World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
Qatar has detained a man with HIV who is a dual British and Mexican citizen
AUSTRALIA
As the 46th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras ended its two week long celebrations with the annual massive Mardi Gras parade on Oxford Street this past weekend, this year’s celebration marred by the murder of a gay couple that jarred the country’s entire LGBTQ community, the parade came to a halt on Saturday in a powerful act of remembrance for the couple, Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
In its annual float, Qantas Airways paid tribute to Davies who worked for the carrier as a flight attendant. A Qantas spokesperson confirmed that Davies’ name was added prominently on the side of the Qantas float, and Executive Manager Crew Leeanne Langridge in a statement said that Davies “was a much-loved member of the Qantas cabin crew community in Brisbane and Sydney.
“He had a passion for travel, life, his family and friends and the customers that he served. He will be deeply missed. The whole team at Qantas are thinking of Luke and Jesse’s loved ones,” Lanridge said.
The Star Observer, the country’s largest queer news media outlet, reported that a New South Wales police officer, Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, who reportedly once dated Baird, a Network 10 reporter and a sports official who umpired in AFL matches in the Northern Football and Netball League, has been charged with their murders.
Lamarre-Condon is accused of shooting them dead with his police-issued sidearm at Baird’s home in Paddington, Sydney. The couple’s remains were found at a property at Bungonia, near Goulburn, around 115 miles south of Sydney on Feb. 27, 2024.
The murder of the couple caused the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras organizers to uninvite police from the iconic Mardi Gras parade the BBC reported.
The parade’s board said the decision to exclude police, who have taken part in the annual march for over two decades, was “not taken lightly” but that it was essential to create a safe environment “to protest, celebrate” and “honor and grieve those we’ve lost.”
Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade has a complex history of both LGBTQ activism and police brutality, after the first march in 1978 resulted in dozens of people being beaten and arrested by local officers, the BBC noted.
CHINA
A Chinese transgender activist is facing deportation back to mainland China as she is scheduled for release on Sunday from Siu Lam Psychiatric Center, a psychiatric detention institution where Hong Kong authorities usually hold trans detainees.
Lai Ke, also known as Xiran, was convicted of using “forged” documents to attempt to travel from China to Toronto via Hong Kong last year. Lai was detained at Hong Kong International Airport on May 3, 2023, while transferring to a flight to Toronto having begun her journey in Shanghai.
Lai was convicted in a Hong Kong court on June 16, 2023, and sentenced to 15 months in prison, which she served at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Center. A release notice from the Siu Lam Psychiatric Center seen by Amnesty International states that Lai is due to be released early for good behavior on March 2. As Lai is not a resident of Hong Kong, she is subject to being deported to mainland China under Section 19 of the Hong Kong Immigration Ordinance.
“Time is of the essence to prevent Lai Ke from being unlawfully deported to mainland China, where she would be at grave risk of serious human rights violations — including arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and even torture and other ill-treatment — due to both her transgender identity and her activism,” Sarah Brooks, the deputy regional director for Asia for Amnesty International said.
“To return her given these risks would be an abandonment of Hong Kong’s obligations under international law.”
Lai had been a vocal advocate for trans rights in China alongside her partner. According to her friends, her partner was imprisoned in China in June 2023 on account of her own activism and her trans identity.
While serving her sentence, Lai has been denied access to the medication she was taking as a part of her hormone replacement therapy and held in solitary confinement for complaining about the denial of her medical treatment, her friends added.
“There is a very real risk that Lai Ke will face persecution — including further imprisonment — if she is returned to mainland China,” said Brooks.
PHILIPPINES
A 33-year-old drag queen who had been incarcerated in a Manila jail last fall for allegedly violating the Catholic-majority country’s obscenity laws for his performance dressed as Jesus Christ, performing a rock version of the Lord’s Prayer in Tagalog, was arrested again this past week.
Investigators from the Manila Police District, charged Amadeus Fernando Pagente, who performs under the stage/drag name Pura Luka Vega, for six counts of alleged violation of Article 201 including immoral doctrines, obscene publications and exhibitions and indecent shows. The arrest of the drag artist on Feb. 29 was due to a warrant issued by a court in Quezon City.
Supporters and fans raised the bail of 720,000 Philippine pesos, ($12,852.55) and Pagente was released on March 1. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the drag artist thanked his benefactors writing: “The fight still goes on, life still goes on. I am very grateful to those who helped me with my bail. To my drag sisters who tirelessly helped me and organized fund raising for legal fees, thank you very much. Thank you.”
These latest charges stem from a complaint issued by the Kapisanan ng Social Media Broadcasters ng Pilipinas, a broadcast media organization, on behalf of Philippines for Jesus Movement.
This is the second time the Philippines for Jesus Movement, comprising Protestant church leaders, has registered a criminal complaint with prosecutors against the drag performer. He was accused of violating obscenity laws for his performance dressed as Jesus Christ, performing a rock version of the Lord’s Prayer in Tagalog last August. He was incarcerated and then later released.
At the time Pagente told Agence France-Presse: “The arrest shows the degree of homophobia” in the Philippines. “I understand that people call my performance blasphemous, offensive or regrettable. However, they shouldn’t tell me how I practice my faith or how I do my drag.”
Ryan Thoreson, a specialist at the Human Rights Watch’s LGBT rights program, also called for the charges against Pagente to be dropped. “Freedom of expression includes artistic expression that offends, satirizes or challenges religious beliefs,” Thoreson told the BBC.
UKRAINE
A Ukrainian army combat medic was stripped of honors awarded to his unit by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after the church leadership was informed that he was gay.
Viktor Pylypenko, a medic with 1st mechanized battalion, 72nd Black Zaporozhians Brigade medical corps, along with his fellow servicemembers were awarded medals for “sacrifice and love to Ukraine” by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate’s Patriarch Filaret for their actions and deeds serving in the Donbas region against the Russian invaders.
Pylypenko who serves as an openly gay soldier together with the commander of the medical corps, Yurii Lytvynenko, arrived from Donbas to receive the medals from Filaret. The patriarch personally thanked Pylypenko for his service.
According to the Ukrainian news website obozrevatel.com, that after receiving the award, the soldier published a post on his Facebook page thanking Filaret for the award, thinking that in this way the UOC changed its attitude towards the LGBTQ community.
“I am sincerely glad that Patriarch Filaret took such a step and thanked me, an openly gay man and human rights activist, for the protection. He gave me a medal with his signature and seal. He and the Kyiv Patriarchate headed by him have radically changed their position on LGBTQ+ people and no longer consider us ‘sinful’ or the cause of the coronavirus,” Pylypenko wrote.
On Feb. 25 the church responded in its own Facebook post calling Pylypenko’s post a falsehood:
“Among the distinguished military personnel of the medical point was Victor Pylypenko. Unfortunately, on his social media pages, he posted false information about Patriarch Filaret awarding him a distinction as openly gay for human rights and that Patriarch Filaret and the Kyiv Patriarchate radically changed their negative position on LGBT.
This is an outright lie and manipulation.
Taking into account the efforts of the dark forces to distort the consistent position of the upc of the Kyiv Patriarchate, we want to officially state:
1. Soldier Victor Pilipenko received a thank you from the church, exclusively as a defender of Ukraine, not as an LGBT activist, at the submission of his fellow soldiers from the combat unit of the heroic 72nd Brigade of the Black Zaporozhye. Patriarch Filaret did not personally award the Pilipenkoví medal and did not know about his sinful tendencies.
2. Holy Patriarch Filaret and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, based on the foundations of the Holy Scriptures, the thousand-year teaching of the Orthodox Church, invariably occupies a principled negative position on Sodom sin, condemns propaganda t. zv ‘same-sex marriages.’ Homosexual sex relationships are a false distortion of the God-given nature of man. As said in the Bible, the Lord Himself for the sins of people destroyed Sodom and Homorrah. The patriarch repeatedly stated it publicly and in court proved the legality of such his right.
3. We thank warrior Victor Pilipenko (as well as all our defenders for defending our liberty and territorial integrity) for his military service, but we do not divide his sinful likeness and LGBT agitation. We inform that due to open propaganda of sinful ideology and the denial of the existence of God, consider the church award to Victor Pilipenko from 08.02.2024 Order no. 27468 — revoked.
The Apostle Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians warned: ‘he deceive yourself: Neither prostitutes, nor idolosuluzeliji, nor adulterous, nor malakí̈, nor mužoložcí, nor thieves, nor lehvari, nor drunkards, nor lihoslovci, nor predators — the kingdom of God will not inherit. And such were some of you; but washed, but sanctified, but justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God’ (1 Cor. 6, 9-11).
Based on the foundations of Christian evangelical love for all, sinners in particular, desiring them salvation, we urge everyone to repent of their personal sins.
Then the church’s press service said: “We would like to inform you that in view of the open propaganda of a sinful ideology and the denial of the existence of God, the church award to Viktor Pylypenko is hereby revoked.”
Pilipenko then accused the Kyiv Patriarchate of awarding the medals as a PR campaign:
“I wrote words of gratitude to Filaret, naively imagining that he deliberately awarded me and showed his colleagues a Christian, undoubtedly noble gesture, a signpost to reconciliation and mutual respect for gays, atheists, and people of other faiths. But everything turned out to be more prosaic: Filaret was just handing out his awards as a PR campaign for his denomination.”
Outrage from his fellow soldiers and others has been building regarding the Kyiv Patriarchate’s actions.
Ilia Krotenko, a fighter with the 72nd Black Zaporozhians Brigade, emphasized that the “trinkets” handed out by the church are worthless.
“In connection with the absolutely disgusting act of the UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate and Patriarch Filaret, who took away the award from war veteran Viktor Pylypenko only because he is openly gay, I also refuse a similar award of my own,” he wrote.
SLOVENIA
Activists from across Europe, including Slovenia, Spain, France and Poland formed an alliance to launch a petition to collect over 300,000 signatures as a first step towards laying the groundwork to ensure that in Europe, reproductive rights are safeguarded and accessible for each and every woman.
This event marks a pivotal moment where voices from diverse European nations unite to advocate for reproductive rights, underscoring the collective resolve to ensure the safety and accessibility of abortion services across the continent.
Nika Kovac, founding director of the 8th of March Research Institute, part of the new alliance, said, “The need to kick off the petition is driven by a deep concern over the erosion of reproductive rights, as witnessed in various parts of the world, including the United States and Poland. We are dedicated to creating a network of friends united by shared values of empathy and solidarity. The key to change is international solidarity.”
“The freedom to choose our body is a common value in every single country of Europe. We are here to demand that it also becomes a right that everyone has in practice,” she added.
Though a large majority of Europeans support abortion, the values of women’s bodily autonomy and their freedom to choose are not shared by all governments and state laws. In a significant number of EU countries, legal and access restrictions prove to be a considerable hurdle for those who need it the most. Slovenia has proven to be a significant outlier, being the only European country to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution with France currently trying to do the same.
“Ban on abortion kills women, ban on abortion ruins lives and the lack of access to abortion kills women and ruins lives,” said Marta Lempart, founder of Polish Women’s Strike, who has been the loudest advocate for reproductive rights in the country.
“In my country, women die in state hospitals because they are denied abortions. Each time it happens, we cry and protest and say ‘not one more’ but today I am not here to cry and shout but to say that we can get through it. You will never walk alone.”
“In many countries, abortions are legal but not free, so, it’s only for rich people; Also, in many countries abortions are legal, but women are intimidated, and humiliated for accessing a health service. This should not be happening. We need solidarity as we need to protect women not only in Poland but across Europe.”
Alice Coffin, who leads permanent action against patriarchal structures that harm French society and is a member of the alliance, said, “While Poland is infamous for severely restricted access to abortion, populist far-right parties with the same agenda are emerging across the continent. Their anti-abortion agenda is rarely in the forefront of their public communication but it becomes an important policy point if they achieve power. However, there is widespread public opposition to these measures.”
She added, “The French Senate is due to vote on including abortion in its constitution on Wednesday, Feb. 28. The president of the Senate is opposed. The Vatican has expressed its anger. But we have every hope that it will come to pass. So, abortion is an issue that will be very much on the political and media agenda in France over the next few days.”
The petition will actively be distributed among various individuals across multiple countries to ensure wide reach and engagement with the aim of gathering an initial 300,000 signatures. With this petition, the coalition hopes to build momentum and support for the substantive changes they aim to achieve.
The initiative represents a powerful, united front of committed individuals and organizations, and was attended by prominent feminist activists including Nika Kovač who has been one of the initiators of the #MeToo movement in Slovenia; Lempart, activist, and founder of the Polish Women’s Strike, who has been the loudest advocate for reproductive rights in a country with an almost total ban on abortions and has organized the biggest pro reproductive rights protests in the history of Poland; Alice Coffin, renowned feminist and author from France; Silvia Casalino, activist from France, along with Dr. Imma Clarà, director of the Spanish organization L’Associació; LGBTQ activist and researcher Kika Fumero; feminist activist and journalist Cristina Fallarás who launched the Spanish #MeToo movement. #Cuéntalo (Spain) participated in the petition launch.
The coalition’s political stance stems from a fundamental disagreement with the reality that women in Europe still face life-threatening risks due to lack of access to safe abortion services.
The coalition’s overall goal is to safeguard and advance abortion rights across Europe, ensuring that all women have access to the safe, respectful and legal healthcare services they deserve.
QATAR
An HIV positive openly gay dual British and Mexican citizen is being held because of his sexuality in this peninsular Arab country bordering the Persian Gulf. Manuel Guerrero Aviña, 44-year-old Qatar Airways employee, has been imprisoned since Feb. 4 after responding to a false Grindr text.
PinkNewsUK reported according to his brother Enrique Aviña, who is leading the campaign QatarFreeManuel, his brother is being imprisoned because of his sexuality, and has been denied access to antiretroviral medicines.
“Qatar police used a false Grindr profile to contact Manuel and invite him to participate in a meeting with other people from the LGBT community in the city of Doha,” Enrique Aviña told British newspaper the Mirror.
“Manuel was supposed to meet a person he thought he had arranged an appointment with on the night of Feb. 4 but instead encountered police officers who were waiting to arrest him.”
“He has been denied the right to a lawyer and has been forced to sign documents in Arabic without a translator to assist him. Even worse, he has been prevented access to antiretroviral medicines he needs to be able to live with HIV, which constitutes an act of torture and puts his life at risk,” Enrique Aviña said.
PinkNewsUk also reported because Aviña registered as a British national when he was hired by Qatar Airlines and moved there to work, the Mexican Embassy in Qatar said, the British Embassy is dealing with his case, but Mexican consular officers been in contact with his family.
“With regards to the case of Manuel Guerrero Aviña, who has Mexican and British nationality and is currently under arrest in Doha, the Mexican Embassy in Qatar confirms it has been following developments since it was informed about the detention,” an embassy statement read.
“It has been in constant contact with his relatives and has confirmed Manuel has legal representation.”
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office told PinkNewsUK: “We are providing consular assistance to a British man who is detained in Qatar and are supporting his family.”
Additional reporting from the Star Observer, ABC News Australia, the BBC, Agence France-Presse, Obozrevatel.com, Kyiv Post and PinkNewsUK.
World
Report: 90 percent of LGBTQ groups around the world have lost funding since 2025
Trump-Vance administration cut US support after it took office
A new report that Outright International released on Thursday notes 90 percent of LGBTQ and intersex rights groups around the world have lost funding since January 2025.
The New York-based global advocacy group surveyed 229 LGBTQ and intersex rights groups in 94 countries.
Forty-nine percent of the organizations that responded said they have lost more than half of their total budget since January 2025 — 75 percent of the groups said they lost more than a quarter of their total funding.
“For nearly half of the respondents, the cuts removed most of the resources that sustained the organization,” reads the report.
When asked which funders “had reduced, suspended, or withdrawn support,” more than half of the responding groups “pointed to a source tied to the United States government, including USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development), the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Department of State.”
“No other funder came close,” notes the report.
‘What was initially framed as a temporary freeze has become a structural disruption’
The Trump-Vance administration froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid shortly after it took office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March 2025 announced 83 percent of USAID contacts had been cancelled, and the State Department would administer the remaining programs. USAID officially shut down on July 1, 2025.
Rubio issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the funding freeze. The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of gaps in U.S. funding.
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
The Outright International report notes the State Department under the Trump-Vance administration “terminated the programs of the Global Equality Fund, the public-private partnership it launched in 2011 with allied governments, companies, and foundations, which distributed more than $100 million in its first decade to LGBTIQ organizations and human rights defenders in over 100 countries.” The Trump-Vance administration, among other things, has withdrawn the U.S. from the U.N. LGBTI Core Group, a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights.
Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin in an op-ed the Blade published on Jan. 28, 2026, wrote the global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement since January 2025 lost more than $125 million — or 30 percent of its total annual funding.
“What was initially framed as a temporary freeze has become a structural disruption,” notes the Outright International report. “The effects have cascaded far beyond U.S. government funding: corporate, institutional, and philanthropic donors have also shifted, stalled, or quietly withdrawn, often without public scrutiny.”
“The broader environment in which LGBTIQ movements operate has continued to deteriorate — with democratic backsliding, anti-NGO legislation, rising violence, coordinated legislative attacks on trans and intersex people’s rights, and emboldened anti-rights actors filling the space left by the retreat of U.S. global leadership.”
The report contains specific examples that include:
• Iraqi lawmakers in 2024 passed a law that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations and transgender people. Funding cuts forced IraQueer, an Iraqi advocacy group, to stop offering safety and security trainings and workshops to activists and LGBTQ rights organizations in the country.
• An intersex-led organization in West Africa can no longer maintain office space or pay its staff.
• An Ecuadorian group that operated a community center for a decade was “forced to close” it on Feb. 1, 2026. “It has been a true loss for the LGBTIQ+ communities in our city and the country as a whole, as we were a model of self-management and resistance in one of Ecuador’s most conservative cities,” said the group in the report.
• An “LGBTIQ-led refugee organization” in Uganda “has lost the emergency relocation support that once moved people facing immediate violence to safer locations.”
• An advocacy group in Ukraine that lost funding said it was “forced to stop paying some of our specialists and reduce our hours for handling inquiries … We used to be able to respond promptly to requests and support people throughout the entire process of resolving their issues, whereas now we are forced to limit ourselves to one-time consultations or refuse assistance altogether due to a lack of resources.”
• The Tonga Leitis Association in the report said a lack of funding has forced it to reduce “the number of activities the organization can run and erodes the prevention infrastructure behind” the country’s low HIV rate.
The Outright International report notes “global LGBTIQ funding had begun to fall even before the current U.S. administration took office.”
It further cites statistics from the Human Rights Funders Network that project “rights-focused development assistance will fall by between” $1.4-$1.9 billion a year by 2026, “with movements for LGBTIQ people’s rights and gender equality among the hardest it.”
“At the same time, LGBTIQ organizations have not stood still,” reads the Outright International report. “They have continued to resist, adapt, and serve their communities under extraordinary pressure, often absorbing the costs of these funding shocks in ways that remain largely invisible.”
“This report is an effort to make those costs — and that resilience — visible,” it adds.
United Kingdom
Grindr settles UK lawsuit over claims it shared users’ personal information
Plaintiffs allege gay hookup company disclosed HIV status to third parties
Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million ($35.24 million) to settle a lawsuit in the UK over allegations it shared users’ HIV status and other personal information with third parties.
The BBC on Monday reported a lawsuit was filed in the High Court of England and Wales in 2024. A class action lawsuit with more than 11,000 plaintiffs was later filed in the U.S.
Grindr in a U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing notes the California-headquartered company as part of the settlement it reached on Sept. 2 will pay £13.0 million ($17.62 million) “to the counterparties” by Dec. 31, 2026, and another £13.0 million ($17.62 million) by March 31, 2027.
“As previously disclosed, in April 2025, Grindr Inc. and Grindr LLC, its indirect and wholly-owned operating subsidiary (collectively, ‘Grindr’), were served with proceedings in the High Court of England and Wales, which proceedings were originally issued in April 2024, brought on behalf of UK Grindr users from a period up to early 2020 alleging violations of UK privacy laws,” reads the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing.
“On Sept. 2, 2026, Grindr resolved the above-described UK group action related to historical data practices before 2020, when Grindr was owned and controlled by the Chinese conglomerate Kunlun,” it continues. “The settlement includes no findings or admission of liability. While Grindr disputes the allegations, it recognizes and acknowledges the distress and loss of trust expressed by some of its UK users regarding that pre-2020 period.”
The filing further notes Grindr in 2020 “was sold to new owners and appointed new management” and in 2022 became a publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Since 2020 Grindr has overhauled its privacy program with a keen focus on the unique needs of its community,” reads the filing. “Grindr is and remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control, and responsible data practices.”
A Grindr spokesperson in the UK on Tuesday referred the Washington Blade to the filing for comment on the settlement.
El Salvador
Mujer trans salvadoreña es encontrada sin vida
La muerte de Yoisi Villalta vuelve a poner sobre la mesa la violencia
SANTA ANA, El Salvador — La muerte de Yoisi Villalta, mujer trans y vendedora de tortas en Texistepeque, Santa Ana Norte, ha vuelto a colocar en el centro del debate una realidad que durante años ha acompañado a la población LGBTQ en El Salvador: la violencia no termina con una agresión o con una muerte. También puede manifestarse en la manera en que una persona es buscada, nombrada, registrada, despedida y recordada.
Villalta fue reportada como desaparecida por su familia a finales de agosto de 2026. Días después, medios de comunicación y plataformas digitales informaron sobre el hallazgo de su cuerpo sin vida. Un reporte publicado el 5 de septiembre señala que el cuerpo fue localizado en Tacuba, Ahuachapán, ocho días después de su desaparición, mientras que la Policía Nacional Civil no había confirmado hasta entonces la causa de muerte ni clasificado oficialmente el caso como homicidio intencionado.
La precisión es importante; hasta el momento no debe afirmarse como un hecho que Yoisi haya sido víctima de un crimen de odio o de un homicidio motivado por su identidad de género, mientras no exista una investigación oficial que determine las circunstancias y causa de su muerte. Lo que sí existe es una profunda preocupación expresada por organizaciones de la sociedad civil y por personas de la comunidad LGBTQ, especialmente ante el contexto de violencia y discriminación que históricamente han enfrentado las mujeres trans en El Salvador.
Una mujer detrás de una noticia
Antes de convertirse en noticia, Villalta tenía una vida. Era una mujer trans que trabajaba como vendedora de tortas en Texistepeque. Desde su negocio desarrollaba una actividad cotidiana para ganarse la vida, pero también había convertido aquel espacio en una expresión de solidaridad con su comunidad.
De acuerdo con la información difundida por organizaciones LGBTQ, Villalta compartía alimentos con las brigadas de salud sexual que realizaban jornadas en la zona. Esa faceta de su vida permite verla más allá de las circunstancias de su muerte: como una mujer trabajadora, solidaria y vinculada a acciones comunitarias.
La Federación Salvadoreña LGBTI pidió precisamente que su memoria fuera abordada desde esa perspectiva. En el mensaje difundido tras conocerse su muerte, la organización llamó a recordarla por “su vida, su trabajo, su generosidad, y sobre todo desde su nombre”, y pidió que su historia no fuera reducida al morbo.
Ese llamado resulta especialmente importante en tiempos en que las redes sociales pueden convertir una tragedia humana en una sucesión de comentarios, fotografías, especulaciones y publicaciones hechas sin sensibilidad. Una persona fallecida no deja de tener dignidad.
Y una mujer trans no deja de ser mujer porque haya muerto.
El derecho a ser nombrada
Uno de los aspectos que más indignación ha provocado en torno al caso es el tratamiento de la identidad de Villalta durante la búsqueda. Organizaciones y personas cercanas han denunciado que durante el proceso de búsqueda se utilizó el nombre que aparece en su Documento Único de Identidad (DUI), en lugar del nombre con el que Villalta vivía y era reconocida socialmente.
Este aspecto no es meramente una cuestión semántica. Para las personas trans, el nombre puede representar una parte fundamental de su identidad y de la manera en que construyen su vida frente a la sociedad. Ser reconocidas por el nombre con el que se identifican constituye también una forma de respeto.
En el caso de Villalta, la Federación Salvadoreña LGBTI expresó que negar el nombre y la identidad de una persona trans también constituye una forma de violencia. La situación adquiere una dimensión todavía más compleja en El Salvador, donde continúa sin existir un mecanismo legal general que permita a las personas trans modificar su nombre y marcador de género en sus documentos de identidad conforme a su identidad de género.
Así, una persona puede construir durante años una vida social, familiar, laboral y comunitaria con un nombre determinado y, sin embargo, encontrarse ante instituciones que continúan identificándola exclusivamente mediante los datos registrales que no corresponden a la identidad con la que vive. El caso de Villalta vuelve a evidenciar esa tensión entre la identidad vivida y el reconocimiento institucional.
Un problema que va más allá de un solo caso
El caso de Villalta ocurre en un país donde las organizaciones de derechos humanos han advertido durante años sobre la violencia y discriminación que afectan a la población LGBTQ. La información disponible también muestra un problema relacionado con la documentación de estos hechos.
Organizaciones defensoras de derechos humanos han cuestionado la ausencia o insuficiencia de registros públicos actualizados y desagregados que permitan conocer con precisión cuántos delitos violentos afectan a personas LGBTQ y cuántos de ellos tienen como posible motivación la orientación sexual, identidad o expresión de género. La falta de información no significa necesariamente ausencia de violencia. Por el contrario, puede hacerla más difícil de identificar.
Un crimen que no registra la identidad de género de la víctima, o que no investiga adecuadamente una posible motivación relacionada con prejuicios, termina incorporándose estadísticamente como un hecho aislado, sin permitir comprender patrones. Ese problema tampoco es exclusivo de El Salvador. Sin embargo, en el país constituye una preocupación recurrente para las organizaciones que documentan vulneraciones contra personas LGBTQ.
301 denuncias en 2025
Un indicador permite dimensionar que el problema trasciende los homicidios. El Informe 2025 sobre las vulneraciones de los derechos humanos de las personas LGBTQ en El Salvador, elaborado por el Observatorio de Derechos Humanos LGBTIQ+ de ASPIDH con apoyo de Hivos y Arcus Foundation, registró 301 denuncias de vulneraciones de derechos entre el 1 de enero y el 22 de septiembre de 2025. La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos también recogió estos datos en su informe anual.
Según esa información, las mujeres trans representaron el 53,5 por ciento de las víctimas registradas y los hombres gays el 26,6 por ciento. El informe también señaló como principales presuntos responsables a cuerpos uniformados, entre ellos la Policía Nacional Civil, los cuerpos de agentes municipales y militares desplegados bajo el régimen de excepción.
Estos datos deben leerse con cautela: se trata de denuncias de vulneraciones de derechos, no de una cifra de homicidios ni de todos los casos ocurridos en el país.
Pero muestran algo importante: la violencia contra las personas LGBTQ no puede analizarse exclusivamente desde los asesinatos. También existe violencia en la discriminación, en el acceso a servicios, en el trato institucional, en la familia, en el trabajo, en los espacios públicos y en la imposibilidad de ejercer plenamente derechos fundamentales.
El precedente de Zashy Zuley
La historia reciente de El Salvador ofrece antecedentes que ayudan a comprender por qué el caso de Villalta genera preocupación. En abril de 2021 fue asesinada en San Miguel Zashy Zuley del Cid, una mujer trans y activista vinculada al trabajo comunitario de personas LGBTQ.
ACNUR condenó entonces su asesinato y señaló que Zuley había sido previamente desplazada de su hogar debido a amenazas. La agencia de Naciones Unidas explicó que trabajaba junto con COMCAVIS TRANS para apoyarla en un proceso de emprendimiento y medios de vida.
Su muerte también puso en evidencia otra forma de violencia: después de morir, hubo dificultades para que su identidad de género fuera respetada durante sus honras fúnebres. Medios que documentaron el caso señalaron que fue sepultada con una expresión masculina y que existieron obstáculos para la participación de personas LGBTQ cercanas a ella.
El caso de Zuley se convirtió así en un símbolo de una problemática que tiene dos dimensiones: la violencia contra el cuerpo y la violencia contra la identidad.
Más de cinco años después, la muerte de Villalta vuelve a colocar ambas preocupaciones en la conversación pública.
¿Dónde están los datos oficiales?
Una de las preguntas que surgen nuevamente es cuántos casos de violencia contra personas LGBTQ han ocurrido en los últimos años y cuántos han sido investigados considerando una posible motivación por prejuicio.
La ausencia de información pública reciente y desagregada dificulta responder.
Esta falta de datos no solo afecta a las organizaciones defensoras de derechos humanos. También afecta a las instituciones encargadas de diseñar políticas públicas, prevenir la violencia y garantizar justicia.
Si no sabemos cuántos casos existen, dónde ocurren, quiénes son las víctimas, qué tipos de violencia se presentan y qué resultados tienen las investigaciones, resulta mucho más difícil diseñar respuestas adecuadas. La documentación independiente adquiere entonces un papel fundamental, aunque nunca debería sustituir la obligación del Estado de generar estadísticas confiables y transparentes.
El desafío de no olvidar
El caso de Villalta vuelve a plantear una pregunta incómoda para El Salvador:
¿Qué ese está haciendo para que las personas LGBTQ puedan vivir y morir con dignidad? La respuesta no puede depender únicamente de las organizaciones LGBTQ, de las familias o de las comunidades.
Requiere instituciones que registren adecuadamente los hechos, investigaciones que determinen responsabilidades, y de acuerdo con activistas de sociedad civil, también “se necesita un Estado que cree y promueva políticas de prevención y que reconozca la identidad de las personas diversas, formación de funcionarios y una sociedad que comprenda que la diversidad no disminuye el valor de ninguna persona”. Por ahora, las circunstancias de la muerte de Yoisi dejan muchas dudas en lo sucedido y no corresponde afirmar que se trató de un crimen de odio sin una determinación oficial de una investigación que no existió.
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