRAF, she has been one of the main promoters of a trans rights law in the country. Humérez is also the first trans woman in Bolivia to enter into a civil marriage after authorities legally recognized her gender identity.

Humérez is the founder of Casa Trans Pamela Valenzuela, a refuge and community center in La Paz.

Aware of the need to advance protections for sexual and gender diversities, Humérez has proposed a legislative platform that focuses on the control and effective enforcement of laws.

“Bolivia is full of laws, regulations that are obsolete, however they have a mandatory compliance,” she said, noting reforms should improve accessibility and respond to marginalized groups’ specific needs.

Humérez’s platform is “full rights for all, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Facing a campaign from a historically marginalized identity, Humérez recognizes the resistance, but also celebrates the support. 

“My candidacy also speaks of the fact that there is a large number of Bolivians who have been left behind because of discriminatory bias,” she told the Blade. “I have so many anecdotes, which began with those who trusted me, among them are my sisters in struggle, human rights activists, political activists, animal activists, environmentalists, and others with whom we formed ties, mostly young people who also have the desire to take flight and change the country for the better. They are my other family and I am very grateful to them.”

Humérez proposes, in addition to a gender rights and diversity agenda, a platform with seven focuses — legal, political, economic, productive, social, moral, and territorial — and five immediate actions. These include:

• An “immediate injection” of $10 billion to stabilize the economy and create the flow of dollars
• Reestablish order throughout the country; guaranteeing freedom of protest without interfering in economic development
• Create one million “decent and well-paid jobs” that would allow “talented young people” to remain in the country
• “Act firmly” against corruption
• “Promote real authority for each department” that would decentralize the government

Regarding LGBTQ youth in Bolivia, the lawyer and activist envisions a future where “the freedom that every human being has to choose their sexual orientation and gender identity with equal opportunities must be guaranteed.” 

“I notice that the youth today understood this, and now it is necessary to have spaces of accessibility and participation without any consideration,” said Humérez. “The State must guarantee through its instances this accessibility. We need a Bolivia that is more plural, inclusive and in brotherhood.”

Humérez concluded the interview by noting her family’s humble beginnings.

“I know what deprivation is and I know what it is like not to have enough bread to put in one’s mouth,” she said. “If my life has been to help as many people as possible, being in there I will be able to help much more. I am an example of overcoming and showing that anything is possible. Do not judge me by my identity, but by my capacity.”

The country’s general elections will take place on Aug. 17. 

A U.S. Agency for International Development funding freeze in January forced the closure of India’s Mitr Clinic, the country’s first transgender healthcare facility, disrupting critical services for a vulnerable population. 

Six months later, the clinic has reopened as Sabrang Clinic, reviving access to essential care for the transgender community.

Major Indian corporations, including some of the nation’s largest multinationals, stepped up with substantial financial support. Their backing has enabled Sabrang Clinic to resume its mission of delivering specialized, stigma-free medical services.

The former Mitr Clinic on May 2 reopened as the Sabrang Clinic. YR Gaitonde Center for AIDS Research and Education, an HIV/AIDS service organization, manages the facility.

The Sabrang Clinic sparked controversy in the U.S. when U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) in February denounced its USAID funding, arguing that American taxpayer dollars should not support trans healthcare initiatives abroad. President Donald Trump amplified the criticism, labeling the agency’s spending on such programs as “wasteful” and aligning with his administration’s broader push to curb federal support for gender-affirming care. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt further fueled the debate, citing the clinic’s funding as part of a pattern of USAID’s “radical” expenditures, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) echoed the sentiment, decrying similar international projects as misaligned with American priorities.

Elon Musk, who until May led the Department of Government Efficiency, added to the controversy surrounding the clinic. 

“That’s what American tax dollars were funding,” he said in a Feb. 28 X post. 

His remark, made before his departure from the Trump-Vance administration, spotlighted the clinic’s USAID support, intensifying debates over its role in delivering trans healthcare in India.

The Washington Blade on Feb. 27 detailed how the USAID funding freeze crippled Mitr Clinic’s operations, spotlighting the broader fallout for South Asian LGBTQ organizations. 

The Blade noted the clinic, a vital resource for trans healthcare in India, faced abrupt closure alongside groups in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, as the freeze slashed support for programs addressing HIV/AIDS, mental health, and gender-based violence, leaving thousands without access to essential services.

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and USAID in 2021 launched Program ACCELERATE, spearheaded by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, to establish Mitr Clinic in Hyderabad in Telangana State. As India’s first comprehensive healthcare center for the trans community, the facility offered tailored medical services, including HIV/AIDS treatment and mental health support, filling a critical gap in the region’s healthcare landscape.

Sabrang Clinic serves a critical role for India’s estimated one million trans people, a population facing a disproportionate HIV/AIDS burden. 

A 2019 Reuters report noted a 3.1 percent HIV prevalence among trans people, translating to roughly 31,000 individuals living with the virus, compared to the national adult rate of 0.26 percent. Similarly, a 2021 UNAIDS report cited a 3.8 percent prevalence, suggesting approximately 38,000 trans people with HIV/AIDS. 

Internal reports indicate the clinic since it opened in 2021 has served more than 3,000 patients. It has become a model of community-led care that fosters trust and addresses the unique health needs of trans people in Hyderabad.

When USAID funding cuts forced Sabrang Clinic’s closure, scores of people and LGBTQ community members in Hyderabad were left without access to reliable, stigma-free healthcare. Undaunted, the clinic’s trans-led team pivoted to virtual consultations and medication delivery, sustaining critical support for patients until corporate funding revived operations.

Tata Trusts, a philanthropic arm of India’s Tata conglomerate, in April pledged to fund the clinic for three years.

The Hindu, a leading Indian English-language newspaper, reported the trust committed approximately $18 per person a year to sustain the clinic’s operations. This contrasts with the earlier USAID program, which had provided about $23 per person each year.

Tata Trusts covers the salaries of Sabrang Clinic’s core medical staff, while its leadership positions are jointly funded by Tata and the clinic’s parent organization. The clinic is now pursuing partnerships with additional donors to expand its trans-focused healthcare services.

“We are elated to continue this service, as we have always believed that sexual minorities deserve respect and their right to self-expression,” said YRGCARE Chief Operating Officer A.K. Srikrishnan. “That’s why we launched Mitr Clinic under Project ACCELERATE in 2021, and it operated until January 2025. The Trump administration’s USAID funding withdrawal forced a shutdown, but we have no comment on that. Fortunately, with great vigor, we secured support from Tata Trusts to sustain Sabrang Clinic. The name change to Sabrang, also called ‘Help for All,’ was simply to reposition the brand, with no deeper logic attached.”

Srikrishnan told the Blade that YRGCARE will aim to raise additional crowdfunding and support if the current funding proves insufficient to maintain the same level of services at the clinic. Srikrishnan also thanked Tata Trusts for its support.

“We want to expand it throughout the country given the choice,” said Srikrishnan. “If someone were to tell us, ‘Can you run it across the country?’ we would certainly love to do it.” 

“Sexual minorities are a reality, and however much someone wishes them away, they exist and need to exist with the respect and rights they deserve,” added Srikrishnan. “We do not differentiate between local and foreign contributions; when we needed it most, Tata Trusts stepped in and helped. So we are certainly grateful to them.”

A Barcelona-based photographer, audiovisual artist, and activist has created an exhibit that profiles Spanish women who suffered abuse in institutions that Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship established.

Luca Gaetano Pira, who is originally from Italy, spoke with women who the regime, which governed Spain from 1936-1975, sent to Women’s Protection Board institutions.

The regime in 1941 created the board the country’s Justice Ministry oversaw.

Franco named his wife, Carmen Polo, as the board’s honorary president. Then-Prime Minister Felipe González fully dissolved the board in 1985, a decade after Franco’s death.

Gaetano’s exhibit is called “Las Descarriadas” or “The Misguided Women” in English.  

“These are women who were detained between 1941 and 1985 for reasons that are unthinkable today: being lesbian, poor, pregnant out of wedlock, rebellious, politically active … or simply considered ‘morally suspect,'” Gaetano noted to the Washington Blade.

Groups affiliated with the Spanish Catholic Church ran these institutions. Gaetano pointed out they were “presented as social assistance centers.”

“In reality, they were spaces of punishment and forced reeducation, where isolation, unpaid work, and psychological violence were the norm,” he said. “Many of the survivors are still alive. Their testimonies are powerful, urgent, and of extraordinary current relevance.”

The regime sent more than 40,000 women to Women’s Protection Board institutions.

“Despite its seemingly benevolent name, it was in fact one of the most powerful instruments of moral and social control over women during and after the dictatorship,” notes the exhibit. “Under the guise of care and re-education, this institution functioned as a repressive apparatus that punished women who deviated from the ideal feminine model imposed by Franco’s regime: submissive, obedient, married, and dedicated to motherhood within the Catholic family structure.”

The Spanish Catholic Church last month issued a public apology, but Gaetano described it as “very soft” and noted “the women did not accept it.” Gaetano also compared the Women’s Protection Board institutions to Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries.

The Associated Press notes tens of thousands of “fallen” women were sent to the laundries that Catholic nuns operated in Ireland from the 18th century until the mid-1990s. Then-Irish Prime Minister Edna Kenny in 2013 issued a formal apology for the abuses that women suffered in the laundries and announced the government would compensate them.

The Spanish government has yet to offer compensation to the women abused in Women’s Protection Board institutions.

“My work focuses on recovering the historical memory of marginalized communities, particularly through the portrayal of survivors of institutional violence and the use of archival materials,” Gaetano told the Blade, noting he has also sought to highlight the repression that LGBTQ people suffered during dictatorships in Portugal and Latin America.

Gaetano’s exhibit can be found here: